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2. The Upgrade Path And You
Rachel Profitt
Title page to include presentation title/topic, speaker, date etc.
March 17, 2017

3. Speaker contact info
Rachel Profitt
Director, RSM Technology Academy
@RachelProfitt

4. Benefits and Options for Deployment
Agenda
Benefits and Options for Deployment
Detecting Dead Code and Data Cleanup
Upgrade and Migration Tools
Key Considerations

5. Benefits and Options for Upgrading to Dynamics 365

6. Benefits New Features and Functionality Grow at your own pace
Integrates with productivity tools
Eliminate hardware upgrade costs
Reduce customizations by up to 40%
Stability of Azure with HA and DR
Easy to use browser based interface
The Benefits of Migrating to Dynamics 365:
New features and functionality, including embedded BI and availability on mobile devices
Grow at your own pace with the flexibility, affordability, and elasticity of the cloud
Get more done by integrating with productivity tools and other cloud apps
Eliminate hardware upgrade costs by migrating to the cloud
Reduce customization by up to 40% (particularly if you’ve made customizations around retail, manufacturing, or business intelligence)
Get the stability and security of Microsoft Azure and out of the box High Availability (HR) and Disaster Recovery (DR)
A gorgeous browser-based UI that sends your quality of (work) life through the roof
And that’s just the high-level stuff! Now, let’s say you’ve done your homework and are ready to start your migration. What next? First, you’ll want to evaluate your current customizations and figure out which ones can be retired once you’re able to take advantage of all the features that are now standard in Dynamics 365. Next, you’ll start the long, painful process of migrating all your data over to the new solution…just kidding! Microsoft has already created migration tools that will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

7. Deployment Options Cloud Available Now Fully managed cloud service
System of intelligence
Planned multi-instance federation
Elastic scale-out
Cloud + Edge
H2 CY 2017
Cloud – Microsoft managed
Edge – Customer managed
Multiple local compute/storage
Local data residency + cloud
Local Business Data
Q2 CY 2017
Disconnected data center
Local data residency
Capitalize HW investments
Single instance only

8. Detecting dead code and Data Cleanup

9. What is DEAD Code & Why You Should Care?
Forms that have been replaced by new functionality
Classes and Jobs that no longer support business processes
Modifications that are no longer used
Old reports that are no longer utilized
Ideas for table structures that were abandoned
Started yet never implemented modifications
In the process of implementing and maintaining Microsoft Dynamics® AX, many modifications are created and modified while a portion of these are never used by the business.

10. Detecting dead code Element Usage Log Query
Querying Syslast Value Table
Review SSRS Report Usage
Check Table customizations
Find Records per table
Check if field related to mods have data
Cross references

11. Data Cleanup Validate content, spot check records Run clean up jobs
Develop a chart of accounts that will best serve your company today
Run preprocessing validation just for fun
Understand your SQL data
Review your BRDs and REAL Business Requirements

12. Upgrade and Migration Tools

13. 2009 Migration 2012 Upgrade Upgrade PATH Install XPO
Configuration and setup
Master data
Open documents
System configuration
2012 Upgrade
Tooling to bring forward custom code
Data upgrade for whole database
R3 support in Spring release
R2 and RTM support later
What does Microsoft’s Migration Tool Include?
Configuration and setup: ledger, customer groups, vendor groups, etc.
Master data: customer, vendor, project, accounts, etc.
Open documents, pending invoices, etc: sales order, purchase order, AR invoices, etc.
System Configuration: number sequences, users, user groups, security, etc.
Ideally, we wouldn’t recommend migrating historical transactions. 

14. AX 2009 Migration Process

15. AX 2009 Migration Architecture

16. AX 2012 Upgrade Process Analyze Execute Validate
Code upgrade estimation
Upgrade analysis tool
Deploy sample environment
Project plan
Execute
Perform code upgrade
Preparation tasks
Run data upgrade
Validate
Function test pass
Cutover testing
Upgrade validation tool

17. Key Considerations

18. Key Upgrade Considerations
Upgrade Assessment
Data Upgrade
Project Management
AX 2012 & D365 Knowledge
Industry Knowledge
Training
VAR Involvement
Upgrade Assessment
VAR service to provide a client more information about upgrading
Data Upgrade
VAR worked with Customer throughout the data upgrade project
Data upgrade might be the most technically difficult part of the project, with specialized knowledge that will not be used again
Project Management
Customer and VAR project management
AX 2012 Knowledge, Industry Knowledge
Training

19. Internal Considerations and Involvement
Internal Review of Functions
Upgrade Assessment
Code Upgrade
Data Upgrade
Testing
Project Management
Business Knowledge
Heavy buy-in and involvement by Customer
Stabilization between major IT projects
Internal Review of Functions
Reviewed whitepapers on functional changes
Technical assessment reviews e.g. schema changes
Upgrade Assessment
High level review of VAR upgrade assessment
Code Upgrade
High-level strategy and tracking
EDTs, enums, tables, classes, interfaces, forms, reports
Clean remaining compile errors throughout the process for each area as they were merged
Tracked everything in Excel, starting with the conflict project and the compile errors
~3000 compile errors when the project started
1200 customized objects tables, 48 reports, 135 forms, 186 classes
Minimal custom functions replaced by code in the new version
Data Upgrade
Performed by VAR and customer resources in parallel with the code upgrade, after the data dictionary merge was complete
~400GB database
Testing
Several months of work with much of the business involved
Entire system has to be tested
Testing performed in the development side at the unit test level
Further testing performed by power users per area
* Scripts previously written for original implementation and training were used where possible, but there were many places where this didn’t work because there were many changes
* Lessons learned on this
- The more up to data testing scripts are kept the better prepared Customer will be for a future upgrade
* Getting business involvement in testing was a challenge
- People have full time jobs too
- This can involve augmenting staff
Progress tracked through SharePoint lists
Developers were also subscribed to the list so they could act on issues found
Tough areas to test
Integrations toughest – multiple people, multiple systems, test systems are often not available, real time integrations can be challenging, things like batch files can be easier
Connected to applications such as Atlas, global reporting
Month end close
Manufacturing, because of physical equipment
Project Management
Customer and VAR project management
Business Knowledge
A client knows their business better than a partner

20. Project Timeline Considerations
Upgrade Assessment / Function Review
Installation/Deployment
Code Upgrade
Data Upgrade
UAT
Financial Issues
Mock Go-Live
Production Go-Live
Upgrade Assessment / Function Review
Installation/Deployment
Code Upgrade
Data Upgrade
UAT
Financial Issues
Mock Go-Live
Production Go-Live

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23. 4643 South Ulster, Suite 400 Denver, CO 80237
RSM US LLP
4643 South Ulster, Suite 400 Denver, CO 80237
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