Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

Better business insights

March 2013Version 1.0.0

ContentsIntroduction3Audience3Scenario4Problems this demo addresses4Key pains or business imperatives4Purpose of demo (Solutions to pains, benefits, value proposition)4Key benefits and solutions5Narrative5Overview6Before you begin (Required setup)7Demo 1: Better business insights9Demo 2: Ad-hoc data analysis12Conclusion19

Introduction

In todays fast-paced business environment it is crucial to have an overview into the performance of the business, a business unit or product line at any given time. Important decisions on expanding or shutting down part of the business need to be made based on solid data that is trusted and up-to-date. Business decision makers, such as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), need to be able to have insights into the business and be able to track critical key performance indicators (KPIs). If an area of the business is not performing, or a KPI is not on track, the business decision maker needs to be able to quickly connect with whoever is accountable for the business metrics. Issues and plans to get back on track need to be shared in a central place so everyone is aware of the progress that has been made to mitigate the issue.In this demo scenario we showcase the business intelligence (BI) solution available with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 from the point of view of Sara, the CFO of Contoso. This script showcases:How a business executive can gain better business insightsHow an organization can drive accountability for business performanceHow an organization can use collaboration sites to track and monitor key issuesHow additional ad-hoc analysis can provide the ability to explore data with compelling user experiencesHow ad-hoc data analysis experiences can be shared AudienceThis script should be used to demonstrate the value of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 to a business decision maker (BDM), such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or Chief Information Officer (CIO) - or any other business decision maker who needs up-to-date business insights to help drive better business performance.Executives that you present to will find value in this script if they are challenged with: Lack of up-to-date business insights to support business decision making at all levels of the organizationLack of business analysis that is easy to understandLack of ad-hoc reporting capabilities based on trusted and managed dataLack of a central repository where issues can be trackedThis script targets decision makers who rely on members of the organization for accurate, timely and detailed information to assist them in the analysis and performance tracking of key business metrics.

Scenario This script focuses on the following scenarios: Get better business insights: Start with the CFO role center and review business performance by showing the Business Overview Web part with the different sets of KPIs, the contribution margin report and the business performance information. Drive accountability: Show the financial performance web part and highlight how the business decision maker can drive accountability by assigning owners to important KPIs with the ability to reach out to them easily and collaborate real-time by using Microsoft Lync and a team based Microsoft SharePoint intranet site for collaboration and issue tracking. Create ad-hoc analysis and reporting: Show how easily a user can create ad-hoc analysis based on trusted and managed data with a compelling user experience that can be easily accessed from the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 client and shared within the organization.Problems this Demo AddressesThis script focuses on solving issues around lack of business insights, lack of accountability and team collaboration as well as the challenge that users are faced with when asked to create ad-hoc reports and analysis.Key Pains or business imperativesLack of timely business insight Lack of analysis that can be created quickly and is easy to understandLack of trust in the quality of dataLack of clear accountabilities and issue status reportingLack of knowledge on where to access business data for further analysisPurpose of Demo (Solutions to pains, benefits, value proposition)Business decision maker:Benefits from using pre-defined content to get insights into the performance of the business quickly. Ability to view business performance by business unit or product line to help make better business decisions. Business decision makers can drive accountability for business performance, issue and status tracking and can get additional ad-hoc analysis to explore specific business performance scenarios.

Data analyst/Power userBenefits from the ability to create ad-hoc analysis by easily accessing data sources and using compelling data exploration and visualization experiences that can easily be shared.Key Benefits and solutionsImproved decision making: 45 pre-defined role centers in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 help users of all levels of the organization to make better business decisions that inspire action. As the CFO of an organization, insights into KPIs that are aligned with the business goals are important. If a KPI is not on track, the business executive can reach out to the owner of the specific metric. Users can then collaborate on the issue and update the status for a particular task on the teams intranet site.Ad-hoc visualization experience enables quick and easy visualization of managed and trusted data while allowing sharing and collaboration of business insights in a familiar SharePoint Server environment.

Demo Preset Configuration:This script was written to work with the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Solution Demo Package V2, which was released in March 2013. Make sure that the VM is up and running and that you have logged on. The script addresses key pain points that Sara, the CFO might face. However the demo can be completed as either Sara or the system administrator.Domain: CONTOSOUser: Sara or AdministratorPassword: pass@word1

To show the Microsoft Lync presence information you need to log on to the VM multiple times with different users. The demo scenario requires Phyllis to be logged on but you can also log on with these additional users to show the Lync integration: Vince Ken KarlAll users use the same Domain (CONTOSO) and user password (pass@word1).

