Merit Matters Blog

In a couple of recent posts, we've discussed how companies can transform compliance into business benefits and reduce the cost of compliance. Now let's talk about how system controls in Microsoft Dynamics AX helps with data integrity, data security - enabling organizations to put the controls in place to monitor changes in critical data and policy violations.

First, any data that is posted into Microsoft Dynamics AX is updated automatically throughout the application modules via the setup of posting profiles. So when data in one module is changed, the change is automatically updated in another, providing real time and up-to-date information throughout the system.

Second, with Microsoft Dynamics AX you can prove that your data is trustworthy and has not been tampered with. For example, you can control access to data throughout Microsoft Dynamics AX by managing security restrictions on forms, records and data fields for specific user groups and domains, and define and assign rights according to how you want security restrictions managed.

Third, the Record Center in Microsoft Office helps make sure that vital company records, including critical documents (for example, financial reports, supplier contracts, and customer correspondence), are properly retained for legal, compliance, and business purposes and then properly disposed of when no longer needed. The Record Center in Microsoft SharePoint helps control that records are never automatically modified by the system and helps prevent direct tampering of records by versioning any changes made to document contents and by auditing specific types of changes.

It’s also possible to control data integrity through user-defined and centrally managed controls to eliminate manual processes and the possibility of human error. The audit trail system in Microsoft Dynamics AX enables you to identify the origin of an entry; the user who created the entry and the entry date and time. In addition, the Microsoft Dynamics AX Expense Management feature helps managers define and enforce company expense policies to which employees will be held accountable when entering expense reports. Expense policies can be defined to either:

• Warn an employee that they have violated a policy but allow them to submit their expense report, or
• Prevent an employee from submitting the expense report until they have made the necessary changes to adhere to the policy.

Microsoft Dynamics AX delivers an integrated and automated solution designed to help you manage the risks and costs associated with meeting compliance requirements. Furthermore, it extends your investment in Microsoft products and technologies, and gives you deeper visibility into and control of business practices that you can use to generate a competitive advantage.

Merit Solutions, a leading provider of Life Sciences ERP software solutions, is proud to announce today that Ivancic i sinovi, a partner of Sopharma, has selected Merit Solutions’ MAXLife for Microsoft Dynamics AX to reduce costs and improve quality control. Ivancic i sinovi chose MAXLife from Merit Solutions because of our proven industry experience - and because MAXLife is a Certified for Microsoft Dynamics AX (CfMD) tested solution.

Ivancic i sinovi was founded in 1991 and manufactures and markets pharmaceutical medicines and dietary products - both in capsules and powder forms. The desire to provide consumers with high quality products, created by the latest in medical technologies, in packaging of contemporary design, yet available to everyone, inspired the idea to begin manufacturing.

Prior to selecting Merit Solutions’ MAXLife with Microsoft Dynamics AX, Ivancic i sinovi used a homegrown system that made it difficult to manage business processes across the organization. The system was not integrated with real-time information, which meant executives and managers were often making decisions based on outdated and incorrect data. Ivancic i sinovi also had industry-specific requirements that would not be met with an out-of-the-box solution. With their homegrown system, they could not track or understand the costs associated with quality control processes, which were time-consuming and people-intensive, and resulted in lost productivity, efficiency, and higher costs. And, with expansion and growth plans, the system could not support the expansion of a production plant.

For these reasons, Ivancic i sinovi began looking for a pharmaceutical quality management solution. In the end, Ivancic i sinovi chose Merit Solutions’ MAXLife with Microsoft Dynamics AX because it is simple to use and deploy, is a comprehensive ERP solution that connects all departments with real-time information, and gives them the flexibility to grow, expand, and adapt as needed.

With MAXLife, Ivancic i sinovi will utilize key quality control and compliance management features specific to pharmaceutical manufacturing. Quality incident and non-conformance management processes will be streamlined and automated with MAXLife’s Corrective Action Preventive Action (CAPA) capabilities, enabling Ivancic i sinovi to correct and prevent issues, measure outcomes, and continuously monitor the system. Ivancic i sinovi will also be able to track and analyze all of their costs related to performing quality processes with Cost of Quality Management, enabling them to reduce the cost of quality while maintaining product safety.

