Interoperability of Public Clouds: Case of Azure and Joomla CMS Migration

Follow @ArtieBe

The features built in Azure for rapidly setting up and deploying various well-known CMS, collaboration, e-commerce and other  packages involving multiple components (application, database, web server etc) is really great. Work which could take many hours by IT specialists in the past can now be done in couple minutes by less advanced experts. However, what happens if a customer wants to migrate out a solution from Azure to another cloud or simply a Web hosting provider? The need might be there due to cheaper price of the services or other preferences. Would Azure allow you to migrate out the solution with similar speed and simplicity as when deploying? Here is a summary of hands-on experience in migrating out Joomla content management system from Azure to Web hosting provider which supports widely known industry tools in Web hosting mentioned in the article.

What is Joomla CMS?

For those who might not know, Joomla is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) for publishing Web content and widely used by content publishers and Web designers worldwide. For more technical folks - Joomla is written in PHP, uses object-oriented programming, stores data in a MySQL and includes many features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization.
According to Wikipedia, as of February 2014, Joomla has been downloaded over 50 million times. It is estimated to be the second most used content management system on the Internet after WordPress.

General Migration Steps for Joomla
To migrate Joomla from one server (this can be Azure service) to another (new Web hosting company) there are generally few steps as described fully here and summarized as follows.
1) Copying Application Files with FTP
- Download application files from server (Azure) to your computer.
- Upload application files from your computer to the new server
These operation often done by well known industry tools as FileZilla, Cute FTP used by Web masters and admins.
2) Copying the Database with phpMyAdmin
- Exporting a copy of the database (such as Azure service) to your computer
- Importing the copy into a new database
3) Changing Joomla Configuration to point to the new database etc.

Azure and Application Migration
The Microsoft's tool available in Azure for copying files is WebMatrix. In order to use it for accessing  files, a publisher settings file had to be imported. Using 3rd party FTP application was not possible or clear/straightforward due to this setup required. WebMatrix has a function to Download site (to local). However, it always got stuck without any message at the stage seen as in the below screenshot. Another option (besides file download) is to set up the whole environment for Joomla with installing MySQL DB, XAMP etc. locally. While this also did not work out to the fullest due to WebMatrix stopping execution, it somehow allowed to download the application files.

Azure and DB Migration

While database is a critical component of any CMS architecture, it is not directly available in Azure portal for any operations. The only link to it is under website settings as seen in the screenshot. If clicked, it brings you to 3rd party service called ClearDB and might raise at least couple of questions if not more. After some time of research you might end up installing one of the tools like  Oracle's MySQL Workbench, Sequel Pro for Mac OS X, or Navicat to access your database and copy it out locally from Azure and ClearDB framework. While Workbench did not work out well Navicat was a relatively short learning curve to get the job done and allows transactions between both Azure and the new hosting provider.

In Conclusion
While setting up CMS (such as Joomla) on Azure might take just minutes, migrating out is not so straight-forward and can take up to one day or more depending on the technical experience. If you are not sure about staying with Azure service forever, it might be wise for any organisation or individual to consider migrating out plan as well since Web site hosting market is very competitive with possibility of finding better value elsewhere.

Social Has Been Around Since Ancient Times: Insights from the Head of Instagram in Japan

Follow @ArtieBe

Thanks to event organized by EN World, I had a chance to listen and talk with the head of Instagram in Japan, Mr. Tsuguhide Nagase. Instagram is part of Facebook but runs as a separate service. What’s unique about this network and why it could be relevant to users and advertisers in the mobile-first era?

Social is Nothing New

Social connectivity has been a part of human nature since ancient times - sharing things while having a tea or nonverbally while at campfire. Humans have always been messengers and story tellers. Thus, people have always been publishers as well. What has changed is the media – same behavior but in a whole new world.

Today, people look at mobile instead of TV. Time spent on mobile is significantly increasing in Japan. From 2009 to 2013 it has grown by 2.5 times while 4 times among those in the age of their 20ies. Usage of mobile is 1.5 times higher than that of PC. Trend of using mostly one device at a time is also increasing due to larger screens available for mobile devices. Mobile is the preferred screen in Japan. Facebook and Instagram are not social tools – they are marketing and branding tools. Instagram is in the business of branding. As of today, Instagram has 300 million monthly active users.

