Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations

AbstractThe Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance (DynAA) recently sponsored a two day training entitled Applying Microsoft Dynamics AX in the University Classroom(e.g., visit for a detailed agenda and supporting materials). Training was delivered by faculty members of the DynAA: Jennifer Nightingale from Duquesne University, David Thomas of bSolutions LLC and Tulsa Community College, and Todd Schultz from Georgia Regents University. This report provides a recap of evaluations from the training and makes some recommendations for moving forward.

Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations

A review of the attached Appendix which provides a review of attendee evaluations leads to the following conclusions and recommendations:

The training was of significant value to those who attended, directly addressed areas of interest and concern to DynAA faculty members, and built understanding and enthusiasm for applying Dynamics AX in the classroom. Even a shallow review of the evaluation results affirms this.
Using a team made up of DynAA members develop and deliver the training was particularly effective in achieving the training goals. Not only does a team allow some trainers to assist attendees while another trainer has the spotlight, the division among AX process knowledge, AX technical infrastructure, and AX pedagogy among the trainers was critical to this recent success.
This course and/or similar training can be sharpened and honed a bit based on excellent feedback provided by attendees. Some off the top:
More hands-on focused around a case;
Better guidance on supplying AX to students;
More detailed examples of pedagogy;
Inclusion of peripheral topics such as AX in the ERP space, use of SureStep, installation & configuration, supporting infrastructure, business intelligence
This training should be followed up with an organized series of webinars which are archived for distributed study. See also item 8.
Future training including a (near) repeat of this seminar plus others should be scheduled, both in face-to-face and distributed formats. See also item 8.
Future training should provide more structure and preparation in terms of pre-work to make the training time even more effective. See also item 8.
Having Microsoft sponsor and advertise the event as well as fund the venue and meals was a very important factor; this goes beyond providing low-cost access to the training by providing a strong ‘stamp of approval’ for the workshop.
Microsoft and the DynAA together need to consider how best to maintain and focus the momentum and energy this training has brought about. To date much of our progress has been through passionate evangelists within DynAA whose research, teaching, and service interests have led them to invest in DynAA activities. We can count on this to continue is some fashion and we can turn to the DynAA Advisory Council in conjunction with Microsoft to help identify, e.g., which webinars, training, and concentrations are most productive. Looking into ways to help heavily involved DynAA members fund their extra travel or participation should also be on ‘the radar’ to help ensure the stability and scalability of these efforts.
We really need to solve the hosting solution situation for AX. We still prevaricate a bit because it’s still a complicated answer requiring ‘one off’ types of solutions. We are getting closer but in addition to fanning enthusiasm we need to develop concrete non-technical answers to what to do next for adoption.

Forthcoming Proposals

The team that delivered this training will be submitting proposals for webinars and future training over the next few weeks. Any guidance Microsoft can provide for topic areas or emphases would be welcome. Of course this all depends on the time and availability of the presenters for whom this is something that gets squeezed in as we can make time.

As an ‘off the top’ list:

Repeat the training as another face-to-face as soon as possible (refined a bit based on feedback)
Webinars (& perhaps face-to-face training breakouts) each 1 hour focused on AX hands-on: financials, procurement, marketing, sales, cost accounting, bills-of-materials, inventory management, MRP & production planning.
Webinars and/or a one day course on using SureStep in the classroom.
Webinars & white paper on getting AX up and going in a VM or on a server as an instructor ‘sandbox’ and for advanced student use (probably not a good candidate for a face to face seminar)
New training focused on configuration & setup. A bit specialized to the IT side but it will help extend out of the focus on functional only coverage.
Guidance – not necessarily training – on how to get students in front of AX, teaching materials, exercises, rubrics, etc. but organized for easy search & discovery.

Appendix – Evaluation Questionnaire Comments

Attendees were asked to complete a 13 item evaluation; each question has been copied below with summary statistics where appropriate and comments from attendees.

1. As a result of this workshop I better understand Microsoft Dynamics AX and its capabilities as a product in the ERP market.

Very well prepared - Todd and Jennifer's talk are extremely good. David's demo of hands-on helped a lot in understanding the functionalities - could be improved towards the complete illustration of a sales cycle and/or purchasing cycle.

Information about the resources will definitely be a great starting point

Technical and different ERP systems capability were notdiscussed along with AX so I could better understand how AX is better product than other with ERP systems in market.

Yes, from a transactional perspective

Session gave good insight into the product and it's capabilities

2. As a result of this workshop I have a base from which I can build my knowledge about using Dynamics AX to a level where I could confidently bring exposure to Dynamics AX into my courses.

I am convinced that Ax is the product our campus needs to provide to our students, in particular, who have a major in business functions (e.g., supply chain management, CIS, marketing).

AX is a quite complex system. I feel I still needsubstantial self-learning using those coursewares to feel confident. The workshop provides a useful base for me to locate those resources for learning AX.

Will work on it in the summer to try and develop a course based on AX

knowledge shared over 2 days training has given me confidence overall aspect of AX

Not from a setup perspective.