“We’re extremely happy that Ivancic i sinovi has chosen MAXLife from Merit Solutions to reduce costs, improve quality, and support their business growth,” commented Petar Miljkovic, Director - Europe, Merit Solutions. “With MAXLife, the company can continue providing high quality, innovative pharmaceutical products while reducing costs, improving efficiency and productivity, and providing safe products to their customers.”

About Merit Solutions:

Merit Solutions is a multinational organization that provides IT services and software solutions to help companies improve their business success. Our industry-specific solutions, MAXFood and MAXLife, along with our core Microsoft Dynamics ERP and SharePoint offerings, enable organizations to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve service - while maintaining profitable growth!

A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Merit Solutions is AMR Research Industry Certified in Process Manufacturing for Microsoft Dynamics AX. We have recently been recognized as one of Accounting Today's VAR 100, and had two products named in the Top 15 Add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics ERP. Merit Solutions is a Microsoft Excellence Partner for working successfully and collaboratively with customers and partners across the world.

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Online Project Wizard adds the ability to create specific Sure Step projects in a partner or customer’s SharePoint environment all from within their own SharePoint environment or SharePoint Online.

In Sure Step, projects are a collection of documents, tools and templates that follow the Sure Step implementation methodology. When creating a new project, Sure Step Online Project Wizard will always retrieve the latest content ensuring that project documents are up to date. As the documents reside on SharePoint, it enables easy collaboration of the whole project team.

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Online Project Wizard is a SharePoint hosted Silverlight application which harnesses the power of both SharePoint and cloud-based content storage. It can be hosted either on your local SharePoint 2010 environment or on SharePoint Online.

After a simple one time process for manually deploying the Project Wizard to the desired SharePoint environment described in the User Guide, Sure Step project can be created on the same site collection or any other accessible locally. (If the site collection resides on another SharePoint farm or web application additional configuration of the destination web application is required. This will be described in one of the later posts.)

Each time a Project Wizard is started it retrieves the configuration information and checks for compatibility. Only if a new version is required (which actually means that there were significant changes to the Sure Step content metadata model) a user will have to download the latest version and redeploy it to the destination SharePoint environment before continuing with the project creation.

Project Wizard retrieves the latest content metadata and generates the options offered in the wizard itself. Content as well as all the options offered in the Project Wizard are dynamically loaded from the Sure Step Online content repository. This enables seamless update of the Sure Step content, addition of new tools and templates, new solutions, project types and languages. This architecture ensures that each time a project is created using the wizard, it will contain the latest content available from Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step Online without the need to regularly download and install client and content updates (which can be around 400MB for each language).

The Sure Step content is categorized into seven (industry related) solutions, six Dynamics product lines, five project types for implementation engagement type and numerous accelerators for diagnostic phase and optimization offering. An inventory of more than 750 tools and templates are available for use on each project with partial translation in nine languages. Projects are created for a specific Solution, Dynamics Product, Engagement type and a selected Project Type or accelerator. New project contains copies of all Sure Step documents applicable to selected criteria.

Sure Step Online Project Wizard can be deployed on the following environments:

• Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Microsoft SharePoint Online

To start using the Project Wizard in your SharePoint environment, download the Online Project Wizard and follow the instructions from the Sure Step Online User Guide.

More info and the links to resources can be found here.

According to a study from AMR Research, on average only 15 percent of employees are licensed to use their company’s ERP solution and 46 percent of ERP licenses remain unused. Because a limited portion of the organization is using the solution, the potential for productivity benefits and growth remains untapped.

Why aren’t ERP solutions adopted more broadly, by more employees, and for more of their daily tasks? Unfortunately, these solutions are often identified as too difficult to use; too rigid; or both. In one of their reports, Forrester Research concluded that “poorly designed user interfaces can profoundly affect the bottom line. The expenses associated with a bad UI, over the course of the application’s lifetime, may end up being many times the cost of the application itself.”

The negative impact of low usability can include increased training times, a lack of user adoption, and a decrease in workplace productivity. Additionally, when people don’t use the ERP system, mission-critical processes can be compromised because there is no access to or enforcement of standard operations and best practices. Furthermore, individuals often track pertinent business information using separate spreadsheets because using a centralized system is too complex and time-consuming.