NarrativeSara, the CFO is reviewing the performance of the business by opening her role center, which provides her with an overview of how the business is tracking against its goals. When she reviews the contribution margin report she sees that one of the product lines is showing a negative contribution margin, it looks like Contoso is losing money. Business is slowing down towards the end of the year, but the negative margin is alarming. Sara reviews the business performance report where she can review the performance of the product lines over time. It looks like this issue just surfaced, she will need to discuss this with Vince, the operations manager. Sara looks at the overall contribution margin and is relieved that the issues with one product line dont seem to impact the overall performance of the business. She will need to follow up with Vince later as her attention is drawn to a different indicator that is showing red. It seems that Contosos customers are not paying on time. Sara sees that Phyllis is online and she requests further details on the open transactions and the sales district that is responsible for the customer. She wants to surface the issue during Contosos sales districts meeting later this week. Sara also requests that Phyllis is making sure that a plan to lower Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is put in place and that progress is documented on an easy accessible site. OverviewMicrosoft Dynamics AX helps business executives with the business insights they need, so that they can make smarter and better decisions. In the following presentation we would like to show you how data is turned into insights that can be easily shared throughout the organization. Data is presented in a way that is easy to understand. When issues arise there is clear accountability and plans to change course of action can be put in place and the progress can be tracked.Ad-hoc analysis requests can be fulfilled by using quick and easy visualization experiences with the ability to share and collaborate on business insights in a familiar SharePoint Server environment.In this presentation we walk through the following scenario: Sara, the CFO reviews the performance of the business in the CFO role center She identifies a product line that is showing negative contribution margin Sara performs an interactive, dynamic time analysis of the contribution margin performance of all product lines Sara contacts the owner of a KPI that is tracking showing red using Microsoft Lync. She requests that business issues are tracked on a common portal for visibility She also needs additional analysis that is created by using Power View, an ad-hoc visualization experience in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

1. before you begin (Required setup)

The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 demo solution package includes the following steps to create new time periods that allow the Role center business overview web part to display KPIs and indicators based on specific time periods As the majority of the demo data is created in fiscal year 2012 new time periods for 2012 have been created and are used in this demo scenario.If you are using the demo VM released in March 2013 you can skip this section or read through it to learn how to create time periods in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.

1. Click Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 tile to log on as Administrator.

2. Open System administration > Setup > Business intelligence > Analysis Services > Time periods.

3. Click New to create a new Period template.4. Enter the time period information as shown in the screen print. Note: You can copy from an existing template and then overwrite the date reference with 2012-12-31.

5. Click New to create a time period of type indicator using the time period template.6. Enter the time period information as shown in the screen print.7. Repeat as needed to create additional time periods for indicators and KPI list.8. Close the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 client.

9. Open Internet Explorer > Favorites > Chief financial officer role center USFM 10. In the Organization performance indicators web part click Manage Indicators

11. For each indicator change the time period by clicking the Edit Indicator Icon.

12. Select the new time period, based on the description entered13. Then click OK14. Repeat for other indicators as required.

End of required setup

Demo 1: Better business insights

As the CFO of Contoso, Sara needs to have insights into the performance of the business at any given time. Details on the performance of a specific business unit or product line are critical to detect issues early before they impact the bottom line of the business. When issues arise Sara needs to be able to connect with the owner of the performance indicator quickly to drive accountability and immediate action. Issue tracking and collaboration needs to happen in a central place for easy tracking and status reporting. If a certain issue requires additional insights, the analysis needs to happen fast.

The CFO role center is the place where Sara gets an overview of the performance of the business.Log on to the virtual machine image as Sara.

1. Open Internet Explorer to display the CFO role center

Organization performance indicators provide Sara with an overview of the performance of the business. Business slows down for Contoso in December, so it is no surprise to Sara that most indicators are showing red compared to previous months. Sara can drill down into details by expanding the indicators.

2. Expand Net sales to display sales by product group.

Known issue: the car audio revenue is included in audio products, as incorrectly assigned to financial dimension Audio products instead of Car Audio

Sara reviews the contribution margin report, which shows that one product line is showing a negative margin.

3. Click Car audio legend to filter on data only relevant to the car audio product line.

Looks like the car audio product line has been contributing to the business bottom line in the past. Sara needs to review the performance of the car audio products over a period of one year.

4. On the Sales performance web part switch to page 3

This report shows the revenue and the contribution margin over time. Sara clicks the play axis to view the performance of product line over time. Looks like the performance issue with the car audio product line just happened this month.

5. Click Play.

Sara needs to talk to Vince to find out what happened. But she decides to follow up with Vince later as her attention is drawn to an indicator that is showing red.

The average collection period is well below the target and even below the industry standards. Sara needs to understand which sales district is not following up with their customers. She contacts Phyllis right away to request a detailed report.6. Click Phyllis presence status to send an instant message to her.

7. Enter a message requesting more details, send to Phyllis, and then close the conversation window.

Phyllis is going to create a report for Sara that provides her with details about the open customer balances. Sara will use this report to present this issue at the sales districts manager meeting later this week. She also tracks this issue and the status on the Finance teams intranet site.

