Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Preview

Powerfully Simple Microsoft is committed to continually deliver powerful, agile, easy-to-use

solutions that add value across your organization, today and tomorrow.
Get more value, faster. The coming release of Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is a delivery on this
Prebuilt industry capabilities—for commitment. With more than 1,000 new features and enhancements across
manufacturing, distribution, services,
and Public Sector (with retail coming core enterprise resource planning (ERP) and industry capabilities, Microsoft
soon)—and enhanced core ERP Dynamics AX 2012 will help provide more business value faster, enable agility
functionality, such as the Audit Workbench and insight in your organization, and help drive faster adoption, broader
and budgetary controls, help you meet
special business requirements with less
usage, and easier maintenance and upgrade through a continued emphasis
customization. Our global solution grows on simplicity.
easily with your business and gives people
instant, RoleTailored insight and increased Couple this with a constant focus on pervasive interoperability—the natural
productivity. interaction of ERP systems with Microsoft® business productivity applications
Plan, see, and change your and IT infrastructure technology—and the coming release will help sharpen
business with agility. your competitive edge and empower your people to anticipate and embrace
From enhanced Financial Dimensions change.
to a model-driven layered architecture,
you gain both the insight and the
ability to quickly adapt to changing Consolidate role-specific
business needs and opportunities, free information, workflow,
up development and solution resources, reports, task lists, links
and streamline deployment (including and KPIs on a single
flexible hosted and on-premises easily-customized Role
options), maintenance, and upgrades. Center to enable fast,
convenient review and
Let simplicity drive adoption action, whether you’re
and lower costs. using the Windows client
or a web browser.
Give users a consistent, familiar
experience, effortless Microsoft
Office interoperability, and improved
collaboration across the extended supply
chain. IT staff can focus on strategic
development with simplified application
life cycle management.

Microsoft and pervasive

interoperability User interfaces such as
What drives these capabilities? Pervasive the Kanban scheduling
interoperability—the interaction of board feature an intuitive
ERP systems, business and productivity visualization to help you
applications, communications solutions, stay on top of production
and the underlying technology platform— job status.
that works on-premises or in the cloud.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and other
Microsoft products and technologies are
built to deliver pervasive interoperability,
and a global ecosystem of knowledgeable
partners is available to help you realize
the benefits. All of which makes upgrading
to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 a sound
strategic decision.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Preview

RoleTailored User Interface Enterprise Portal based on Microsoft SharePoint®

technology
The enhanced RoleTailored user interface spans the the • A smoother interface improves the user experience overall with
Microsoft Dynamics AX Windows client and Enterprise Portal Action Panes and more configuration options. Collaboration
and helps to drive productivity and business insight through workspaces allow teams to quickly organize and share information
about projects, marketing campaigns, and opportunities. And
its familiar user experience and connection with business
Windows Live® ID authentication, improved search, and appearance
processes. Microsoft Word and Excel®, familiar and powerful
of pages fosters productivity.
tools that workers already know and use, work bidirectionally
with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to enhance worker
Microsoft Office add-ins
productivity, and a more flexible Help system provides added
• Microsoft Office add-ins enable you to use Microsoft Word to
support when needed.
build templates and documents that combine structured and
RoleTailored ERP client unstructured information from Microsoft Dynamics AX. Use Excel
and Word add-ins to view, analyze, and update information in
• Improve productivity with enhancements to the RoleTailored user
Microsoft Dynamics AX. Bidirectional interoperability enables users
interface such as FactBoxes, Fast Tabs, and Preview Panes that let
to access and refresh data in Microsoft Dynamics AX without leaving
you view data from multiple sources without leaving the current
Excel and Word.
form. Highlight relevant items, multitask, visualize information in
useful new ways, and reduce chances of accidentally changing
the data. In this release new Role Centers will be included, such as New Help system
Treasurer and Budget Manager. • Make Help more relevant to your business by customizing topics,
enabling others in the organization to create Help documentation,
promptly applying and distributing updates, and using Search and
the Help viewer to find Help on your network or the web.

