Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition (AX)

Earlier in this chapter we learned about, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offering and all different components and options available with the offering.  Our focus of this book is primarily on Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition. Throughout the book we will be focusing on Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition as product and will go through different phases of ERP implementation cycle in various chapters. We will discover specific tools and techniques applicable to implement it successfully in organizations. In this section, you will learn a little more more about Finance and Operations, its history and highlights.

What is Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition?

As we learned earlier in the chapter, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is an ERP offering out of Dynamics 365 enterprise edition. To clarify further, the following image shows how Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations fits into the overall Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition offering. Finance and operations enterprise edition is is available under enterprise edition Dynamics 365 Plan or Unified Operations Plan:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is a modern ERP system built for cloud-first with two decades of proven business functionalities. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operation is designed for mid-size and large enterprise customers, and is a multi-language, multi-currency Enterprise resource planning solution. Finance and Operations is available in 138 countries and supports more than 40 languages and country specific localization out of the box. On one side, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition seamless integration with Office 365 takes productivity to a new level, on the other hand, out-of-the-box integration with Power BI, Cortana analytics, and machine learning takes decision making to another level. 

History of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations may be a new name but it has been around for the last two decades. Finance and Operations, in the past, was known as Microsoft Dynamics AX and Axapta. It was originally developed by IBM and Danish company Damgard in 1998 and released with the name, IBM Axapta. Later Damgard bought out IBM and got exclusive rights for Axapta. In the year, 2000, Damgard merged with Navision and the product became Navision Axapta. Microsoft acquired Navision in 2002 and Navision became part of the Microsoft Business solution group. Navision Axapta was now called Microsoft Navision Axapta. In 2004, Microsoft released the first major version and renamed the product to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. Other releases under Microsoft are Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and AX 2012. In February 2016 Microsoft released the new cloud based modern version with the new name, Microsoft Dynamics AX, later renamed to Dynamics 365 Operations to get into the brand of Dynamics 365 and now called Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition.

The following diagram highlights the history of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition over the last two decades:

The history of ERP products is important to understand the product growth in the past both in terms of functionality and implemented best practices. The history of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations from the last two decades shows the story of growth from an ERP system for small businesses to a tier 1 ERP system for global enterprises.

Highlights of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations 

The following topics describe the highlights of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations:

• Modern: Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition is a modern, cloud-first, and mobile-first ERP solution. Microsoft has completely rewritten the technology platform and user interface from its previous version, Dynamics AX 2012. Just to name few advancement, new version comes with; cloud-first Azure deployment, modern HTML 5 client, mobile app, Power BI integration and modern integration capabilities and so on.
• Work anywhere, anytime, and on any device: The new user experience is optimized for multiple platforms and mobile apps. The clean, modern and intuitive browser-based UI is a pleasure to use and easy to learn. All business logic is available any time, any place, on any device.
• Business Intelligence: Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition brings the power of Cloud to light up state of the art business intelligence options such as Power BI, Cognitive services, and artificial intelligence. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations comes with a near real-time operational data store called entity store for analytics and BI reporting. Entity store uses in memory, clustered columnstore index (CCI) functionality that is built into Microsoft SQL Server to optimize reporting and queries.  Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition comes with many out of the box Power BI content packs from Microsoft and also provides the ability for partners and customers to author their own power bi content pack and distribute it through the market place.  
• Productivity: Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition keeps the productivity as core on its product and user interface design. Integration with productivity tools such as Office 365 has taken things to a new level, and the ability for business users to use their favorite apps such as Excel to export, edit, and publish data back to an application has never been so easy. New concept workspaces takes productivity to a new level by providing information around a process. All the dependencies and answers to questions around a given process are available through a single page. Task guides make it easier to on board new staff and train them on process with step by step instructions while minimizing the learning curve.
• Predictable and repeatable implementations: Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition brings Lifecycle Services (LCS) to the next level. With LCS customer and implementation partners can manage their application Lifecycle and move towards predictable, repeatable, and high quality implementations. LCS is mandatory for any implementation project and allows customers and implementation partners to manage their implementation project from the project planning, deployment, and configuration, to monitoring and post go live support. LCS provides best practices and standards for implementation projects.