Friday, February 23, 2018
In this blog post, we catch up with Carlos de Lira, Product Sales Manager for XPTA – a Brazilian Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner, to discuss the challenges of AX upgrades and how 1ClickFactory helped to overcome upgrade obstacles for one of their customers.
Tell us a bit about XPTA and the situation in Brazil that makes it difficult for organizations to upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX?
Carlos de Lira: “XPTA is a company from the UKP Group; a group that has existed for the last 25 years in Brazil. It all started with ERP waves, implementing Oracle. XPTA are experts in the Microsoft Dynamics AX line of business applications. Our expertise is focused on Dynamics platform ERP and CRM, and we have customers in Brazil that intend to upgrade to the new version of Dynamics AX.
In Brazil, we have a unique situation compared to other countries. Here, there are many government mandated rules around taxes. For example, electronic invoices must be validated and certified by the Brazilian tax authority. Due to this, it is very difficult to upgrade Dynamics AX to a newer version. We formally had some experiences with this and we quickly realized that it is very dangerous to upgrade Dynamics AX 4.0 or Dynamics AX 2009 to newer versions because of the invoice validation regulations in Brazil.”
Can you tell us about the customer and the project in which you are evaluating upgrading Dynamics AX or Dynamic 365 through partnering with 1ClickFactory?
Carlos de Lira: “This specific customer is located in a Southern region of Brazil. The organization was operating on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and they wanted to upgrade to Dynamics 365 or even Dynamics AX 2012. In fact, they are in the process of evaluating their options now.
There are many customizations in their current system, which means there are innate in upgrading this custom develop, especially since we do not yet have a good example of this type of upgrade in Brazil. In fact, in the past, even talking about upgrading Dynamics AX was a touchy subject. This is when we decided to look for companies who specialize in upgrades for Dynamics AX, and specifically upgrades to Dynamics 365. We feel lucky to have found 1ClickFactory. We’ve started working with 1ClickFactory and are impressed with their professionalism and knowledge.”
What challenges are common in Dynamics AX upgrades to Dynamics 365?
Carlos de Lira: “There are specific conditions that depend on each customer. For example, sometimes it can be difficult to acquire database information from the customer in order to evaluate the effort of the upgrade. So far, we have not experienced troubles with this, but it is quite common.
Working with 1ClickFactory, once we receive database information from the customer, we simply send this information along. 1ClickFactory’s team of experts then performs a BestPath Upgrade Assessment for Dynamics AX. This service is very important for us and our customers who are trying to determine the feasibility of their upgrade.
The details provided in the BestPath Upgrade Assessment are very thorough. In the case I referred to earlier, the customer we are working with has almost 3,000 customized reports and through this assessment we have received detailed information about these customizations.
For example, it was very helpful to receive information about the database objects, base accounts, approvals, and classes. This allowed us the opportunity to have an educated discussion with our customer what would need to be involved in the data migration process.
In this discussion, which included the 3,000 customized reports, we explained the need to evaluate the need for each of these reports. We also confirmed that in the new environment Power BI will be available, which can be utilized for delivering such reports. The information provided in the BestPath Upgrade Assessment from 1ClickFactory is invaluable painting of the larger scope of what is needed and what will exist in the new solution for this customer.”
What about BestPath Upgrade Assessment technical workshop you attended and the accompanying report you receive, was this valuable to you and your customer?
Carlos de Lira: “For XPTA, the biggest value is that we did not have this time-consuming task in queue. Working with 1ClickFactory, it’s now covered. Paramount for us was the report and the support you provided, which reduced our risks involved in the project. That is very important for us.
We have experienced the financial impact of high risk project with another company we were working with that did not adequately understand AX upgrades. For us, the most important thing is having confidence that the process we start can be finished successfully. I believe that 1ClickFactory provide us with this confidence.”
Would you recommend this service to other Microsoft Dynamics Partners? Would you use the BestPath & Upgrade Assessment service again?
Carlos de Lira: “We highly recommend 1ClickFactory to other Dynamic Partners. When speaking with customers who are considering upgrades, we always consider your services. For us, it’s not possible to conduct successful upgrades without your specialization and experience with AX upgrades. We would not feel confident performing upgrades for our customers without 1ClickFactory’s support.”
To learn more about the 1ClickFactory BestPath Upgrade Assessment Service for Dynamic AX or other Dynamics AX/Dynamics 365 Upgrade Services please contact us at service@1clickfactory.com.