The Contributors
There are 2-3 groups of users on Instagram. Instagrammers – just upload pics and enjoy community. Instant meet is an activity where community can gather in a physical location to share and understand how nice and creative pics were made. It is not a drinking party.

Another group is famous users - celebrities. The number of followers is also affected by the actual artistic sense of the photos they upload. People will not follow if their pics are not nice. Famous users can also be organizations like National Geographic, Starbucks who use the service for branding. Getting more followers means creating great images rather than just clicking to like others and exchanging follows. As of today, Instagram has 70 million number of photos contributed a day and 2.5 billion likes a day.

In Branding Business

In the mobile-first world, the power of user’s thumb – tap or skip means that an ad needs to be very good at first impression and should have creative impact. What you saw is important. 99% of people who saw a Facebook ad and then bought a product in a store never clicked on that ad at all. They remember the impression and make the transaction later. Therefore, Instagram is focused on branding and awareness via images rather than click-through rates. Here, images are universal language. Therefore, it is no wonder that from the beginnings of the service, 70% of the users are coming from outside of the US from various geographies.

If a company publishes nice images unrelated directly to their trademark, those can attract followers who can also become customers via overall brand awareness. For example, Louis Vuitton often publishes images not linked directly to their trademark or promotions. Burberry can publish images of London. Then London could potentially tag with Burberry in the user’s mind etc.

Facebook and Instagram ads are different. Facebook targeting is based and follows click-through rates. Instagram is focused on creative images and the measurement would be different. Instagram will start advertising services in Japan this year. One of important principles will be to maintain good user experience.

Swiftコード実行遅延

Follow @ArtieBe

ネット上で探しました、簡単な例を見つけられませんでした。こちらで自分でやってみました。
「Click Pls」をタップすると３秒の後に「Result」ラベルで「clicked」を表示しましょう。そのためにビューコントローラーに次のコードを書きました。

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet var resultLabel: UILabel!

    @IBAction func clicked(sender: UIButton) {

        func delay(delay:Double, closure:()->()) {

            dispatch_after(

                dispatch_time(

                    DISPATCH_TIME_NOW,

                    Int64(delay * Double(NSEC_PER_SEC))

                ),

                dispatch_get_main_queue(), closure)

        }

        delay(3) {

        self.resultLabel.text = "clicked"

        }

    }

}

結果的に「Click Pls」をタップすると３秒の後に「Result」ラベルで「clicked」が表示されます。

Swift: How to Update Variable Outside the Scope of Function

Follow @ArtieBe

Apple Swift brings some new ways of coding practices which might be challenging for developers who already are used to Java, C# and other object oriented languages. One of such areas for me was seemingly simple one - how to update variables outside of functions (which are often used as methods) due to restrictions on function scope and variable optionals in Swift. Here, i give simple example in Xcode playground where two variables (score1 and score2) are given functions to return values and then summed up for another valuable (totalScore).

import UIKit

    var score1:Int? = 6

func getScore1 () -> (Int?) {

    if score1 != nil {

        score1

    } else {

        score1 = 0

    }

    return (score1)

}

var score2:Int? = nil

func getScore2 () -> (Int?) {

    

    if score1 != nil {

        score1

    } else {

        score1 = 0

    }

    return (score1)

}

var totalScore = getScore1()! + getScore2()!

println(totalScore)

Office 365の有効活用ための６つのアイデア

Follow @ArtieBe

顧客へのサービスする、様々なタスクを達成する、人と繋がるために今日の組織は益々高度な生産性とコミュニケーションツールを必要としています。ところが、企業にはパッケージの様々な能力及び利用できるサービスについて意識されてない可能性があります。高いROIを達成するためにビジネスとITの経営者は予めパッケージの使用を計画、促進したほうがいいのではないでしょうか。今回は、Office 365の有効活用方法を検討します。

ファイル送信ではなく、ドキュメントをクラウドで簡単に共有しましょう
Office 365ではドキュメント、フォルダーとファイルのアクセスの簡単なコントロール（編集と閲覧）方法が提供されています。これを利用するとユーザー同士で一つの保存場所でバーションを管理し、アクセス権のコントロールができます。加えて、メールボックスのメモリを減らすこともできるし、多くのメールの混乱を避けることも可能です。