Although user productivity can be difficult to calculate, it should be a critical factor when evaluating, purchasing, and implementing an ERP solution. Overall, ERP solutions have demonstrably improved user productivity. Research conducted in 2007 by Keystone Strategy included an analysis of widely accepted usability tests, such as Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI), which showed that business productivity is a product of six factors. These factors include:

• Collaboration, including the ability to submit work for review, obtain comments or approval from others, and share information and tasks with trade partners.
• Business insight, including visibility across departments and real-time access to accurate, relevant data in context of the process or decision where it will be used.
• Flexibility, including the ability to depart from transactional tasks to manage problems or exceptions.
• Usability, including easy navigation, the number of steps required in tasks, instructions and prompts that are helpful rather than cryptic, and the user’s overall command of functionality.
• Familiarity, including how easy and intuitive the system is to learn and the sense that information and tasks correlate with the user’s job role and activities.
• Transactional efficiency, including speed and reliability in accomplishing or automating common, repetitive tasks.

Research has shown that after an ERP solution is implemented, users often struggle to learn how to use it and find the information they need. Complaints range from “it’s hard to learn” and “it’s not integrated with my other tools” to “it’s hard to extract information” and “it’s not flexible enough for real-world situations.” Such objections, which are addressed by the six dimensions of user productivity, account in part for the low user adoption rate discovered in the AMR Research study. These challenges are a reflection of solutions designed with a focus on transactional and functional processes, rather than user productivity and comprehensive, end-to-end business processes.

Microsoft Dynamics AX provides the flexibility you need to optimize user productivity, improve organizational agility, and accommodate future growth. Role Centers and the RoleTailored user experience can be easily personalized for individual users to streamline tasks and speed decision-making. A variety of options for accessing business information - including Enterprise Portal and the Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office - make it easy to extend Microsoft Dynamics AX functionality and productivity tools to workers across the entire organization and throughout the supply chain. Full integration with Microsoft technologies and products helps you maximize existing IT investments and minimize user training time, resulting in a low total cost of ownership (TCO). The flexible, scalable platform gives you the ability to easily add users or functionality as your business expands. In addition, the solution is readily tailored and can be extended / adapted precisely to your needs now and in the future.

Learn how you can increase productivity and efficiency with Microsoft Dynamics AX.

We are excited to announce the launch of our new MAXFood ERP website: http://www.maxfoodsoftware.com.

The new site provides a fresh new look and feel meant to enhance the overall user experience. It has been updated with new product information, demos, white papers, and deeper, more content-rich landing pages.

MAXFood Safety ERP streamlines how food companies operate according to the guidelines of the Food Safety Modernization Act, and according to Good Manufacturing Processes. MAXFood Safety provides more than just lot traceability and corrective actions; it enables you to identify, document, monitor and follow up on critical control points, thereby supporting compliance with even the most stringent regulations and reporting requirements, including GFSI and SQF protocols.

Learn more about MAXFood Safety:

• Food Safety Portal: Increase control over operations, reduce the cost of compliance, and increase productivity with one integrated quality control and food safety document management solution for HACCP, Recalls, SOPs, Incidents, Audits, Complaints, GMPs and more.
• Food Safety Incident Management: Quickly generate a Corrective Action or Preventive Action request that routes through review, root cause, corrective action taken, and verification stages. Generate multiple Food Safety Incident reports automatically, providing an effective mechanism for tracking the source and costs of problems.
• Food Recall Management Workbench: Streamline and automate the recall process, enabling you to not only perform effective product recalls, but to provide concrete documentation and proof that you followed all FDA GMP mandated recall procedures.

With MAXFood for Microsoft Dynamics AX, food companies can minimize risk, maximize product safety, and deliver greater value to their customers. And with MAXFood Cloud ERP, you can also give your employees real-time visibility and anytime, anywhere access to the critical business data they need to be successful - without compromising functionality or security.

A Standard Operating Procedure is typically instituted within a business to help ensure that efficient, consistent actions are carried out, and it is also used as a tool to assist in the training of new people executing any particular function or task. With compliance, Standard Operating Procedures are added or adjusted to meet the requirement. For example, a pharmaceutical manufacturer that has a clean room manufacturing environment must create Standard Operating Procedures for the actions a person takes when entering the clean room environment. This may include a shoe cleaning station and the usage of shoe covers. Making a step-by-step Standard Operating Procedure clearly accessible and readable at the clean room entrance could be only one of many methods companies can use to meet the compliance requirement of assuring product sterility.

