International CIO Roundtable Issue Platform Spring 2016

Purpose To engage Executives from Enterprise companies using Microsoft Dynamics AX in an International setting for value-added networking and knowledge sharing and to be the an important communication channel for Microsoft Dynamics to seek guidance for the International Enterprise space. The CIO Council surveys its members to come up with a prioritized list of areas to raise to Microsoft in order to collaboratively work toward specific solutions and optimize areas currently challenging the Enterprise customers.

Prioritized Issues Description Point Person Engage in clarifying communications on AX Licensing and license management and develop programs to best allow enterprise customers to be successful and fiscally responsible for the ROI of owning the latest versions of Dynamics AX. How will subscription licenses work for customers who own perpetual licenses? Is there a clear statement on license-policy on AX7? Might it be possible for the establishment of a function within Microsoft to form an entity (perhaps a support desk” to field questions and disputes for MS Dynamics AX licensing. Explore the possibilities of seeking greater licensing flexibilities for monthly activation/deactivation for seasonal customers Look to balance out the licensing model which has become very Enterprise license driven in AX2012. Klaus Rotter

Prioritized Issues Description Point Person Discuss the roadmap and upgrade feasibility for the path through versions AX 2009 - AX 2012 - AX7 upgrade path, upgrade strategy (6 months) and roadmap.  If we understand the roadmap properly, AX 2009 will end support in 2017 and AX 2012 will end support in 2018 (a very short time later). The upgrade path to AX7 is not attainable as of yet for on-premise customers. The experience in the marketplace with implementing AX 2012 was very challenging by most customers. In many cases, the stabilization is just now starting and ROI has yet to be realized in mid 2016; for other companies, it has yet to happen. It is not feasible to expect upgrades after just a short run of enterprises stability Jerry Kottelenberg

Prioritized Issues Description Point Person We hope to attain written confirmation from Microsoft that future versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX will always include a full and independent ‘on- premise’ version (not Azure on-premise). Frank Klabbers

Prioritized Issues Description Point Person   Product / code quality improvement and commitment from Microsoft management to improve the wide range of AX2012/2009 shortcomings, including performance. AX-using companies experience underlying problems when trying to implement bug- fixes and/or roll-ups or service packs. A typical scenario is sometimes bugs that had been eliminated before, re-appear again. This leads to major uncertainty among IT- departments, users, and management. We would like to understand Microsoft’s strategy to avoid these problems in the future. Some basic problems (such as inaccurate MRP results) have persisted since early versions of AX. We would like Microsoft’s commitment to actively eliminate these identified problems without customers having to drive these issues at Microsoft support. Performance issues are common among AX customers. We would like to see a double strategy by Microsoft: Establishing monitoring/operating tools to analyze and tune performance Prioritize these more technical topics when selecting and auditing partners, so they are addressed in all implementation projects in an early stage Lifecycle Services and Team Foundation Server are great tools. As version 2009 will be in use in many companies for the next years, we would highly appreciate an integration for AX 2009. Martin Drude

Prioritized Issues Description Point Person   5. Strategy of Microsoft for Dynamics CRM vs Dynamics AX. We would like to see a clear statement on how Microsoft sees both products co-existing in the same customer implementation We would like to have visibility into the expected future development on tools to integrate both products smoothly Tim Arthur