他のアプリケーションとの連携
Office 365はその他のアプリケーションの高度な連携と使用事例が提供されています。例えば、LyncとSkype間でインスタントメッセージのやり取り、音声やビデオでの会話ができます。
Sales ProductivityというパッケージはOffice 365及びDynamics CRM Onlineを効率的な方法で結合します。連携シナリオの例は下記のとおりです。
⋆　Yammerの内部ソーシャルネットワーク利用で営業案件に関するチーム参加者のコラボレーションを改良
⋆　SharePointに基づいたCRMのエンティティに関するドキュメントの高度な管理
⋆　Exchange Onlineに基づいたEメールによる営業活動とカレンダーとの統合のサポート
⋆　Excelとのデータ統合（PC上とOffice Web Apps）
⋆　ダイレクト・メール・キャンペーン用のMicrosoft Officeの差し込み印刷
⋆　Excel、Power BIに基づいたデータ分析

自社に合ったプランに合ったプランの選択
Office 365は様々な組織の実際要件に対して幾つかサービスプランが提供されます。例えば、シフト勤務の人や店員は会社で席を持っていない、あるいは一台のPCを共用しています。Office 365のキオスク・プランはこのようなユーザーのコミュニケーションと協力を無駄な投資無しで改良できます。

新規リリーズを検討しましょう
Office 365は進化し、毎月新規の機能がリリースされるので、その新しいバリューを検討しましょう。過去の更新の例としてOffice Web Apps機能強化、iPad用のMicrosoft Office、メールボックスのサイズ増量等でした。

展開プロジェクトタイムラインとの利用調整
Office 365あるいはExchange Online、SharePoint等のコンポーネントの導入とマイグレーションは、リソース管理等の活動でプロジェクト管理とスケジュールを必要としています。新しいサービスを購入する時にその実際の展開能力を確認したり、おおよその計画を立てることは良いアイデアです。

無料トレーニングのリソース検討
何時でも新しいことが勉強できます。現在は、多くのOffice 365教材に無償でアクセスすることが可能です。英語ですが、こちらからアクセスできます。

Considerations for Implementing Dynamics AX in Japan - Renewed

Follow @ArtieBe
Back in July 2012, I published an article in Dynamics Community titled "Considerations for Implementing Dynamics AX in Japan". Couple of things have progressed since then and are now updated with this new posting.
Like any other country, Japan has some unique business practices and requirements. This article is to provide some insight into Japan specific considerations when implementing Dynamics AX or ERP software. We will examine functional, technical and project related requirements in general rather than looking into technical and setup details. This article is intended for key business users and project members as well as technical specialists who just need a quick reference about ERP system requirements in Japan. The article is not to cover all Japan specific ERP implementation requirements. These can differ case by case over various Dynamics engagements and industries. This article is based on the author’s experience form Dynamics implementations in Japan and Japanese companies in the region.

ERP Functional Requirements - Finance & SCM

Japanese UI and Business Documents
Japanese users would prefer Japanese language user interface (UI) instead of English. Business documents like invoices, delivery notes, accounting documents and various reports in domestic business would normally be requested in Japanese. Dynamics AX localization generally support this requirement.
The final layout of documents and customized functions will depend on company’s requirements since business documents are normally reviewed and adjusted for each organization rather than using “Out of the box” objects. Examples of this work include changing layout, adding logo, adding or removing fields etc. Unique to Japan and some East Asian countries is seal (hanko) graphics or box design required on business documents. Organization or user can ask for a red seal appearing on company address in a document.
While customizing forms, documents and reports to be viewed in multiple languages, it might be necessary to adjust the size of labels in order for layout to look nice in Japanese as well as English.

Consolidated Invoice
Consolidated invoice is one of the often mentioned country-specific requirements in Japan. This means consolidating more than one sales order with posted packing slips into one invoice as of consolidation date. Invoicing schedules can differ per agreement with customer. Consolidated invoice feature is supported in relation to sales orders in Dynamics AX. Invoice consolidation practice is also used in other countries than Japan.

T-Account Journal
T-Account journal is preferred form layout for many users in Japan when processing accounting transactions with debit and credit amounts. It allows user to enter debit and credit transaction in the same line. This requirement is normally supported in most of Japanese accounting packages (Glovia, NEC Explanner, Grandit etc.) and is part of Dynamics AX Japan localization.

