At as Dynamics AX consultant I get the chance to work with many customers, and see good idea’s in action. At one particular customer in Norway, that are implementing Dynamics AX 2012 we have been asked to replicate some functionality from their old system.

A normal response from a Dynamics AX consultant would be that with Dynamics AX we do things differently. We use role-centers, fact boxes, fast-tabs, buttons, go-to-main table, and Excel to give a complete picture.

But this customer was persistent, and still ordered a customization. The task felt on my shoulders, and the more I do the development, the more I really see the benefits. It saves time, and gives a much easier 360 degree view.

I wanted to share these ideas with you,; this called product inquiries, and I have used the “copy with pride” technique from other std. Dynamics AX forms J So the “footprint” in standard AX is Zero.

It all starts with the following screen:

By typing in an item, the user will get some key information, like name description etc. But also some information like on-hand, vendor, external item ID, most common locations and picture

In the tab-grid part, you see some of the information, where you normally would have to click on buttons or filter on. The tab-page here shows trade-agreements with vendors, prices, lead time etc.

On the tab purchase lines we see ONLY the open purchase lines, marking, and confirmed delivery dates.

The Sales lines shows open sales lines:

The inventory transactions, shows ONLY transactions that has affected the physical on hand. Meaning Sold, deduced, picked, purchased, received and registered transactions:

Customer invoice lines, will show all commercial transactions, related to the item:

The Posted vendor invoice lines, shows the following:

The statistics, will show statistics per month:

If wanted, the user can them self also key in the start and end date to get statistics on other intervals. The turnover ratio is also calculated.

For BOM/Kits we also have the following:

In the coming days, also price calculations per customer will be available, and then it can also be used for finding out if a specific customer should get a discount or not J

It is not revolutionary to make such screens, but I think I managed to get it working with a good performance. The number of datasources involved is large. So I have used several techniques, like caching, maps etc to get the acceptable performance.

And on the op, I have “stolen” many of the same buttons as the released products form, so these are also working.

I have also used the “Grid view” to get a very fast overview:

The conclusion is therefore to actually listen to our customers. They very often have ton’s of experience and are willing to share their knowledge.  And we as Dynamics AX consultant can help our customers to become more successful. 

Happy Daxing.