Built-in Industry Capabilities

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is purpose-built for organizations
in manufacturing, Public Sector1, services, and distribution (with
retail coming soon), delivering industry-specific capabilities
out-of-the-box. New in this release is support for public sector
organizations. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 uniquely combines
industry-specific capabilities in one solution and makes them
available to all customers, benefiting organizations that require
capabilities for more than one industry.

Manufacturing
• Utilize the flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to run process
and discrete manufacturing models in a single solution. The mixed-
mode capability also allows implementation of lean manufacturing
practices in the way best suited for your company.

• Take advantage of a new operations resource model to efficiently

use resources at multiple locations. Schedule resources (vendors,
people, machines, tools, or locations) to jobs and operations based
on their capabilities (ability to perform a specific production-related
activity). A scheduling engine will handle resource selection.

• Model and execute lean manufacturing on production flows to

reduce delivery lead times, trim excess inventory between work
centers, treat contractor labor as a service (not a BOM component),
and support continuous improvement by using kanban boards,
event kanbans, and kanban rules to view, plan, and run kanban jobs.

• Use the new constraint-based Product Configurator to

efficiently create, maintain, and reuse product models, components,
and attributes.
Budget Manager Role Center and Customer List Page

1 In four countries currently.

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• Let shop floor workers use the touch-enabled job registration form • Other features include pricing enhancement to manage mass
to register time and quantities produced; use this functionality to let changes, smart rounding rules based on currency and amount, and
shop floor supervisors prioritize jobs and perform actions such as translation of prices in multiple currencies based on a reference
start/stop jobs. price list.

Public Sector
• Use unlimited dimensions to support public sector fund accounting
and expanded reporting capabilities for fund, program, function,
organization, grant, project, location and object.

• Facilitate multiyear budgeting, accounting, and reporting for

projects and grants with the capability to track multiple funding
sources and automatically distribute funds according to program
guidelines, including: 1) linking transactions to specific funding
sources; 2) prioritizing funding sources; 3) restricting funding
sources to specific activities or classes of expense; and 4) providing
support for matching funds and grants.

• Define accounting distributions and view subledger journal entries

prior to journalizing source documents.

• Use posting definitions to automatically generate “due to/due from”

entries between different funds.

• Implement a flexible departmental billing engine for efficient

collaboration with customers, while significantly reducing process
management time requirements.
Supply Scheduling
Service industries
• Strengthen proposal management, project quotation, and project
budget control with complex work breakdown structures, milestone
definitions, task assignments, and deliverable specification. Core ERP Suite Capabilities
• Improve your ability to forecast, plan, and ultimately schedule the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 raises the bar for delivering
right resources onto projects at the right time and in the right powerful ERP capabilities and supporting operational
place, matching individual skills and capabilities to service tasks and
efficiency in many key functional areas. Microsoft Dynamics
project goals.
AX 2012 includes new capabilities such as supplier relationship
• Take advantage of Workspace Collaboration in Microsoft SharePoint management, case management, and the Audit Work Bench,
Server to increase project collaboration and foster application as well as important enhancements in the following domains:
of best practice service-delivery methodologies. Build on that finance, sales and marketing, procurement, project accounting,
foundation to connect with service partners and clients in richer and human capital management, supply chain management,
more interactive ways. inventory management, and global risk and compliance.

Distribution Financials
• Improve supply chain planning capabilities across your • Quickly create unlimited, form-based financial dimensions that can
organization, using new views that display all intercompany be shared across legal entities for a complete business view, audit
supply and demand. In addition, planned intercompany demand trail transparency, and detailed analyses.
is visible for upstream companies within the organization,
and can be considered in master planning. Planning and • Transform budget information into precise, workflow-driven
management are also supported with a full view of intercompany management tools with multiple, variable, and hierarchical
order-pegging using a multilevel pegging form. budgetary controls that allow you to define how you want
to manage expenditures and achieve greater control of the
• Sales order process enhancements allow users to place orders in procurement process.
a more productive way, allowing faster order entry by limiting the
amount of information to be entered. This permits easier access to • Set up, view, and manage encumbrances, including purchase order
sales order header or line details as well as expert features allowing commitments, in the general ledger, and manage workflow items
users to modify default settings and customize sales orders. with respect to year-end processing and encumbrances.