Great job by instructors. This product is hard to use in a class room without a cloud environment. Much thanks to Doug Pitcher for allowing that to happen

3. As a result of this workshop I understand the current installation, virtualization, and hosting options for instructor and student access to Dynamics AX.

There are options to host Ax. It needs to be finalized quickly in order to move Ax into the classroom.

Some understanding. I still need to have some hands-on practice.

This is beyond my expertize level. However i am now aware of the options available

very less information was discussed, future web based session can focus on implementation and migration from different ERP

No installation guidance. Yes to the other two aspects.

4. As a result of this workshop I have concrete examples of pedagogy and curriculum to help build into components for use in my courses.

Some early evidence was presented. More efforts required to come up with some easy-to-use textbook and/or cases that can be adopted for Ax teaching and application development.

Listening to other instructors was a great help

thetraining emphasis was relatedto functional, I thought if following component were included in course it will make studentinterestingin fullcycleimplementation of ERP.there should be 10%Architecture,10%Implementation, 10% SureStepDocumentation, 40% Functional , 10% Development,10% Change Request, 10% Migration from different ERP

I got some ideas but more would be better. Hopefully as more people start using AX in the classroom, we will have more material available. I would like to see some cases built around this product.

5. This workshop will have a positive change on my development are for learning Microsoft Dynamics myself and including it in my courses.

Presentations will be passed to the dept chair and college dean for serious consideration in using Ax as our essential teaching tool in ERP/Business Process education.

Yes, I would like appreciate thetrainingpeople helped me to gain confidence in AX

6. I would recommend this workshop to other faculty interested in building their competence in using Dynamics AX.

Of course. I personally will seek possible use of Ax for Healthcare Resource Management. Also, I will send an email to all major players in Higher Education in the Midwest (mostly are CIS leaders) for them to take a look at the PPT slides with my own strong recommendation to the adoption of this tool for ERP education.

Try to create a buy-in from the accounting department

the example used was morerelatedto functional,there shoud be different component of ERP like 10%Architecture,10%Implementation, 10% SureStepDocumentation, 40% Functional , 10% Development,10% Change Request, 10% Migration from different ERP

7. I would be interested in repeating this workshop if the logistics were convenient.

When possible, at least one or two of our faculty members will be involved in this workshop.

tentative

8. I would be interested in a more advanced or more focused “level 2” workshop as a follow-on to this one if the logistics were convenient.

Yes. I will and would like to see more specific /organized teaching notes to be used in the workshop. This requires some clearly defined "simple use case" that involves business-to-business operations and the justification of Ax use in support of the Simple Use Case. It can be done by the current leaders - Jennifer Nightingale, Todd, Hui Lee, and Dave.

Insights into the business process modeler would be great

Yes I would beinterested.

Absolutely

9. Overall, this workshop experience either met or exceeded my expectations.

Yes, the contents are more than I expected. We just need the last mile - some simple teaching case (notes). A textbook will be ideal for professors to get in without any difficulty in developing a semester-long course.

Definitely surpassed my expectations.

Yes but more is needed

10. What one or two elements of the workshop were the most effective and should be increased or emphasized moving forward?

(1) The hands-on training and sharing of course materials that use AX. (2) Build a network of faculty and partners who share the common interest

1). Sharing of teaching successes; 2) Hands-on demonstration

training on tasks such as creating BOMs

The connection and interaction between trainers and trainees are very effective and should be emphasized moving forward.

Networking with both partners and fellow academics

Hands-on Approach in solving real-world business problems; Incorporation of Dynamics within a course

AX Functional aspect training was most effective

Hands on training

I liked the focus and design of the workshop; I liked the hands on approach; I liked the pedagogical approach

Hands on experience. Give us some problems or a case and turn us loose.

11. What one or two elements of the workshop were not effective and should be decreased or de-emphasized moving forward?

N/A. I cannot think of anything at this moment.

1). examples that do not work (e.g., guarantee of system availability during the hands-on; no unexpected error screens during the presentation). 2) no complete transaction cycle. Either a complete cycle of Sales (from inventory searching to sales fulfillment) or a cycle of Purchasing (from sourcing of vendors to the completion of a purchasing order) will be needed in order to enhance the value of hands-on workshop.

AXSim..that was likely due to technical issues

The hands-on parts could not be followed easily. I feel the corresponding step-by-steps lab manuals are needed to support thehands-on training. Some time could be allocated for us to go over the lab by ourselves with assistance from trainers in case of questions.

Cant think of any, Everything was worthwhile for me

The explanation on system set up for a class/school/university was murky. I had a hard time understanding this part.

Organizing & Delivering a Dynamics AX Class I & II should be decreased

Full setup of a vendor; Full setup of a customer; Full setup of a product; In other words, how to setup the system with basic information needed to “create” the database that we are using.

I was interested in using the software and not the technical "back-end" stuff.

12. What one or two topics or titles would you suggest for follow-on face-to-face or online workshops?

(1) AX vs. GP(2) Share experience of teaching a course with AX components

A walk through of transaction posting (either sales or purchase) followed by the examination of the ledger account (increase or decrease) with the status update on the financial statements - balance sheet or income statement.