Automating the processes associated with standard operating procedures, such as recording tasks and adjusting requirements, helps organizations free up people so they can focus on the activities that add value to their business. Microsoft Dynamics AX helps organizations enforce Standard Operating Procedures by automating the process of creating and sharing business process documentation and standard operating procedure documents.

Perform More Processes Faster Automated workflows are crucial for enforcing compliance. Manual processes slow productivity. Microsoft Dynamics AX helps organizations to perform more processes faster and more consistently. For example, it’s possible to create individual workflows or business processes to automate compliance with corporate policies and procedures. Microsoft Dynamics AX workflows enable you to configure workflow approval processes based on pre-defined templates to fit your business needs. It’s possible to track the status and history of a specific workflow instance to analyze and determine if changes need to be made to the workflow to improve efficiency. And, with Microsoft Dynamics AX, Web services can be used to check and ensure compliance with regulations such as trade restrictions automatically at the sales order entry level.

Better Internal Controls with Approval Workflows for Financial Journals Standard Operating Procedures also include enforcing internal controls for specific, pre-defined actions and processes. This can be especially relevant in financial processes. For example, Microsoft Dynamics AX enables the setup of approval processes on selected financial journals on a per journal name basis. The approval process allows the user to define the conditions under which approvals are required and to specify the approver(s). The workflow infrastructure updates the workflow status of the journal as needed to provide visibility as to whether the workflow status is pending approval, approved, rejected, etc. And, the workflow status controls the actions that may occur during workflow execution, such as not allowing posting or generating payments until the approval workflow is completed.

Document and Record Tasks and Activities Automatically Accurate documentation of tasks and activities and making this information easily accessible are crucial components to enforcing standard operating procedures successfully. Microsoft Dynamics AX delivers the capability of logging and recording tasks and activities and making the information available from the Compliance Center, in Microsoft Office documents and in Microsoft SharePoint sites. For example, it’s possible to create documentation for processes or training-oriented documentation using the integrated Task Recorder in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Based on the recorded tasks and user activity in the application, documents can be generated that include step-by-step instructions and illustrations in a number of Microsoft Office document formats, such as Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentations and process-oriented documentation in Microsoft Office Visio ® . Additional information and steps can be added, including company or organization policies and procedures. The document can then be stored, accessed, and controlled from the Compliance Center Document Library. This is a SharePoint document library, so you can control access to this document library, if necessary.

Improve Employee Compliance Awareness and Training Publishing compliance practices and standard operating procedures and making them available within the organization is an important part of managing compliance; however; employee training in compliance practices and company policy is also key. Management can help improve compliance awareness throughout the organization and train employees in corporate policies by using Questionnaire in Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can design and execute compliance-related questionnaires and mandatory online training to ensure that employees are up-to-date on new corporate compliance policies and procedures and enforce training in areas where improvements are needed.

Learn more about Microsoft Dynamics AX Compliance Management which enables companies to enforce compliance in a consistent and cost effective manner, while streamlining business processes and improving efficiency across the organization.

Many manufacturing organizations dread the risks and costs associated with a change in ERP systems. Unfortunately, this mindset often overshadows the fact that old, unsupported hardware and software that was designed 10-20 years ago is expensive to maintain and can rarely serve today’s real-time data exchange requirements. However, a comprehensive, integrated software solution that can be implemented quickly, customized as needed, and used easily by employees can provide a return on investment in just months.

When choosing and implementing a manufacturing ERP solution, decision-makers need to choose the most cost-effective solution that:

• Enables flexible business processes that can be adapted over time to evolving circumstances.
• Provides real-time visibility across all business processes, including interfaces with corporate, customer, and supply partner systems.
• Permits multinational manufacturing companies to take advantage of shared processes and best practices across the value chain.
• Supports advanced manufacturing strategies that help meet the challenges of global business and provide an edge over competitors.

An integrated, effective solution can very quickly deliver a return on investment, reducing IT costs from a total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective and capitalizing on existing productivity tools and IT investments. The right manufacturing solution can also:

• Create a homogeneous platform compatible with existing databases and standard integration and development tools.
• Be easy for employees to learn and use, minimizing training while quickly maximizing productivity.
• Be rapidly deployed for a faster return on investment.
• Support shared services and processes across multiple locations.
• Scale and adapt as the company’s needs grow for a cost-effective solution over the long term.

