Dynamics AX: A Guide to Microsoft Axapta [Hardcover]

Luis Mourão (Author), David Weiner (Author), David Weiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2005

"Axapta" is Microsoft's offering in the ERP software market (currently dominated by the likes of SAP and PeopleSoft). It is the focus of heavy investment by Microsoft in the business solutions area (see www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/) and they aim to grow this part of their business rapidly over the next 5 years.

This book gets its readers from ground zero to intermediate proficiency with Axapta in 300 pages. It’s an authoritative, comprehensive and pragmatic book that walks the reader in easy steps through the proverbial 80% that he/she needs to know to productively apply the system in the real world, with real data, sizing guidelines, deployment architectures, and code.

After reading the book, the reader will have acquired practical hands-on experience: getting Axapta up and running; setting it up; identifying gaps between the out-of-the-box product and actual business needs. And you will have learned to customize Axapta to address identified gaps and automate real-world business functions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Luis was until September 2004 the Axapta kernel Software Development Engineering Manager at Microsoft Business Solutions with overall responsibility for the development and testing of the core technology of Microsoft’s ERP flagship product technology. His responsibilities included the daily management of a team of 21 people with a yearly budget of aprox. 1 million Euro, direct support to MBS corporate accounts e.g. Philips LG, Microsoft Corporation, Old Castle, Rostelecom.

As the kernel dev manager for the Axapta he leads the development effort for the development and run-time environments. As well as kernel documentation, training, 4th level support, pre and post sales consulting for corporate accounts, partners and the MBS application development teams - Finance, SCM, PSA, MBS/MS surround teams – RFID, Event Management, MSBN, MS Consulting Services and Global Training.

He managed the partnerships with HP, Oracle, Intel and others, and this involved certifying Axapta for the respective platforms, coordinating and developing common R&D efforts, e.g. Itanium and Oberon 64 port, ES7000 optimization, mobility, and supporting the respective partner’s implementation of Axapta within corporate accounts.

Within the greater Microsoft he was the Copenhagen site/campus representative for MS Training and Education, led initiatives for Axapta integration with Microsoft platforms – Dr. Watson, SharePoint Portal, CRM, Systems Management Server, Live Communications Server, and the Axapta Engineering Excellence and Trustworthy Computing initiatives, having received a Microsoft Gold Star Award in FY04 for Engineering Excellence.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st ed. 2005. Corr. 2nd printing edition (November 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590594894
• ISBN-13: 978-1590594896
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Trying hard to cover everything... but...., December 7, 2005

By 

Michael Fruergaard Pontoppidan "Microsoft Bus... (Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dynamics AX: A Guide to Microsoft Axapta (Hardcover)

At first glance the book looks very impressive and promising; however you don't have to read many pages before the cold truth of the authors' dilemma hits you. Covering a product as huge as Axapta in less than 500 pages is impossible, so choosing the right level of detail is vital. The authors chose the same approach as the online documentation shipping with the product. They describe in a clear and easy digestible language the most important forms in great detail. The online documentation has rightfully been accused of not providing procedural information (Step-by-step descriptions of how to accomplish tasks spanning multiple forms) or overview information (How everything ties together). Unfortunately this book does not provide that information either. Since the page count is limited one could have hoped non-trivial information was prioritized. That isn't the case. This book is however more than just a rewrite of the online documentation. It contains many valuable and interesting insights where appropriate. Don't expect this book to give you a lot of new information; but it gives you the opportunity to bring it all to the beach.

The content in the book is fairly accurate, and fairly complete. If you are new to Axapta it will help you, if you already are somewhat familiar with the product, the technical inaccuracies and missing key information may throw you off track. An example of missing key information is in the X++ chapter. Here both transaction and exception handling are well described in sequent subchapters. However not a word is mentioned on how they interact, which is something every X++ developer needs to understand to write business logic. Hopefully this and many similar issues will be ironed out in a revised edition.

The architecture chapter is quite a disappointment to me, as it mostly describes deployment scenarios and lists the files that come with the product. The chapters on development and X++ will not teach you to be an Axapta developer. Just like reading a car's manual won't teach you how to drive. In the book there are no examples of business code, but a lot of screenshots and descriptions of the MorphX toolbox. The structure and contents of the development chapters makes me wonder if the authors ever used MorphX themselves.

The book has an edge towards Microsoft, which at times is mind-opening, but mostly plain ignorant. At times it seems more focused on finding ways to crash the system, than ways to successfully avoid the crashes.

By the way: Don't be tricked by the book's title. The book is about Axapta version 3.0 released in 2002. "Dynamics AX" is the name of version 4.0 scheduled to release in 2006.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Start here, November 8, 2005

By 

Jim (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynamics AX: A Guide to Microsoft Axapta (Hardcover)

It would have saved me a lot of time, effort and pain if I had had this book when I started. It's easy for anyone to read and follow with and covers almost everything with enough depth to get you going. I would like to see more on development.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, November 8, 2005

By 

Lene A. (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynamics AX: A Guide to Microsoft Axapta (Hardcover)

This is a great book to get started with that gives you a full overview of Axapta, including installation, the essential business functionality, administration and development. Good set of appendixes for reference. If you are experienced in you area you should be able to figure out whatever you need once you have read the book. Even experienced users will benefit from reading the chapters they don't normally work with.