Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (or Dynamics AX) was an ERP product in the Dynamics family. It has been split into separate Dynamics 365 products to provide more flexibility to customers, allowing users to pay only for the functionality they need. Microsoft Dynamics AX will reach end of support in 2021, and end of extended support in 2023. Financial tracking and budgeting features are now found in the newly launched
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SAP HANA Cloud
Score 8.5 out of 10
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SAP HANA is an application that uses in-memory database technology to process very large amounts of real-time data from relational databases, both SAP and non-SAP, in a very short time. The in-memory computing engine allows HANA to process data stored in RAM as opposed to reading it from a disk which means that the data can be accessed in real time by the applications using HANA. The product is sold both as an appliance and as a cloud-based software solution.
It integrates fully with the other Microsoft software we use daily, and this coordination speeds up our work and gives us the agility to run easily. For example, in a purchase inquiry, the customer, after submitting a request, identifies the teams that should work on the project, and if they need further review by other people, they are added to the process, and everything is managed seamlessly rather than the sales process. Get the result as fast as possible.
It is well organized. One can use it for the company's portfolio management. Various tasks can be done for managerial purposes. One can track the material from start to end product: for example, raw material, packing material & consumable material to formulated bulk and formulated drug product. This can help to manage spending as well as finding costing of the product.
Microsoft Dynamics AX's scalability to meet our regional office needs provide flexibility to the team's requirements.
Combined with Citrix Xenapp, the application offers seamless access for users on high latency unreliable network connection to the application.
Application maintenance and updates are easy which makes it possible for us to manage remotely considering the servers are located in a remote Asia site.
Real-time reporting and analytics on data: because of its in-memory architecture, it is perfect for businesses that need to make quick decisions based on current information.
Managing workload with complex data: it can handle a vast range of data types, including relational, documental, geospatial, graph, vector, and time series data.
Developing and deploying intelligent data applications: it provides various tools for such applications and can be used for machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate tasks, gain insights from data, and make predictions.
MRP can be slow to adapt to changes in actual production or supply chain transactions.
Setting up number sequences seems a trivial matter, but these numbers ID transactions once they are in the ledger and are key--easy to miss this point in the implementation process.
Bank rec being easily automated and able to quickly plug into a bank back end to get data is not the best.
Payment processing can be 'clunky' based on checks, ACH, Wires...as some of these items are not triggered out of the box in AX, bur are easily added --talking ACH and Wires specifically.
Requires higher processing power, otherwise it won't fly. How ever computing costs are lower. Incase you are migrating to cloud please do not select the highest config available in that series . Upgrading it later against a reserved instance can cost you dearly with a series change
Lack of clarity on licensing is one major challenge
Unless S/4 with additional features are enabled mere migration HANA DB is not a rewarding journey. Power is in S/4
Microsoft Dynamics continues to evolve by bringing more functionality to the customer. Also there are several independent software providers that offer a wide range of solutions for vertical markets.
At this moment we are not focusing on SAP, however would love to in the future. This is primarily because of our limited ability to generate more revenue to fund for SAP partnerships and products. Our initial tryst with SAP Partneredge open ecosystem didn't go as planned and we have shelved that for now. Hope we can revive in the future
Overall the product does what we need it to do in order for us to function as a company. While there are some concerns over ongoing costs, the belief is, once we have it fully acclimated to our business the cost should settle into alignment with our original expectations. The new features that are consistently being added do add value to the product as they are usually customer request directed.
In addition to the points described in the previous parts of the review, I believe that as I gain more experience with the product over time, I will be able to better describe my experience with this tool. Meanwhile, I can confirm that the possibilities presented to my organization by the change to SAP HANA, at the moment, have been very important to evolve the analytical and strategic field towards a new path.
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
We use a 3rd-party Microsoft Partner for the system. They are responsive and very knowledgeable. While costs have been mentioned several times in this review they are very aware of costs and have developers who are more economical they use to help offset the level of work required to meet our changes and fix our issues.
One specific example of how the support for SAP HANA Cloud impacted us is in our efforts to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues. Whenever we encountered an issue or had a question, the support team was quick to respond and provided us with clear and actionable guidance. This helped us avoid downtime and keep our analytics operations running smoothly.
It took a lot of work, but Microsoft ultimately did a good job with in-person training, including being onsite in multiple global locations for extended periods.
Our solution deviated from a number of key out-of-the-box standards that were included in Online training. We just used that for introduction to the general functionality.
Some rough spots, but ultimately worked out. The contract didn't appear to be structured to support the level of overlapping facility deployments required to meet timeline commitments. Merging cultures on the program was also challenging. Overall, not an easy implementation by any stretch. Everyone did the best they could.
Professional GIS people are some of the most risk-averse there are, and it's difficult to get them to move to HANA in one step. Start with small projects building to 80% use of HANA spatial over time.
I was not part of the decision making process to select Microsoft Dynamics AX, however, I do know that an exhaustive search was done and many options were considered alongside Microsoft Dynamics AX and I feel that the right decision was made in choosing this solution.
I have deep knowledge of other disk based DBMSs. They are venerable technology, but the attempts to extend them to current architectures belie the fact they are built on 40 year old technology. There are some good columnar in-memory databases but they lack the completeness of capability present in the HANA platform.