Kana
Japanese language uses Kanji - adopted and modified Chinese characters. Phonetic guidance of these characters uses kana writing system. This requires additional fields on multiple forms for Kana names to provide correct pronunciation and meaning of Kanji. These fields are normally required on customer, vendor, and employee forms showing a person’s name.

Banking
In order to upload vendor payments into banking systems directly from Dynamics AX, all the major Japanese banks (Mizuho, Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ etc.) will require payment data files to be prepared according to Japanese Bank Association (JBA) bank format. Dynamics AX localization provides support for this function since version 4.0.
A payment fee extension was released recently and covers the scenarios where a bank payment fee can be calculated automatically. It considers both scenarios in Japan where the payment fee can be paid by the vendor or by the company.

Promissory Notes
Promissory note (bill of exchange) is a document that allows payment to be settled by specifying (promising) that another party will pay for the goods or services. Usually this 3rd party is a bank. Popularity of promissory notes seems to be declining in Japan due to low interest rates associated with this financial tool. Dynamics AX supports rich functionality for bill of exchange transactions. Recently electronic promissory note integration with bank account has been required by some companies while not yet supported with Dynamics standard functionality.

Rounding
It is possible to set up rounding of different types within the standard system including for JPY. Meanwhile, companies might want to set up rounding on specific criteria like customer base. Some Japanese ERP packages have functionality with different rounding types for the same transaction on sales details (lines) and collective invoice

Fixed Assets
It has been observed in the past that some companies used local packages, such as OBC Shokyaku Bugyo to handle fixed assets and integrated it into Dynamics AX. Lots of progress has been made in resent updates to better fit Dynamics AX fixed assets in Japan.  Dynamics AX 2012 R3 in its cumulative update 8 supports the Japan tax depreciation methods and legal ratios. The Japan fixed asset localization can offer capability of producing appended table 16 series and Form 26.
Consumption Tax
Japan requires Consumption Tax handling and reporting to the tax authorities. The overall process and logics of consumption tax setup and processing is rather familiar to international practice and largely supported in Dynamics AX. Although the consumption tax reports require a lot of configuration, it is provided now out of the box and can be printed through standard functionality. In particular, the Consumption Tax Declaration and Consumption Tax Calculation Sheet are supported.

Japanese Era
Like some other East Asian regions, Japan has its own counting system of years. This counting is based on the name of reigning emperor. The display of year consists of the year (era) name and number of year. This can be followed by month and date. In Dynamics AX, the functionality is addressed by implementing a special date conversion function for Japanese era.

Workflow
Many organizations in Japan might already have workflow system implemented. Therefore, one of the challenging customer requirements would be to integrate their existing workflow solution with Dynamics AX. Such work would require additional customization since no workflow integration solution for Dynamics exists in the Japanese market for the time being. If Dynamics AX workflow system is considered – Japanese organization might ask to have seal (hanko) graphics on the workflow related documents as well as some specific approval workflows like “Googisei”.

Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing originally can be referred to as philosophy derived from Toyota Production System in Japan. “Lean” means a production or business practice that considers the consumption of resources for any other goal than the creation of value to the end customer to be wasteful and to be avoided. Lean is of interest to Japanese as well as many overseas companies. Therefore, Microsoft has implemented rich lean management functionality like Kanban management etc in the global release of Dynamics AX 2012 manufacturing.
Seiban
Seiban is another manufacturing and management practice in Japan likely to require customizing in Dynamics. “Seiban” can be translated from Japanese as “Manufacturing Number”. Seiban number is assigned to parts, materials, purchase orders or other objects for a particular job or project requested by customer etc.

Double-Byte Characters
Languages such as Japanese, Chinese and Koreas require double byte encoding due the vast number of characters in these languages. Double-byte is supported in Unicode. If organization has a non-Unicode system to interface with, then conversion package like HULFT is required.