Microsoft Dynamics AX offers multinational companies a manufacturing management solution and an integration platform that gathers and integrates real-time operational information so business managers can more easily access and analyze critical data, respond to changes, and make decisions with confidence. Whether deployed on-premise or in the cloud, Microsoft Dynamics AX empowers manufacturers to meet the challenges of today’s global markets by reducing costs, enhancing operational flexibility, and connecting the plant floor to the back office in productive new ways.

Most manufacturing organizations already make use of Microsoft technology in everyday activities - such as Microsoft Office, SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows Server, and more. Implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX for plant operations takes advantage of those existing investments while increasing overall visibility so that managers and employees can see exactly what is happening on the plant floor; understand how it relates to supply, order, and financial information both locally and across the enterprise; and use that integrated knowledge to reduce costs, react effectively to changes, and delight customers.

Food and Beverage companies are required to detect and react to Food Safety Incidents (non-conformances) and ensure that appropriate actions are taken to correct and prevent future occurrences. Still, more than half of the FDA warning letters cite Corrective Action / Preventive Action deficiencies.

The common pitfalls and challenges of a Food Safety Incident Management system include:

• Inability to link related problems
• Inconsistent investigation process
• Confusion over the difference between Corrective Action and Preventive Action
• Time-consuming approval process
• Changes to the action plan mid-stream
• No means to generate metrics

Benefits of MAXFood's Food Safety Incident Management capability:

• Quickly document Food Safety non-conformances and record all relevant incident information.
• Automate the processes of assigning non-conformances, investigations, and corrective actions.
• Improve management of Food Safety Incidents with root cause analysis and real-time trend reporting on food safety issues.
• Streamline compliance with food safety regulations, including HACCP, SQF, and ISO.
• Improve brand loyalty and customer satisfaction by continuously improving food safety and responding quickly to potential incidents.

MAXFood's Food Safety Incident Management capabilities enable you to increase control and assuredness for how your organization operates. With MAXFood, you can generate a Corrective Action or Preventive Action request that routes through review, root cause, corrective action taken, and verification stages. This Corrective Action tracking software generates multiple reports automatically, providing an effective mechanism for tracking the source and costs of problems.

Using a systematic approach to correcting and preventing issues, measuring the outcome and continuously monitoring the system can ensure that a company is compliant, effective and efficient. And, having a well-thought-out Food Safety Incident Management system can result in successful audits, fewer investigations, less product loss, better customer satisfaction, and an increase in overall operational efficiencies.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is designed to improve and automate your business operations. Within medium to large enterprise companies, these processes - such as quality, production, inventory, reporting, order entry, accounting, purchasing, etc... - are traditionally managed by several disparate, or even manual, systems.

Companies that operate with disparate or manual systems often experience many unnecessary costs and delays. Examples include duplicate data entry, data corruption, more training, greater IT support and software incompatibilities. However, the largest impact of disparate systems is the inability to access information timely to enable good decision making.

As a result, there is a growing trend toward the use of a single ERP system to manage the entire business.

Through this single software system approach, companies can control the details of their businesses by linking all departments together. This maximizes productivity, reduces costs, and increases profitability. With a centralized ERP system, companies can erase information boundaries and deliver the critical information needed for rapid, effective decision-making.

Here are the top ten business benefits of eliminating silos of data and utilizing a single ERP software system. By understanding these benefits, companies can understand how to simplify their operational processes.

