In a recent article, the co-host of today's podcast, Peter Joeckel, shared his perspective that the Dynamics AX user base falls into one of three categories as it relates to their Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (D365FO) upgrade prospects:

• Small to mid-market and simple;
• Large and complex but well funded;
• Mid-market and complex but financially constrained

That last cohort, the constrained mid-market customer with complex customizations, is staffed with tense IT managers harboring the legitimate fear that the financial losses tie to an upgrade-gone-wrong could do real harm to the business overall.

In this episode of our Dynamics AX to D365FO Upgrade Journeys podcast series, we meet Irene, an IT director at a manufacturer running a not-so-successful AX 2012 system (she preferred to leave her company out of the discussion). Their AX implementation began in 2012 RTM and "it was not an easy implementation," she says. They faced many of the hurdles you hope not to find when executing an ERP project: the lack of a change mindset, a conservative (and seemingly un-engaged) executive team, and some technical deployment problems. Since their less-than-satisfying go—live, they have been working to steadily bring back features and functions that should have been there from the start.

Now they face the prospect of an upgrade of some sort. Irene explains how she evaluated the two primary choices: upgrading to D365FO in the cloud or upgrading to AX 2012 R3. It's not a scenario (or an outcome) that will earn itself a flashy video at the next Microsoft conference, but it's one that might seem more believable for a certain set of AX customers weighing their options today.

Show Notes

• 3:15 – Introducing our AX customer guest and her company's current state
• 6:15 – Past history: why the company is moving cautiously ahead after its original AX 2012 implementation
• 9:45 – What their upgrade analysis looked like and why others will have to move from AX 2012 to D365FO first.
• 12:30 – How the company made their decision on the next steps considering factors like customizations, reporting, and user experience.
• 15:00 – Can a move from AX to D365FO really be called an upgrade?
• 20:30 – AX was implemented to "make corporate happy" originally. Is anyone happy now, and who's not?
• 22:45 – Why our guest is optimistic about the long term future at her company with D365FO – with some reservations like affordability. Would love to know Microsoft's strategy to keep adding value.
• 26:00 – What it means to be in the midrange of ERP buyers when looking to the cloud.
• 30:00 – How much are service providers quoting for an AX 2012 to AX 2012 R3 upgrade/re-implementation? And how would it have compared to the cost of a move to D365FO?
• 35:00 – What a recent group of AX users had to say about planning for a move to D365FO?
• 37:45 – Concerns over partner pressure to move to D365FO, and what is probably driving it.
• 41:00 – The company's long term plans for the next five years.
• 42:00 – Predicting Microsoft's plans for long term support of AX 2012 versions.

The podcast is back with a look at some of the most important articles and features from the last month. It's an episode that is heavy on Dynamics 365 Business Central news as Microsoft ramps up the April 2019 release and communicates its plans to partners, both in Asia last month and in North America in May. We also review some new insights from subject matter experts in partner channel strategy, manufacturing, banking, non-profits, Customer Engagement, Finance & Operations, and more.

Show Notes:

• 00:45 – The latest Business Central updates, including ramped up partner and buyer messaging as part of the April 2019 release wave. MSDW also featured an interview with Microsoft director of product marketing Errol Schoenfish about Business Central's performance so far.
• 6:00 – Microsoft shared metrics on the growth of partner involvement with the Dynamics and Power Platform space, including the number of deals greater than $1 million.
• 9:45 – The decisions that mid-sized organizations face when evaluating both Dynamics 365 Business Central and Finance and Operations.
• 11:00 – NAV developers debate the right approach to customizing Business Central.
• 14:25 – Looking ahead to Directions North America, a bigger follow-up to Directions Asia.
• 16:00 – A new co-sell and co-market program Microsoft Dynamics ISVs will roll out in FY2020, including revenue sharing from ISVs and a range of investments from the Microsoft sales team.
• 18:00 – Microsoft advances its Dynamics 365 Non-Profit Accelerator with greater CDS representation and many more partners.
• 22:30 – A new addition to the Finance Where I'm From series featuring a look at the use of Business Central in Australia.
• 23:30 – New articles from Harald Horgen looking at the risks and benefits of storing customer data, repeatable IP, and setting margins.
• 25:30 – D365FO manufacturing expert Scott Hamilton has published two new articles on the use of sales lead time capabilities.
• 27:05 -- Norman Gottschalk takes on the impact of Robotic Process Automation for knowledge workers.
• 29:20 – Wim Geukens explores the possibilities for new and better customer engagement in the banking industry
• 30:45 -- Magnus Gether Sørensen stakes out a position in the discussion on when and where Microsoft Flow should be embraced in Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement solution development realm as compared to writing code and using more traditional Devops.