Author: Kurt Hatlevik

Evaluation of the new Rapid Configuration Tool

/ Kurt Hatlevik / 1 Comment
I have been using the RCT tool for Axapta 3.0, and it was not the time to look at the RCTY tool for Dynamics Ax 4.0.  That was a disepointment. Much has been removed from the tool.  To remove the checklist and the helpfile was a bad decision.  The checklist’s is very user-friendly and give a much easier overview of the progress.  Keep also in mind that not all will be using MS Project, or have it installed.  I know about the hard work in coding the checklists, but my guess is that without it, the use of the tool will be marginalized.  Trust me.  The concept of having a nice graphical view of the implementation is important.  My belief is that this tool will not be used without it, because the concept of a checklist gives an impression of a best practice way of implementing Dynamic AX.  The tool was also used, and nice to have in the background to follow the progress of an implementation.  People also returned to the checklists to double check the setup date, and to get access to video, powerpoint presentations and documents. 

 

Our clients said “WOW!” when they understood and saw the easy visual GUI of the RCT.  Now we only have the boring normal presentation with tree’s, grids, tabs and buttons.

 

I’m also missing the nice help file that was included and integrated into the RCT of Axapta 3.0.

I feel that the RCT in Ax 4.0 is only a shadow of the solution that was available in Ax 3.0.  Please include a decent Helpfile and a checklist.

 

Take a look at the following screens, and tell me which is the most user-friendly :

Sorting on the “Release sales order picking”

/ Kurt Hatlevik / 1 Comment
It seams that the sorting and filtering of the "release salesorder picking" doesn’t work.
Thats to sad, because often you want to filter and sort based on date/salesordernumber or customer.
 
When you now are trying to sort, nothing happens.  I think the reason for this is that there is a innerjoin between the salesline table an a temperary table.
 
I’ll digg into it an check if it’s easy to change.
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Actually the sorting query are set when you open the window, and it cannot de resetted, before you go out and inn again.  I had great expectations to the new functionallity, but I see now that it’s too shallow.  More advanced companies can have 20.000 + different items, and more then 20.000 open orders.  Then it’s impossible to do a manual item allocation.  Even the form will be extreemly slow, because it will take very long time to traverse though the 20.000 orders, and placing them in the temporary table.  This means that it’s still need to create a lot of addons regarding the advanced distribution and picking. 
 
I also see that this form actually are working orderline by orderline, but often a customer primary wants to see the allocation order by order.  When a orderline is physical reserved on another warehouse then the need for allocation should be cleared.  
 
Often there is a need to create some kind of "Wave"-solution, where you also take into account the movement of items from a warehouse/location to another.  Often the picking area is to small to handle items for all the orders, so there is a need to create a limit.  Tehrefor often the customer desides for that they should be able to deliver 3000 orders the next day, and the system should create transfer orders to supply the right items.  It is important to remember that you need to more the right items, or you will get a large backlog of orders waiting for only a few items.
 
I personally would like to add a lot more functionality here.
 

My first located error in Ax 4.0

/ Kurt Hatlevik / Leave a comment
It’s isn’t my intension to talk negative about the new Ax 4.0 version, but I will use the blog to find and document bugs in Ax 4.0.   Later I will send in a Service Request to Microsoft, so that all can benefit to improved software quality.
 
Here is my first bug :
 
A new nive feature in Ax 4.0 is the price simulation in sales and project.  The tool aid sales personel in calculating and saving various scenarios for sales orders.  but if you choose to the the new contribution ration to 100, you will get a dived by Zero error, as follows :
 
Error:
Error executing code: Division by zero.
Stack trace
(C)\Forms\SalesQuotationPriceSimulation\Data Sources\SalesQuotationPriceSimTable\Fields\ContributionRatio\Methods\modified
(C)\Classes\FormRealControl\modified
(C)\Classes\FormRealControl\leave
(C)\Classes\FormRun\task
(C)\Classes\SysSetupFormRun\task – line 20
 
I expect that it’s an easy thing to correct in future versions.

First hands on Dynamics Ax 4.0

/ Kurt Hatlevik / 1 Comment

Well…..Finally I managed to get Ax 4.0 up and running on my windows XP portable.  Actually it was quite easy and strait forward.  Just run the installation and you are up and running.  The only thing that needs to be presence was a connection to AD (Active Directory).  After that, you can take the PC with you anywhere.  Now I will start digging into the application….