Community Summit Europe 2020 Preview: Taming a global supply chain with Dynamics AX

Editor's Note: MSDynamicsWorld.com is collaborating with Community Summit Europe and extreme365 Europe 2020 to explore the events taking place the week of June 29.

In June, Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform users will converge in Barcelona for the Community Summit Europe 2020. Michael Leitgeb, managing director for Austria-based ERP services provider XALAX, spoke with MSDW about his participation in the upcoming event.

Moving forward with AX

Michael began his career in ERP in the mid-1990s, working first with Navision and then Microsoft Dynamics AX for XAL in Graz, Austria. XAL is a strong and growing company in the lighting industry that first invested in Navision, then upgrading to Dynamics NAV 4.0 in 2006, and ultimately transitioning to Dynamics AX in 2013, after also weighing SAP.

XAL has always been on the lookout for the perfect ERP system that offers enough options for customizations enabling the company to realize all ideas. Michael explained that his team's constantly improving expertise with AX as a client led them to begin offering ERP services to other firms:

In 2014 we started the AX 2012 project together with an external Microsoft partner. We did a lot of customizations. Now we are live with 38 companies worldwide on one database and the project is at the home straight. During that project we built up a very strong internal ERP team gaining more and more competence and experience in ERP. As a result, we founded XALAX as an additional business unit within the XAL Group with a main focus on ERP services. We are working on the final rollout of XAL’s Asian companies. The outbreak of the Corona virus forced us to postpone some final steps, but we are optimistic that we may continue and finalize the rollout soon.

Now XALAX serves customers in the lighting, commodity, and furniture industries with a main focus on supply chain processes. This year marks Michael’s second time attending Community Summit Europe —his first visit was in 2018 — and he presents the member showcase “Automated and Digitalized End-to-End Process at XAL Group”. He will present how XALAX designed the processes along the supply chain, from configuring a product on XAL’s webpage via production and logistics to shipment and invoicing. He explained:

We will show [other users] how we did it. [We will go over] the challenges we faced when we integrated and automated that process. We had to deal with different software products, different departments, and a lot of very specific and product related requirements. We will show what parts of AX and which other tools we decided to use that suited best our goals.

But it was not only software we had to consider. Change is always also a human topic as a change in software often has to result in a change of the way people work. So it is important to let people understand the advantages the software and tools bring to them in their daily work.

The toolbox of Microsoft is growing continuously, offering users more and more possibilities. The challenge is to know what's available and how you can use it for your requirements.

Getting the most out of the event

At this year's Summit event, Michael is eager to learn more about opportunities to connect Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. Although he regularly works with AX, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is the future of the product and opens up wide-ranging new opportunities.

During the last Summit event he sought out different opinions on the future of the products and spoke with partners and users specializing more in Power Platform integration. Just like XALAX, with its competencies in supply chains, logistics, and production, other companies at the event have unique specialties in different industry verticals or aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics product family.

Often, in projects, Michael noted the substantial challenges of working across internal departments in the customer organization. "A sales guy is talking 'sales language' and a logistics guy is talking 'logistics language'. Consultants need to translate between them and software. The challenge is to transfer the main requirements to software solutions so users really feel supported," he said.

He advised that new attendees to Community Summit should spend some time planning to maximize the experience:

If it's your first time [it seems like there] are so many sessions. It's really a good idea to plan the sessions you will join and be open to hearing things you wouldn't expect. People will show you things that you may not think are possible. It will expand your mind. You will have a bigger, broader view on topics—which creates thousands of new ideas.

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About Community Summit and extreme365 Europe

These events will be held virtually from 29 June to 2 July 2020.

Partners attend extreme365 for technical and go-to-market readiness education, direct access to Microsoft leadership, and to equip themselves with the education necessary to stay a step ahead of their customers, including Power Platform. Community Summit is designed for Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate) and Dynamics 365 (Finance & Operations, Customer Engagement, Business Central) end-users to learn, network, and find solutions.

Community Summit Europe: www.summiteurope.com

extreme365 Europe: www.extreme365europe.com