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Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Preview

• Streamline the cash-to-collections process to save time, engage Supply chain management
efficiently with customers, and improve cash flow. • Easily convert a purchase order line or sales order into a delivery
schedule and maintain total order discount eligibility even when
• Simplify and help ensure accurate processing of requisitions, multiple deliveries result.
orders, invoices, and other key transactions by defining accounting
distributions and viewing subledger journal entries before • Support quality management with a new inventory blocking feature
journalizing source documents. that works manually or on an automated basis to enjoy greater
flexibility and granularity in quality order specification, and more.
• Improve accounts payable operational efficiency with new
capabilities to match invoices, allocate charges, process and track • Improve your ability to report the value of goods in transit between
purchase order prepayments, add lines to invoices, and more. companies, using two new reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

• Define and control the information you capture more precisely to

achieve better insight into your business.

• Increase productivity and accuracy as you leverage architectural

advances to share key financial data among legal entities.

• Sharply reduce time and effort for year-end closing with

enhancements that include purchase order rollover and budget
carry-forward options.

Sales and marketing

• Use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector to access information
in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, both on-premises and online.

• Efficiently open, assign, resolve, and follow up on customer

service, collections, and similar issues using new case
management capabilities.

Procurement and sourcing

Procurement and sourcing in Microsoft Dynamics AX allows
managing direct and indirect procurement of goods and services. In Touch Screen capabilities in Manufacturing Execution System
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 the following enhancements have been
made:
Project management and accounting
• Self-service capabilities: empower workers to order day-to-day • View a summary as the project budget is created, compare against
goods and services from searchable online catalogs. Help vendors funding, and make corrections before submission.
operate more efficiently by enabling them to perform a variety of
• Create and manage projects in Enterprise Portal to enable remote
tasks online, such as updating profile data, requesting additional
access and reduce software installation and update issues.
users, requesting the scope of their offering be expanded,
uploading catalog content, submitting invoices, reviewing
• Make time sheet entries more efficiently with enhanced time entry
payments, and more.
capabilities and user experiences from a web browser or the client
application.
• Import, create, edit, stage, publish, and search catalogs of items for
internal consumption on an internal shopping site. Or punch out
• Allocate and post revenue based on internal sales prices for workers,
directly to your vendor catalog.
categories, and dimensions, enabling profitability monitoring by
allocation area.
• Create a virtual workplace where category managers can manage
overall spending by category.
• Improve management of complex portfolios of projects and
next-level optimization of resource schedules through enhanced
• Utilize requisition aggregation, work queue management, category
integration with Microsoft Project Server 2010.
management, and other procurement functionality through a
procurement-based Role Center.
Human capital management
• Establish a centralized procurement desk capability across your • Improve individual productivity by referring to Role Centers for
organization to support procurement policies and processes. data, alerts, task lists, and reports pertinent to specific job functions;
more than two dozen predefined Role Centers can be accessed from
• Easily set up and maintain one or more different purchasing the Enterprise Portal or Microsoft Dynamics AX Windows client.
policies and apply them to different sets of requisitioners across the
organization. • Use the Employee Portal and workflow tools to enforce spending
and approval policies at a more granular level, and to enable
employee self-service for performance goal management.

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 Application Foundation
Master data, reference data, and global engines are the
foundation of the application. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
the enhancements in these three areas simplify the definition
of master and reference data and the use of global engines
across the multi-entity enterprise.

Master data
• Organization model: model organizational structures more
accurately, capturing more hierarchies and greater detail, to
enable more sophisticated reporting, improved security, and
easier data sharing.

