The TEC Blog: Microsoft Dynamics AX: The Chosen One Among Microsoft Dynamics ERP Equals? – Part 3

[Blog bot]

Источник: http://blog.technologyevaluation.com...%80%93-part-3/
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Part 1 of this blog series positioned all four Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) product lines and concluded that Microsoft Dynamics AX [evaluate this product] has been selected as the ace in the Dynamics ERP lineup and a global “platform” player in selected industries. In other words, the product has been providing an industry-enabling layer upon which certified partners can build their sub-vertical solutions to cater to so-called long tail (sub-vertical) niches.

Part 2 went through the eight previous generations of the Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta) product including the current Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 release. The final part of this blog series will peek into the product’s near future and analyze its traditional strengths and still outstanding weaknesses.

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Источник: http://blog.technologyevaluation.com...%80%93-part-3/

[mazzy]

Цитата:

Сообщение от Blog bot

http://blog.technologyevaluation.com...%80%93-part-1/
http://blog.technologyevaluation.com...%80%93-part-2/
http://blog.technologyevaluation.com...%80%93-part-3/

Пока читаю только первую часть. И уже тащусь.
Жаль, что не на русском. Может кто возьмется перевести на русский? Для истории.

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Интересно, можно ли перевести фразу
Microsoft has been urging all its ... resellers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to specialize...

следующим образом:
Microsoft стал кошмарить всех своих партнеров специализироваться...

[mazzy]

из третьей части:

Цитата:

Microsoft believes that the role-tailored user experience (UX) design and Web Services-based application-to-application (A2A) integration called Application Integration Framework (AIF) within Dynamics AX 2009 strongly support this verticalization approach and should enable partners to build even more dedicated and relevant solutions for customers.

И ведь не поспоришь - Microsoft действительно believes в это.
В то, что "партнеры смогут построить"... (should enable partners to build...)

Об этом неоднократно говорил fed на этом форуме - идет переориентация с клиентов на партнеров/реселлеров. Но система лицензирования остается старой.

[mazzy]

черт, оказывается старые статьи на том ресурсе уходят в архив, доступный только после регистрации.

Поэтому цитирую еще, чтобы осталось в истории:

Цитата:

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For the above reasons, Microsoft Dynamics AX’s functional depth may be insufficient for some upper mid-market companies, which might then require significant partner add-ons in order to match competitive offerings. If these particular solutions are not available in some geographies, plain “vanilla” Dynamics AX offering might appear weaker compared to natively better rounded competitive offerings (e.g., Epicor 9).

Moreover, if not managed closely, partners might overly modify the core Dynamics AX layer, which could make it hard to upgrade the solution in the future or roll it out across a group of companies. The level of governance and discipline that is required on the client’s side in that case can be too demanding for mid-market companies to manage on their own. Ironically, this situation might fly in the face of the Tier 2 ERP strategy benefits (mentioned in Part 2).

X++: Plus or Minus?

While certainly not having nearly as many idiosyncratic traits as its Microsoft Dynamics NAV sibling, Dynamics AX is not immune to own proprietary technologies and tools from the pre-Microsoft era. While it is only natural to expect the giant to make Dynamics AX look-and-feel more “Microsofty”, one by one most of the features that the old Axapta aficionados have long liked (or at least got used to) about their applications are falling away.

One example would be the powerful proprietary Axapta Report Writer that has been replaced by SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS, as mentioned in Part 2). My colleague Kurt Chen explains well in his 2008 blog post that Microsoft’s familiarity should not necessarily be taken as “done deal” when it comes to users’ acceptance of new technologies and abandonment of their beloved old solutions.

Currently, Microsoft Dynamics AX does not yet fully embrace all of the latest .NET Framework development technologies, due to its proprietary object oriented language, X++, which is a strange derivative of C++ and HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and has a Java-like syntax. Over a decade ago, former Damgaard had to create its own language to simplify business application development.

Microsoft Dynamics AX developers still use X++ for those functions that cannot be achieved in, say, C-Sharp today. Examples of the X++ uses would be for the tight integration to the ADO.NET Entity Framework, object modeling, security framework, configuration system, and license system.

The Microsoft Dynamics product development team has been working in the Dynamics AX 4.0 and AX 2009 releases to allow developers to use managed code where it makes sense. To that end, the company includes the common language runtime (CLR) interoperability so that managed code assemblies can be used for business logic in Dynamics AX.

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In fact, the easy work in learning any programming language is not necessarily the syntax but the objects that one uses in the application. Whether this is managed code or X++ the developer still has to understand the underlying data model and business objects. Thus, Microsoft views X++ as strength, because its framework’s features do not yet exist in managed code for widespread use.

Hence, for the time being, it makes sense for Microsoft Dynamics to do this coding separation to make it easier to build business application functionality. Microsoft Dynamics AX will likely have X++ for a very long time but it has also enabled the use of managed code for developers who want to use both technologies that can be assembled later.