Some Points Around Management

Change Management: Avoid Rebuilding Legacy Systems in Dynamics
Japan is no exception - enterprise ERP implementations require strong leadership and substantial team efforts across whole organization along with deep business and technology understanding. When faced with these challenges and various dependencies, key users and management might end up basing their requirements on what the old legacy systems delivered. In most cases, this will not take advantage of opportunity to simplify business processes and systems while preventing Dynamics implementation to be on time and budget with expected returns. Successful implementation will need a complete buy-in by the highest members of the IT and business hierarchy to ensure the project is not jeopardized from the start.In reality, not every executive really likes to take responsibility of challenging tasks. The result is having irresponsible members doing irresponsible projects. Therefore, responsibility must clearly be defined in the Project Charter and related documents to ensure commitment by the organization. Sign-off process, timing and signatories have to be agreed before execution of any phase of the project.


Lost in Translation
Notable differences between Japanese and English languages in writing, grammar and cultural contexts mean that it takes much longer for Japanese national to acquire business English skills than people in many other countries. Depending on your implementation project and company, chances are that many key users and managers will not be able to discuss or write freely in English. While cultural context and practices are not scope of this article, Japanese unique cultural context also cannot be ignored.Partial solution is hiring interpreters and translators or using machine translations. While hiring interpreter would make things easier, it can add to project costs and not necessarily avoid miscommunication in the context of particular industry, company and culture. The same consideration goes for machine translation software. While it is very appealing to have whole project documentation translated in just few minutes, these documents can considerably confuse any team relying on translated information. Consider having bilingual team members in the key project roles. These individuals shall sense local context, understand particular business, technology, organization and are to enable smooth knowledge transfer among team members in various language skill levels.


Focus on Detail
Another experience often pointed out by many doing business or implementations in Japan is high attention to detail. Japan is famous for high quality services and products with attention to every detail. As a result, this approach can take much longer time to achieve project objectives due to longer decision making associated with detail preparations and reviews etc. Furthermore, the Japanese management also would like to see the “complete picture”. The combination of these makes developing innovative and leading edge application very challenging. In the past, Japanese did well through reverse engineering and strict discipline, but is struggling with innovations now.

In Conclusion
In general, the ERP requirements in Japan are not so complicated as one could imagine at first. Language and local context can make a significant impact on a project. In the words of long time SAP and Dynamics implementer in Japan, who asked not to be named: “For the project to be a success all the politicians should be aligned from the start and given responsibility and held to those responsibilities – 60% politics, 20% change management and 20% technology is the usual blend of a project here”. The opinions expressed here do not necessary represent the ones of author’s employer.

Few Simple Steps to Start Using Lync-Skype Connectivity

Microsoft Lync and Skype connectivity has been announced for messaging, voice and recently also for video calls. This enables users to reach each other in much more convenient way from their preferred tool at home or office environments. Let's have a look at how to actually connect the both as a user.

From Lync
1) To add a Skype connection, click "Add a Contact" icon.

2) Select "Add a Contact Not in My Organization" and then "Skype" in the sub-menu.

3) Type the Microsoft Account ID address of your Skype contact and click OK. As result, the contact will be added to your contact list in Lync.

From Skype
1) You must log into Skype using Microsoft account instead of Skype or Facebook ID in order to use Lync connectivity.

2) Add your Lync contact by typing the email address in Search field and clicking "Search Skype" button.

Once the address is identified, continue by clicking "Add to Contacts".

At first, your Lync contact might appear as follows in the contacts list.

Results and Tips
Connectivity might not work immediately and you can try the below tricks before inquiring IT support.
* Make sure contacts are added from both sides (Lync and Skype explained above).
* Restart Lync (log off and on) to get the contact actually enabled for communication. You can also try the same in Skype.
It might be also that Lync server administrator has not enabled connectivity with Skype.

Six Ideas for Increasing Consumption of Office 365 Investment

Follow @ArtieBe
Organisations of today require increasingly advanced tools for productivity and communication to serve their customers, accomplish various tasks and stay connected. Meanwhile, it may happen that companies are not aware of various capabilities in the packages or services they are to use. Technology or business decision makers need to plan in advance or facilitate more consumption of existing software or service packages to achieve higher return in investment. With this article we will start exploring ways to plan and increase package consumption in case of Office 365.

Simple Tip: Share Access to Documents Instead of Sending Files

Office 365 provides simple way to grant access (edit or view) to your folder, files and documents. This can help you not only to control permission levels to your documents, but also save a lot of space and confusion in mailboxes by having one storage place and version control system with collaborators.