• Global Address Book: create multiple address books, manage

address book access, selectively enforce policies by address book,
and create applicant records directly from application forms.
Employee Services in Enterprise Portal
• Product information management: create and maintain product
definitions and master definitions for sets of products across the
• Transfer and view employee records easily, and reduce manual entire organization, and share them across companies to maintain
process steps in recruiting, onboarding, development, transfer, and centralized product repository control.
termination.

• In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Expense Management

application for the Enterprise Portal is improved in many areas to
help streamline processes and improve productivity. This includes
the expense entry, cash advance request, credit card dispute, travel
requisition, and expense report delegation. In addition, the approval
experience for expense reports, travel requisitions, and cash
advances are improved or introduced.

Global risk and compliance

• Define/refine your corporate policies and automate the auditing
process with the Audit Workbench.

• Track energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions to

proactively monitor your organization’s environmental impact: use
the enhanced Environmental Sustainability Dashboard and the new,
associated data cube to keep aware of energy consumption, carbon
footprint, and KPIs for waste and water usage. Take advantage of a
Organization Model
graphical interface for easy setup and “what-if” capabilities to help
you assess the impact of proposed changes.

• Help ensure organizational compliance with laws, regulations, Reference data

policies, and business rules through Compliance Center • Time zone enhancements: easily set and change time zone
enhancements including improved Internal Controls capabilities, preferences, support multiple time zones, synchronize time zone
the new Default Controls Library, and the new Import and Mapping preferences with local time zones, and view different time zone
Wizard. information for transactions.

Country-specific capabilities Global engines

• To control feature availability based on the location of the legal • Policies management: utilize this new capability to help implement
entity, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 uses the country associated a unified procurement strategy across employees, purchasing
with the legal entity’s primary address. For example, if the address of agents, and vendors.
the legal entity is in Canada, users can see and work with Canada-
specific features.

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 offers a range of capabilities

that support country-specific localization. To learn more, visit
CustomerSource.

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Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Preview

Business Intelligence and Reporting

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 BI and Reporting includes more
than 800 Microsoft SQL Server® Reporting Services reports, 11
SQL Server Analytics Server data cubes, and enhancements to
the framework.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

• Microsoft Dynamics AX production reports combine the power
of SQL Server Reporting Services with the simplicity and flexibility
of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Along with more than 800 built-in
reports, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will provide a wizard-based
migration tool for existing X++ reports and integrated, role-based
security options.

• Help meet exacting reporting requirements and reduce IT workload,

with auto-generation of SQL Server Reporting Services reports,
and create basic reports using the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2010
Charting Control.

• Support global operations: develop a report in one language, and

let the reporting framework produce reports in multiple languages.
Graphical Workflow Editor
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Server
• Instantly identify and take action on business process issues Services (sites, payment, and commerce services)
using new cubes for workflow and environmental sustainability.
• Support your end-to-end business processes with cloud-based
Track history and current status, and generate performance
services that are cost-effective, easy to deploy and use, and
analysis reports.
integrate fully with your existing on-premises or hosted Microsoft
Dynamics AX implementation. Sites Services for Microsoft Dynamics
• Easily implement, configure, and customize prebuilt data cubes
ERP extends Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 business processes and
using a wizard-driven UI, which helps you deploy prebuilt business
workflows on the web, empowering business users to collaborate
intelligence solutions when you set up Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
with their customers and vendors with minimal IT investment.
Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP is a PCI-certified
Level 1 Payment Gateway. Out-of-the-box, it supports authorization,
Framework settlement, voids and refunds, address verification, and business
card Level 2 and 3 processing. Commerce Services for Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 structural enhancements can Dynamics ERP provides integration between Microsoft Dynamics
improve operation IT efficiency in your organization and return AX 2012 and the organization’s online sales channels. The Microsoft
more value to you. Some of these enhancements are a graphical Dynamics Online Connect Gadget Web Part for Role Centers hosts
a slide deck of links and information relevant to a user’s role,
workflow editor and cloud-based services that help reduce IT
including links to CustomerSource, community content, training
complexity and front-end capital requirements. Application
materials, and knowledge base articles. This gadget can be added to
Integration Framework enhancements and new programming the Role Center master page or to personal Role Center pages.
concepts help IT professionals write less code. Role-based
security accelerates the implementation of internal controls.
Services and application integration
And a host of new and improved Enterprise Portal features
• Take advantage of new capabilities such as: exposing X++ business
deliver the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 through
logic as a service to external systems to extend the life of X++ code
the Internet and a web browser. investments, including more than 90 document services; integration
supports that include non-XML file format support, flexible error
Workflow
handling, bulk import support; accessing service groups easily;
• Powerful new capabilities enable creation of more complex using business operation framework to write applications; and
workflows and separate workflows for each line associated consuming external services from X++. Simplify configuration and
with a header, even automated workflows requiring no human administration of services.
intervention. The Graphical Workflow Editor enables drag-and-drop
functionality for workflow creation. Work Item Queues help users
control what they work on and load balance across the team when
necessary.

