5 Ways to Make Microsoft Dynamics AX Role Centers Work for Your Business

At the recent AXUG Summit, Hal Howard, corporate vice president of engineering for Microsoft Dynamics ERP, stood before over 800 AX users and showed off the latest advances in Microsoft Dynamics AX Role Centers, coming in the AX 2012 R2 release, among other improvements.  The R2 release will feature several new pre-configured roles, new database cubes, new  business intelligence (BI) and reporting features picked up from the latest SQL Server technology, as well as interesting new options for things like Bing Maps integration.

Dynamics AX Role Centers represent one of the ideals of the Microsoft's enterprise software vision - a BI-rich, productivity-focused, process-driven, personalized dashboard that works for ERP users of any role.  And Microsoft has worked diligently since the launch of role centers in AX 2009 to incorporate the latest database technology, the add pre-built capabilities, and to improve implementation tools.

But so far, only a small percentage of Dynamics AX customers appear to have cracked the code when it comes deploying role centers.  A recent MSDynamicsWorld.com poll mirrors the sentiments of a range of AX professionals we have spoken with on the topic.  The consensus: Role Centers are not used often enough due to factors including implementation planning, lack of partner expertise, and a lack of focus  on business process assessment on many projects. But all hope is not lost - with improvements in AX 2012 and a little education, customers can use Role Centers to not only add value to an implementation, but also help weed out the strong Dynamics AX partner from the weak. 

A new model for AX ...