Leverage Integration With Other Applications
Office 365 enables many enhanced use cases to increase productivity by integrating with other applications. For example, Lync now works with Skype contacts enabling instant messaging, voice and video calls between both.
Sales Productivity is a package solution combining Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 in a powerful way. Integrated scenarios include, but not limited to the following.
* Internal social networking on Yammer enabling better collaboration when working on sales opportunities and other scenarios.
* Advanced sharing and administration of documents related to entities in CRM using SharePoint
* Exchange Online support for email campaigns, calendar integration etc.
* Data integration with Excel (on-premise and Office Web Apps)
* Microsoft Office mail merge for direct mail campaigns
* Data analysis in Excel, Power BI

Selecting The Right Plan for Business Needs (Sizing)
Office 365 has various plans to select the right solution components for organisations to match with their actual requirements. For example,  some workers are without a desk or office, such as shift or retail staff, or any workers who use a shared PC. Office 365 kiosk plans are designed to provide services to improve communication and collaboration for these workers without investing into other capabilities which are not used.

Explore New Releases
As Office 365 is evolving and new capabilities are released on monthly basis, explore what business value they can bring. Examples of past updates include - enhancements of Office Web Apps, Microsoft Office for iPad, mailbox size increase etc.

Align Consumption With Timeline of Projects
Deployment and migration for Office 365 or its separate products such as Exchange Online, SharePoint etc. require planning, allocation of resources leading to some need for project management and scheduling. It might be a good idea acquiring the new capabilities while making sure the actual ability to implement and at least have a rough plan to deploy them.

Explore Possibilities with Free Training Resources
You can always learn new things and nowadays a lot of resources are for free. Getting training in Office 365 and learning  ways to use it is available for free at least in English. Here is a good list of available free assets.

Introduction to Omni-channel Retailing and Single Platform Approach: Case of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail

Follow @ArtieBe
This article introduces the basic ideas behind Omni-channel concept, explains advantages of adopting a single platform approach as business solution and reviews key retail capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

Requirement for Omni-channel Approach and System Readiness
Retail is one of the industries experiencing impactful changes. It has expanded from traditional brick-and-mortar to call centers, e-commerce and continuing to shift into social and mobile spaces. One of the new industry buzzwords is Omni-channel retailing (where the word “Omni” stands for “All”). It is retail marketing discipline focused on seamless approach to the customer experience through all available shopping and interaction channels - physical stores, kiosks, call-centers, Web sites, social networks, mobile and even TV and radio can be considered here. This approach means tracking and managing customers, their transactions and experiences across all channels. Unless Omni-channel is successfully adopted, it is not a surprise if a customer is better educated of the latest company offerings than sales staff in a store by learning from their e-commerce site . Furthermore, customer can expect to buy online but pick-up at a store. It means that all retail teams shall have the same understanding, readiness and information from systems available in their roles. Customer will expect to have the same great brand experience in both - the physical world of stores and online. Merchandise and campaigns are expected to bring the same value and experience in all touch points with the customer and not differ by a channel.
As the business technology advances, retailers often end-up with separate systems and multiple vendors for their Line of Business (LOB) solutions to be coordinated and integrated. For example, in-store POS systems, separate solution for call-center, and another platform for e-commerce, native mobile apps etc. These front-end solutions also have to link with back-office (financials, SCM, warehouse etc.) to provide seamless customer experience. Supply chain visibility becomes even more relevant in Omni-channel model since merchandise is now a customer centric as opposed to channel oriented. In not so distant future, a retailer might even like to improve customer service whereby warehouse staff is notified as soon as customer enters a store and triggers communication with a nearby beacon device. More about beacons here.

Approach based on Many LOB Systems
Depending on business strategy and existing IT landscape, a retailer could choose updating and extending their often distinct existing systems and adding new LOB packages to keep up with the latest Omni-channel and industry requirements. At first glance, this sort of gradual approach could seem less risky compared to large overall platform changes like implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with integrated retail functionality. The “Big bang” approach is often avoided due to challenges and dependencies associated with large implementation projects. Meanwhile, the downside of having many LOB packages is enabling integration and middleware among all front-end technologies and their linkage to the back-office requiring investments into analysis, interface development, handling data-integrity as more packages are added, modified, extended or upgraded.

