Support strategies for Microsoft Dynamics AX: Start with well-educated users

Whether a company is running Microsoft Dynamics AX in five factories in one state, in five countries, or in two separate buildings in one location - there can be challenges with supporting the solution across the enterprise when something goes wrong. So who within the organization should tackle the problem?

When Dynamics AX isn't working properly, most organizations turn to IT to get things running smoothly again. However, that's not always the best course of action, some AX users advised at a recent AXUG meeting.

With many hundreds of parameters and settings that are chosen during the implementation process, the person often best qualified to understand an AX solution's behavior is often the functional owner. In some cases, the IT team or the developers may not even know the logic behind the settings or why the setting choices were made.   If you go to IT first and then IT sends it back to the developers, you're adding an extra step in the process.

"So what some companies have done from an enterprise-wide perspective is to use help desk software.  When those tickets come in, the user has to identify what module or what functional area is involved, i.e., where the problem is," one user told the group. "And then the help desk ticket system funnels that ticket first to the business process owner or the business analyst or someone who's been assigned to give it a first look from a functional perspective before they engage the IT department."

Nima Bakhtiary, President and CEO of Arbela Technologies, a Dynamics AX consultancy and solution provider, also believes that AX issues should initially be handled within the business unit. However, ...