Conceptual Shift: Making the Most of Security Model Changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

With the new release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the security model for the ERP solution has been totally revamped. That means instead of module-based security, Dynamics AX 2012 has moved to the role-based security model and provides numerous standard security roles and duties out of the box, making it easier to implement base level security.

At a recent online meeting of the Dynamics AX User Group, Mike Cassady, Director of Application Development at Fastpath Solutions Inc., talked about some of the security changes in Dynamics AX 2012.

"The new security model is entirely changed in this version of AX," he said. "The whole idea of groups and security keys to set up all your security that you've seen in AX 2009 and AX 4, those concepts are all gone in this version. The key pieces to the new model are roles instead of groups. There are roles that are assigned to users-they can be assigned on a per-company basis. And duties are what roles are made up of and they contain a number of privileges."

All users must be assigned to at least one security role so they can access Dynamics AX 2012. And the security roles that are assigned to a user determine the duties that the user can perform and the parts of the user interface that the user can view.

Additionally, administrators can apply data security policies to limit the data that the users in a role can access and they can also determine the level of access that the users in a role have to current, past, and future records.

Managing access through security roles lets administrators save time because they don't have to manage each ...