Make no mistake, doing an international deployment of Dynamics AX is not a simple task, but now we have a great new tool-set to support the project.

Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS)has completely changed the way an ERP system is implemented, making it quicker and easier to deliver a successful solution.

LCS improves the overall customer experience and it enables us to pay more attention to value-added services, such as business process improvements. In my opinion, LCS is areally significant technology, and it is certainly revolutionizing the ERP market as a whole.

Let’s take a look at the two main ways that LCS is helping to improve the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

microsoft dynamics

1) Improving the predictability of implementations

By simplifying and standardizing the implementation process and leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure to get a quick return on your investment, LCS helps to improve the predictability and quality of Microsoft Dynamics AX deployments. We can replicate success and more easily create faster, industry-tailored implementations. For international implementations, LCS also helps to standardize processes and operations across your entire organization.

LCS helps to ensure that the right information is delivered at the right time, to the right people.With each roll out of an implementation, update, or upgrade, you can take advantage of repeatable, predictable success.Using the LCS configuration manager, we can select pre-tested data and a pre-defined configuration of entities. This helps speed up the movement of data between development and test environments, as well as making it possible to take advantage of repeatable rollouts.

We can also, document key processes and upload them for modification and version tracking, and you can take advantage of the 800 business processes that are included within LCS. The tool helps ensure that we have everything in place and that we keep an overview necessary to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX quickly and successfully, without having to start from scratch for each individual implementation.

2) Supporting collaboration to optimize quality and manage updates

LCS is an Azure-based collaboration portal, making Microsoft Dynamics AX updates more discoverable and less onerous. LCS helps you manage binary or application updates containing regulatory features, new features, or changes to existing features. You can create a customer update package containing desired updates (and their required dependencies). Coupled with diagnostic data, you can filter out application changes that are already applied or those that are irrelevant to your company.

With LCS, regularly updated services, for example, System Diagnostics and Upgrade Analysis, help you manage the application lifecycle.  In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics AX update installer comes with an automated code-merge tool that simplifies the process of applying hotfixes and regulatory updates to customized environments. After installing updates, the tool proposes a code merge for the new code into the higher layer customizations. It also adds all impacted code to a project so that you can review and correct the merge as needed.

Utilizing a collaborative workspace that can be used by both customers, partners and Microsoft, separately and together, LCS enables closer collaboration, helps speed up implementations, and reduces time to value.  A re-engineered, customer driven, collaborative cloud-based support process helps to simplify and accelerate self-diagnosis and communication, preventing and resolvingissues quickly.You can share your environment for immediate review and errors can be replicated and corrected using the LCS collaborative virtual machine.

LCS is designed toengage all stakeholders in creating a successful Microsoft Dynamics AX experience. From needs analysis to discovering, defining, planning and implementing your ERP solution, Microsoft LCS is a really good foundation for efficient information sharing and solution development.

LCS is a great tool-set, releasing your project team from technical application tasks giving the project team and your experienced international partner the ability to focus on more relevant business relates task during your project, such as local business change management.

I hope this gives you some good reasons to learn a bit more about LCS. Get in touch with me to hear how Pipol can help you leverage LCS and the cloud to optimize your ERP solution and entire business model.

Sponsor Content

PipolPipol internationalize and transform organizations based on Microsoft Dynamics and provide solutions and consultancy to implement structure, efficiency and adequate management of companies abroad.

Pipol is in more than 55 countries and most likely also where you have your business.

Pipol offers the largest range of implementation and consulting services based on Microsoft Dynamics in the world. Pipol’s services are built on best practices from thousands of live cases in a variety of industries across the globe.

For further information, please visit: www.pipol.com