1. Reduce Costs: Challenged to do more with less, many IT departments are finding that the cost of maintaining multiple business systems is simply too high. With a single software system in place, companies can eliminate many of the costs associated with IT, including high implementation, integration, training, and support costs. Additionally, many companies experience reduction in overall license costs when moving to a single business system approach.
2. Single Point of Control: Another major benefit of a single ERP system is the “single point of control.” A single software system will be the trusted source of information for an organization. By integrating all business processes into a single system, companies are able to simplify business workflow and increase productivity and efficiency.
3. Eliminate Redundant Data Entry. Eliminating redundant data entry improves productivity. Companies can also gain organization-wide insight across the applications through one easy-to-use and familiar interface. For example, inventory, formulation, production, and lot and batch control updates are processed once with real-time transactional posting.
4. Improve Data Integrity: As the sole system for all company data, enterprise wide ERP is perfectly suited for organizations that require high levels of data integrity and control. With a sin-gle software solution, business information will be entered in one central location and will always be the same across company departments and locations.
5. Better Business Insight: Access to business critical data - no matter where it's located - is needed for rapid, effective decision making. By integrating all departments into one business system, companies have accurate, up-to-the minute information about product costs, sales trends, profit margins, and more.
6. Respond to Changing Business Conditions: Responding quickly to business needs can be the key to gaining and keeping a competitive edge. But disparate IT systems can get in the way. A single enterprise wide software system that is flexible and easy to use can play a critical role in helping your business achieve the agility it requires to respond and adapt to changing business conditions.
7. Speed and Simplify Training: When utilizing a single software system, user training and adoption is easier and faster. Since employees only have one system to learn and use, as opposed to several different software interfaces, companies save time and effort during the training process.
8. Manage Support: One software system means one software vendor, which prevents multiple vendors from passing software issues off to other software vendors. Also, instead of calling multiple support help desks, there is one support team responsible for addressing all of a company’s software questions or issues.
9. Minimal Maintenance: Overall, since software maintenance is lower, support issues are fewer with a single system. Rather than juggling support issues for numerous systems, a company’s IT department can handle the regular updates and backups for one software system. Single systems also keep network issues to a minimum.
10. Easier Upgrade Process: In addition to minimal maintenance, enterprise wide systems are easier to up-grade, too. Multiple software systems can conflict when one system is updated and no longer works correctly with another system. These differences are eliminated with single system upgrades.

Overall, the benefits of a single software system fulfill the original intentions of ERP as it allows companies to manage their business as simply and efficiently as possible.

Lately, we’ve been talking to a lot of our clients about compliance. Last week, I posted an article on how Microsoft Dynamics AX can help an organization transform compliance challenges into business benefits. I thought I’d stick with compliance again today.

Compliance requires recording, documenting, and reporting exactly what happened, when, and by whom. Compliance requirements are numerous and can vary throughout an organization. They affect the design standards, quality standards, processes, and reporting aspects of an organization.

Therefore, visibility and control of compliance-related processes and activities are key factors in managing a compliance program in an efficient way. An effective compliance program needs to be integrated into a single business management system. Instead of having data and information locked away in separate information silos, organizations need one central location for users to view, manage, and control the internal controls, business process content, and reporting for the organization's compliance program.

An effective compliance program helps ensure the following:

• Compliance requirements are being met and managed properly
• The organization efficiently adopts new compliance processes without duplicating efforts
• High level documentation is provided in cases where compliance tracking activities are canceled
• Procedures and mechanisms exist to systematically track:
• Risk assessment
• Requirement origination
• Responsibility
• Processes
• Supporting technologies

Microsoft Dynamics AX helps enable organizations to reduce the total cost of compliance out-of-the-box. Integration with other Microsoft products means that your people are working with one integrated solution instead of several disparate systems. The Compliance Center simplifies compliance efforts and helps keep business information secure through a comprehensive set of tools to manage and control sensitive business information and critical key performance indicators (KPIs).

And, because Microsoft Dynamics AX works like and with other Microsoft products it is people-ready meaning your people can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s important. This is significant because:

• One system makes it easier to manage security settings. Security is set up in one place – Microsoft Dynamics AX. Active Directory and Windows Single Sign-On means that the security settings still apply even when working with reports outside the application.
• It’s easier to train employees. Employees are working in a familiar working environment helping to lower learning curves so users can focus less on technology and more on their business goals. High user adoption enables people to comply with corporate procedures faster and easier.
• Maintaining one system is more efficient than maintaining several. Crucial information is entered into a one central repository helping to lower the cost of maintaining the system. It’s also easier to implement, customize, upgrade, and modify. Microsoft Dynamics AX provides the same version of code for Web and Microsoft Windows clients, which can lead to simpler, less expensive development and IT costs.
• Improved reporting helps drive smarter decisions. Get the right information to the right people in virtually any business environment with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. SQL Server Reporting Services delivers a robust environment for creating, managing, and delivering traditional, paper-oriented reports, as well as interactive, Web-based reports and key performance indicators that help in managing compliance.

By actively managing a balance between compliance requirements and agile business practices within the organization, organizations can realize the benefits of reduced risk, increased operational efficiency, and the continued building of a foundation on which to grow.