For Microsoft Dynamics AX Veterans, Just Learn What's Different in AX 2012

Editor's Note: The following article is drawn from Scott's new book covering supply chain management with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Many AX solution architects are trying to ramp up their expertise with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.  Two questions they frequently ask are "What's different about AX 2012 from what I already know?" and "How can I learn it as quickly as possible?"  I have tried to answer these questions based on the past year of research for my new book about Dynamics AX 2012. 

One of my goals with the new book was to help knowledgeable AX professionals quantify, plan, and streamline their incremental learning about the new capabilities of AX 2012 by building on what they already know.  In particular, I wanted to provide a rough measure of the nature and magnitude of changes related to supply chain management functionality for manufacturing and distribution firms, as well as a detailed list of these changes so you can selectively review the extended explanations. 

The same two questions apply to the process industry capabilities within AX 2012, especially for those not currently familiar with these capabilities.  A separate article coming up will answer the question "what's different about the process industry capabilities in Dynamics AX 2012?" 

A helpful starting point for building up your knowledge involves a rough measure about the magnitude of the previous versus new functionality within AX 2012, which indicates the proportionate amount of change.  One rough measure can be based on a page count analysis of my new book, since each chapter provides a complete walkthrough of using AX 2012 for supply chain management in a process manufacturing/distribution firm.  The heat map displayed in Figure B.1 summarizes the book topics, and ...