8. Click on the Average collection period (DSO) hyper link to open the intranet site for the finance team.

The finance team is using this site to track issues, check the status of a task and collaborate on different topics such as the impact that regulatory changes might have on their work. From this centralized portal they can also access financial reports and view upcoming team events.9. Close the finance teams portal

End of Demo Scenario

Demo 2: ad hoc data analysis

Phyllis receives the request from Sara, the CFO to provide an overview of the open customer transactions by sales district. Often users are challenged finding and accessing data for ad-hoc reporting without the help from IT. Eventually users might end up manually copying and pasting data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which can lead to data that is out dated or even wrong.In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Phyllis can open a Power View window directly from within the Microsoft Dynamics AX customer list page. The field list from a corresponding data cube is presented as the data source.

1. Open the Microsoft Dynamics AX client2. Open Accounts receivables > Common > Customers > All customers3. In the Action Pane click Analyze data

Note: To use Power View reports with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 data stored in Business Intelligence Semantic Model multidimensional mode, you must have a generally available release of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 that supports Power View for multidimensional models installed on your system.For more information please refer to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

4. In the field list expand Open customer transactions and select Accounts receivable open amount

5. Expand Customer and then select Sales district open the drop down menu and select Add to Table

The sales district is added to the table. Some of the transactions dont include sales district information.6. Lets add a filter criteria to the report.

7. Open the drop down menu again and then select Add to View Filter

8. In the Filters section switch to the Advanced filter9. In the drop down menu select is not10. Click apply filter

Only open transactions that include a sales district are displayed.

11. Under Table Tools click Design tab12. Click the Column visualization

13. Expand the chart to fill the entire report.

14. In the field list click Customer group name. The customer group is added to legend.

Sara might want to find out where the customers are located in the sales district and maybe even which customers have open invoices with Contoso. Phyllis adds the ability to drill down into the details.

15. In field group customers select field State, open the drop down menu and select Add to Axis.

16. Repeat for field Customer name

17. The report is now completed and Phyllis closes the Field List and the Filters section.18. Phyllis saves the report

19. Enter file name: PowerViewOpenTransactionAnalysis 20. Click Save

Phyllis could provide Sara the URL to the newly created report, but she asks the administrator to add the report to Saras CFO role center.

21. Open the CFO role center22. Under Site Actions select Edit Page

23. In the Right Column section, click Add a Web Part

24. Select Microsoft Dynamics AX25. Then select SQL Server Power view26. Then click Add

27. When the web part is added open the SQL Server Power View web part menu and then select Edit Web Part.

28. Scroll to the right.29. Select a report from the list of available Power View reports.

30. Select PowerViewOpenTransactionsReport31. Click OK

32. Enter title: Open AR analysis33. Select Yes to specify a specific height and enter 400 Pixels.34. Click OK

35. Click Stop Editing

The open accounts receivable analysis is now added to Saras role center and she can track open customer balances directly from her role center. She can drill down into the details to see where the customers with the highest open balances are located and even find out who those customers are. She can also export this report and include it in a PowerPoint presentation that she can present at the sales districts manager meeting.

Note: Fewer sales districts might be displayed than during the design phase of the report. When opening the report from a role center the report will be opened in context of the legal entity that the user is connected to. 36. Click on column sales district 10

37. Click on column NV

38. Open customer transactions for sales district 10, state Nevada are now displayed by customer.39. Click the arrow to launch the Power View report full screen

40. Click on File and then select Export to PowerPoint.

End of Demo Scenario

ConclusionThis script showcases how Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 together with Microsoft BI technologies can help: Business executives gain better business insights Organizations to drive accountability for business performance Organizations to collaborate by using intranet sites to track and monitor key issues Organizations to perform ad-hoc analysis with the ability to explore data with compelling user experiences Organizations to easily share ad-hoc data analysis experiences Organizations to create compelling ad-hoc analysis with secure and trusted data

DisclaimerPower View is an ad-hoc data exploration and visualization experience in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services. To use Power View reports with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 data stored in Business Intelligence Semantic Model multidimensional mode, you must have a generally available release of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 that supports Power View for multidimensional models installed on your system. As of December 1, 2012, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 that supports Power View for multidimensional models is not generally available. However, the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 that supports Power View for Multidimensional Models Community Technology Preview (CTP) release is available for download if you want to test the Power View reporting capability. You should not test or use this CTP in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement. Click here (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35822) for more information on the CTP release. All features and dates are preliminary based on current expectations and are subject to change without notice. The information herein is for informational purpose only and represents Microsofts current view as of the date of this release. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft.

2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista, Microsoft Dynamics and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. 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 presentation. Microsoft may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice.Sample code included in this presentation is made available AS IS. THE ENTIRE RISK OF THE USE OR THE RESULTS FROM THE USE OF THIS CODE REMAINS WITH THE USER.

MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS PRESENTATION. Microsoft products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining applications.

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