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Role-based security Microsoft Business Productivity Applications
• Create security permissions for individual application objects to and IT Infrastructure Technology
simplify maintenance and enable reuse of security constructs.
Implement security policies for individual table records, offering A core strength of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can be found
greater granularity. Simplify configuration and administration of in its interoperability with other Microsoft products and
services.
technologies. From a technical perspective, this strength fosters
efficient, cost-effective development. Users enjoy the benefits of
Enterprise portal enhancements interoperability in greater productivity and data integrity.
• Enterprise Portal integrations can be developed easily using Visual
Studio 2010. Enterprise Portal supports table hierarchies for more SQL Server model store
efficient database structures, and a new security model offers • Maintain one store for data and metadata in the Microsoft SQL
greater control. Server model store.

Visual Studio 2010 support

• Take advantage of the integrated development experience, new
tools, and Visual Studio 2010 resources—available worldwide—to
model business application elements that integrate into Microsoft
Dynamics AX 2012. Manage source code, including branching and
work items, more effectively with Microsoft Team Foundation Server
2010.

Microsoft solutions, applications, and technologies

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 capabilities support Microsoft SQL
Server 2008 R2 (including SQL Server Reporting Services and
SQL Server Analysis Services); Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010;
Microsoft Search Server 2010, Microsoft Search Server Express
2010, and Microsoft Fast Search Server 2010; Microsoft Office 2010;
Microsoft Project Server 2010; and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
Customer List in Enterprise Portal
Full system requirements will be published closer to general
availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

New programmability concepts

• Implement a set of new capabilities that improve data model design
and reusability of schema components, and that contribute to the
development, use, and maintenance of more flexible, accurate,
productivity-enhancing information and reporting.

IDE
• All application elements are stored in a single repository and
distributed in physical modules called Models. Models can easily be
combined to add capabilities. Both MorphX and Visual Studio tools
are available for developers.

Data upgrade framework enhancements

• Conduct data upgrade with reduced business downtime by
performing the majority of your upgrade on a live Microsoft
Dynamics AX system and using a new source-to-target model,
which scales up using a high degree of parallelization between
various upgrade stages.

• Upgrade directly from Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 or Microsoft

Dynamics AX 2009 to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

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 Take the next step toward becoming a dynamic business—the Microsoft Dynamics
vision for companies that can continuously evolve to face economic, operational, and
organizational challenges. By planning your future upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012,
your organization can become more agile, so you can adapt quickly to change, expand
into new markets, and develop innovative products and services.

Talk to your partner about the business benefits that an upgrade to

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 could offer.

For more information about

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, visit:

www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax

© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is a pre-release product under development. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this factsheet.
Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date
of this factsheet. All pre-release product release dates and features specified are preliminary based on current expectations, and are subject to change without notice. Microsoft may make changes to specifications and product
descriptions at any time, without notice.
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