If you are a regular - or even occasional - reader of The Edge blog, then the phrase “Powerfully Simple” should be a familiar one to you. We have been using it pretty consistently in our communications around the coming Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 release. Not just because the phrase is “Powerfully Simple” in its own right, but also because a lot of the new capabilities and resulting customer value that are inherent in the new release can be aggregated around the notions of “Power” and “Simplicity”. And although often mutually exclusive, in the case of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, they work hand-in-hand to enable unique business advantages for our customers.
So in this blog, and the next, I want to dig a little deeper, and look at how Power and Simplicity are actually hard-coded into the DNA of the product itself. Let’s look at Power first.
In the natural world, power is defined as the ability to do work over time – the ability to achieve more, faster. And this definition is no less relevant in the world of business. A powerful business solution is one that can drive your business forward, enabling progress and growth as others are forced to throttle back, allowing you to raise your goals instead of lowering your expectations.
Microsoft Dynamics AX has always offered our customers a powerful foundation of core ERP capabilities to enable and support their core business processes across the business. The release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will significantly strengthen and deepen this core functionality across areas such as finance, sales and marketing, procurement, project accounting, human capital management, supply chain management, inventory management, and governance, risk and compliance. It will also add rich, prebuilt industry capabilities for manufacturing, distribution, services, and Public Sector (and soon after, retail) to help customers meet the specific business requirements of their industry with less need for customization. With more than 1,000 new features and enhancements across core ERP and industry capabilities, the next release will put even more power at the disposal of the business.
But power doesn’t drive progress unless it is harnessed, channeled, and put in the hands of the people who need it most. The Microsoft Dynamics AX RoleTailored user experience makes this possible. Helping users leverage the rich functionality, access the data, and add value to the processes that are relevant to their area of work.
Enhancements to this user experience, including additional Role Centers and new data visualization, preview and navigation features, will help boost productivity. The integration of self-service business intelligence and reporting in the user experience will drive insight and perspective for everyone in key business areas. And notifications and alerts initiated by embedded workflows will provide people with more context into the business processes they are taking part in.
Finally, role-based security and single sign-on will help ensure segregation of duty and data security across the organization with minimal setup and maintenance.
So with powerful business capabillities that are harnessed and put to work driving efficiencies and value, the foundation is in place for business success. And with the economy finally on the turn, we can once again begin to equate success with growth.
Here too Microsoft Dynamics AX 2102 will be an enabler – an asset rather than a liability. As well as being highly scalable to accommodate growth in the number of users, the number of transactions, and the complexity of business processes, the solution can also support businesses as they expand across geographical and cultural borders with prebuilt, country-specific localizations for 38 countries in a single instance.
So Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can not only deliver a powerful foundation for your business, it can help put that power in the hands of those who need it most, so they can deliver more value faster, and support the growth and expansion that results.
And that sounds like a pretty powerful business proposition to me...
Next time, I will look at the other half of the equation, and see how power and simplicity really can work hand-in-hand and deliver on our “Powerfully Simple” promise.
Microsoft Dynamics ERP Product Marketing
www.pargesoft.com Microsoft Dynamics AX Global Partner
