Top Takeaways from D365UG/AXUG Summit ‘17

“Blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots” – Sorry, we’re having a bit of trouble getting back into the groove of things after this year’s D365UG/AXUG Summit in Nashville. With over 200 session and a record breaking attendance number, this year’s Summit HAS to go down as one of the best we have ever been a part of!

Here are our top takeaways…

A wealth of knowledge gained

Once again, D365UG/AXUG has outdone itself with a plethora of informative topics across several industries and experience levels. The total number of sessions was almost overwhelming when looking at the full picture, but the D365UG/AXUG team did a great job of making things easy to find using their mobile application. Hats off to them!

Even if you walked away from the Summit feeling like you just drank through a fire-hose, it is still crucial to continue your education and training for Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365. To continue your development, the AXUG offers many resources including blogs, an open forum, webinars and more! Oh, and don’t forget to check out our Dynamics Coach Training Services page!

We also recorded our 5 sessions! Take a look at them below…

• Going Live on Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations: A Year Later
• BI & Reporting within Dynamics AX 2009 and Beyond – Which Tool Should I Use and Why?
  
• The Power of Product Configurator in Dynamics AX
• Sales Forecast Through the Prism of Azure Machine Learning in Dynamics AX
• The Ins and Outs of Procurement in Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365

Break-ups are tough, but sometimes necessary

So, we were talking to someone we’ve never met before at the Summit. You know, it’s a bit awkward, filled with the typical questions that may remind you of a blind date –

“What do you do?”

“What company do you work for?”

“Are you currently available/seeking a new partner?”

Wait, what?

But the truth is, many Dynamics customers have encountered a bad, or sometimes toxic, partnership at one time or another. And one of the answers we received to that very question was (while hilarious) a good representation of how many customers feel.

“Well, it’s complicated – we’ve married, separated… back together, and now we’re separated again…”

Whew, talk about an emotional roller-coaster!

But in all seriousness, this type of situation isn’t all that uncommon. In fact, here at Ellipse Solutions, the majority of our current customers have been with several partners before finally finding happiness in their marriage with us. And, in over 11 years, only one customer is no longer with us! We consider ourselves a bit of a catch 😉

Upgrading to Dynamics 365 is certainly a hot subject

Nearly every conversation we had with attendees included one of the following questions:

• Have you implemented Dynamics 365?
• When should I consider upgrading to Dynamics 365?
• Would I have any issues going from AX (insert version here) to Dynamics 365?
• Who wins in a fight, Satya Nadella or Tim Cook?

Ok, maybe not so much the last one…

But the point is, Upgrading to Dynamics 365 was the single most talked about topic at the AXUG Summit. It’s on all customers’ minds in some form or another. And, quite frankly, a lot of the community is flat out lost in this journey.

Enter, your good friends at Ellipse Solutions!

We will be hosting an all new Dynamics 365 webinar series – Dynamics 365 Town Hall: Recent News/Gossip/Q&A. The number one goal of this series is to keep you in the loop and up to date on all things D365. We will begin the webinar with any recent news regarding Dynamics 365 and save the remainder of the time for an in-depth Q&A with the audience. So bring your D365 based questions!

 

Many customers are sticking with Dynamics AX – which is perfectly fine!

Some attendees that we talked to almost seemed shy to admit that they are staying on Dynamics AX for the foreseeable future. The truth is, staying on Dynamics AX is a perfectly acceptable option for you at this time – don’t rush into an upgrade if your organization is not 100 percent ready!

In fact, it seemed like the majority of users we encountered at the Summit were currently using Dynamics AX 2012 (about 70% of attendees). There was also a surprising amount on 2009 (about 20% of attendees), and even one gentleman who said they are still rolling with 4.0 – so don’t feel rushed!

Other Microsoft focused tid-bits

Here are a few other quick points in the Microsoft world:

• AX2012 to D365 data upgrade is now available INCLUDING historical data
• Microsoft now says that it is a question of WHEN rather than IF Management Reporter will be replaced by PowerBI within the Dynamics 365 experience
• Microsoft clearly showed its focus on Human Resources by starting the keynote with Dynamics 365 for Talent
• This is was the first AXUG Summit keynote lead for Muhammad Alam (in place of Sri Srinivasan)
• Microsoft is committed to removing all over-layering in favor of extensions. So far, no evidence of them backing down or postponing the Spring 2018 lock-down.

Pack your sunscreen, we’re headed to Phoenix!

The 2018 D365UG/AXUG Summit will be held in Phoenix, Arizona! We know for a fact that the Ellipse Solutions team will be going, and we hope to see you there!