Microsoft Dynamics AX Users Seek Custom, Third Party Solutions to Business Intelligence Needs

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and 2012 may both come with hundreds of standard reports, but among about 150 AXUG members assembled at AXUG Summit 2011 for a discussion on BI best practices, almost none reported using using either standard operational reports in AX or using FRx or Management Reporter for financial reporting.

The complaints for the standard tools varied - performance problems, requirements mismatches, unsophisticated financials, and a lacking easily available analysis capabilities. And beyond any real shortcomings of the products, several users admitted to simple lack of awareness about what those hundreds of pre-built reports can really do. Based on a show of hands, about 80 percent were AX 2009 users, about 15 percent were on AX 3.0 or 4.0, and just a handful were on AX 2012.

"For all the AX deployments I've done, I have yet to see a customer use a lot of the standard reports," said moderator James Gurney of ideaca. "The standard reports are good guidelines but expect to create new ones." But from what members of the audience shared, AX customers are typically looking to one of several alternative approaches- SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS), Excel, a third party BI solution, or a full-fledged data warehouse (DW) or operational data store (ODS).

Perhaps most notable among the audience was the lack of enthusiasm for Management Reporter and its predecessor, FRx. "It's just not functional," complained one attendee. "If you're a top financial professional in a larger corporation, there is no way you're using FRx." Though the same attendee noted that she hadn't seen MR given the fact that its latest releases have only recently caught up with the functionality of FRx. ideaca's Gurney pointed out that there is very likely a threshold for companies in terms of ...