Operating Units in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Operating unit is an organization that is used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. People in an operating unit have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, improve processes, and account for their performance.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX, the types of operating units include cost centers, business units, value streams, departments, and retail channels. The following table provides more information about each type of operating unit.

Operating unit type	Description	Purpose
Cost center	An operating unit in which managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures.	Used for the management and operational control of business processes that span legal entities.
Business unit	A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives.	Used for financial reporting that is based on industries or product lines that the organization serves independently of legal entities.
Value stream	An operating unit that controls one or more production flows.	Commonly used in lean manufacturing to control the activities and flows that are required to supply a product or service to consumers.
Department	An operating unit that represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task, such as sales or accounting.	Used to report on functional areas. A department may have profit and loss responsibility, and may consist of a group of cost centers.
Retail channel	An operating unit that represents a brick and mortar store, an online store or an online marketplace.	Used for the management and operational control of one or more stores within or across legal entities.

Microsoft Dynamics AX7 - Rainier

The next major version of Microsoft Dynamics AX (code named ‘Rainier’ or version ‘7’) should be released sooner. The general direction Microsoft is heading with all its products is ‘cloud first, mobile first’, with Dynamics AX 7 being no exception. This new philosophy espouses a vision of increasing the productivity of consumers and businesses through better delivery and usability of technology.

New Generation User Experience

Will be an attractive context-sensitive Windows 8 experience based on HTML5 technology. This represents a movement away from boring and bland ERP system interfaces towards a modern user experience that is light, web-oriented, and intuitive

Cloud First, Mobile First

Cloud first in Dynamics AX 7 translates to a new cloud optimized platform for both public and private deployments, but with an on-premises option too.

Mobile first means Microsoft believes that productivity is about empowering people and not simply enacting artificial technological walls that force people to work in predefined ways. Integrations between non-Microsoft products and devices will be such that there should be no difference in a user’s experience based on the mobile device they use, be it an iPhone, iPad, Android, or other type of device.

New browser-based interface

A browser-based interface will replace the current Windows Client making Dynamics AX capabilities available via new “work spaces,” promoting remote access across a variety of device platforms for enhanced collaboration.

SQL Azure for Cloud Deployments

Microsoft’s cloud platform, known as Azure, allows users to build, deploy, and manage different applications across global networks. Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 will use SQL Azure for cloud deployments.

Dynamics AX 7 will make available a single-tenant deployment model. Unlike the multi-tenant model, which promotes file and application sharing using the same software product, in the single-tenant model, each user gets a separate instance of software, which will run on an isolated piece of infrastructure. The single-tenant model uses Azure’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which offers customers total control over virtual machines and network configurations.

On the other side, Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 deployed on SQL Azure will provide two major services: platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and database-as-a-service (DBaaS). Although the PaaS model doesn't allow you to control or manage the software and network servers, you’ll be able to customize the system and create new applications using the tools included in AX 7. In the DBaaS model, you can develop and manage applications without assuming the responsibility for database administration functions. Since Microsoft will manage the system and servers, you don’t need to hire IT personnel to maintain the database.

Dynamics AX 7 will also use Microsoft’s model-driven layered architecture (MDLA), which facilitates the development of individual application objects for each company. This means that you can develop your own tables, code units, reports, etc. according to your organization’s needs.

Visual Studio and .NET Framework:

The development environment will move to Visual Studio under the .NET framework, which will increase the consistency, experience, and availability of development tools.

Error during Upgrade from AX 2009 to AX 2012 - Create Tables Task

During the upgrade process from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (Source to Target upgrade process), when running the Create tables task We might receive errors during the ‘Create tables’ step in the AX2012 Upgrade checklist. The errors were of the following format, and exceeded 10000…


Error 
[Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]Incorrect syntax near ‘?’.
INSERT INTO SQLSYNCINFO (TEXT,TABLENAME,ID,PARENTID,LOGTYPE,MESSAGETYPE,SEQUENCE,
SYNCTABLE, WARNINGOK,RECVERSION,RECID) VALUES (?/*’/* block */’*/,?/*”*/,?/*0*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*0*/,?/*0*/,?/*1*/,?/*5637172525*/)




Cause 
The AX Server configuration was configured with the ‘-internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse’ command. This setting is recommended by Microsoft for the duration of the upgrade, however, it needs to be set prior to executing the bulk copy scripts. The system errors out, if the setting is present during the ‘Create Tables’ step.
Solution 
Removed the -internal=comments –internal=nocursorreuse command from the AX Server Configuration. (*added it back at a later stage in the upgrade process)

Solution found on WOLFTEK's Dynamics AX Blog