Only two sessions in and two blog posts deep, but we couldn't help ourselves in boasting about how our customers will benefit from the new functionality in AX 2012 R3.
The theme we keep seeing is Engage. Run. and Expand. How will this apply to new customers using AX 2012 R3?
Engage
The session Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3: Delivering Amazing Customer Experiences invited Ashley furniture's Executive VP and CIO, Robert White on board to explain how they have the ability to expand with AX 2012 R3.
Ashley Furniture owns their supply chain, which means they have massive amounts of information on their customers. However, it's not necessarily about information but how you use it.
Through click stream analysis in AX 2012 R3, Ashley furniture is able to create a proactive web environment. For example, if they have a customer Susan who is 47 from Dallas, Texas, they can anticipate what she likes, what she has in the past and what she might be interested in. Thus, click stream analysis is able to, in real-time, dynamically change what Ashley furniture offers to their customers.
If this wasn't enough to blow your mind, they took the click stream analysis further. We got to take a peek inside the back end of AX 2012 R3 and see how web orders are streamed in a "Job" feed. From this job feed, organizations like Ashley are able to drill down, see details and send straight to production.
Just as 3d printing/manufacturing was making our headlines, AX 2012 R3 read our minds and showed us how it works directly with 3D printing. In the case of Ashley furniture, they can leverage this technology to make miniature models for consumers, in store, so that they can physically see how a piece of furniture will fit in their space.
Run
AX 2012 R3 read our minds again! In a creative article that we previously posted, we dreamt about the possibility of having "Google Glass" tie back to our ERP system. Well, say no more. AX 2012 R3 in today's session showed us a glimpse of how this is possible.
With New Belgium Beer on stage, they had Mellisse Merrell, their ERP director wear a pair of glasses (in "Beta") and explain how these would be beneficial to real time operations. Some of the areas they mentioned these would be helpful in are cycle counting, inventory control, picking and packing.
For example, if you were wearing the glasses and accidentally picked up the wrong item, you might get a 'beep beep beep' from the glasses-thus bringing us one step closer to inventory perfection. From a warehouse management perspective, you could tune into a dispatcher's glasses, see what they are seeing and guide them around the warehouse. This is just a warehouse. Imagine the possibilities with Field Services-they are endless!
Another one of our favorite features of AX 2012 R3 is the Power BI, but we promise to go in depth on this later in the week.
Expand
As in the AX tech conference, the cloud was a major point of discussion. Lifecycle services, coming out in AX 2012 R3 is possible by first connecting to Axure, and then with the subscriptions companies are ready to run retail, production and manufacturing operations via the cloud.
Expansion is realized via the cloud by allowing this data to connect to mobile devices and directly supply answers to customer inquiries. It is about using the power of the cloud as a collective set to increase the speed of the business as a whole.
All this work in the cloud and R3 sets the stage for the next step for Microsoft. The future starts today. Comfort in AX today takes the customer to the cloud tomorrow.
Conclusion
The "Delivering Amazing Customer Experiences" session ended with an invite to try out the 3d printing functionality within AX 2012 R3 ourselves. With luck, we can wrap this up, get in line and hopefully have more to fill.