Single Platform Approach
Alternatively to handling many LOB packages, a retailer can consider adopting a single, end-to-end business platform, which can support majority of requirements, require minimal integration, provides extensibility and offers a road map into the future. Integrated ERP for retail approach shall provide one solution for back-office areas such as SCM, finance and warehousing as well as enable centralized data management. Retailer shall be able to manage merchandising, catalogs, run POS and various sales channels including e-commerce, call-centers and have variety of CRM functions. Modern ERP solution for retail should enable Omni-channel capabilities possible for business and united technological platform that IT can support.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 ERP in Retail
Besides the back-office support (finance, SCM, warehousing etc.), Dynamic AX currently offers the following architectural components and functionality in retail as part of one ERP package while not being limited only to these features.

Retail HQ
Retail HQ module allows to configure and administer retail channels as brick & mortar stores, call centers and online stores. Retailer can manage assortments and product selections offered at the stores based on various criteria like region, demographics etc. Retail workers can be assigned roles and privileges. The module allows to manage kits, catalog of products attached to channels with expiry dates control if necessary, pricing, discount, and promotion functionality. Replenishment requirements are also supported with push, cross-docking and replenishment rules. Loyalty program management is available as well as gift card management.
Inquiries functionality provides data on retail transactions, sales, posted statements etc. Periodic tasks include data updates and technical level communication with retail channels.

Retail POS (traditional and modern)
Dynamic AX for Retail provides Point of Sales (POS) program built on .Net framework. POS administrator can customize look and feel - font color graphics of the user interface.
POS application can be role tailored. Store manager can access store reports and real-time sales data. POS solution allows to processes sales orders and codes and cash draw. It provides bar codes, printing of receipts, amount and tax calculations, shift close, gift cards, loyalty transactions and other functions. From back-office perspective, it proves inventory receipting, reporting and stock count.
Along with traditional POS, new in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 is Modern POS app for PCs, tablets and smartphones which allows to process sales transactions, orders and daily operations including some inventory management within the store. It can also be used in conversations with customer - clienteling using product catalog details and Bing maps integration for store locations etc. Modern POS must connect to Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail server which performs business logic and processing.

E-Commerce and Social Features
Online store is one of the retail channels published on SharePoint site from Dynamics AX. Categories and hierarchies are driven out of Dynamic AX and mapped to other channels to enable consistency. Functionality includes shopping card capability, real-time inventory updates, sharing on social networks directly from Web site, pick-up at the store, map integration with Bing to find store and many other solutions.

Commerce Data Exchange (CDX) 
Channel database (or store database) holds data that is required for retail transactions while master data is sent to channels from Dynamics AX database. CDX is a synchronization service that transmits data among head office, stores and channels. Data distribution is asynchronous while in some scenarios require real time communication between Dynamics AX and the channel which is also supported in CDM architecture.

Commerce Run Time (CRT) 
The Microsoft Dynamics AX CRT enables multi-channel commerce capability and provides retail content and services in a scalable way. CRT addresses the requirement to manage different channels with same tool via same logic and integration. It can also serve to innovate with new capabilities on the same platform.

Enterprise Portal for Retail
The Web portal and can be set up for access over the Internet to serve retail team for sales reporting, inventory monitoring, receiving and picking. Retail employees can also view retail products and related detailed information as well as access read-only price adjustments and discounts. Various sales reports, such as sales by hour, worker, store, performance by product, sales or retail category are available. Furthermore, staff can perform stock account over the Internet, receive purchase or transfer orders and complete outgoing transfer orders

Retail Hardware Station
Retail Hardware Station is another novelty in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 providing services for Modern POS clients, peripherals as printers, payment devices to communicate with Dynamics AX.

Why I Really Like Skype on Xbox One?

Follow @ArtieBe
While not being a serious gamer, I bought my Xbox One with Kinect quite soon after its release. In fact, gaming takes only less than 5% of my Xbox usage time while Skype accounts for around 40%. Here are the reasons why Skype on Xbox is really cool and I could not find anything close to this rich experience in other apps for communication or gaming.

Immersive Experience and Convenience in Living Room
The first obvious advantage of using Skype with Xbox is possibility to have large screen and convenience in living room as opposed to Skype and other similar apps on desktop PCs or mobile phones. One can enjoy using Xbox Skype with video while relaxing in sofa or even moving around the room. This all enabled with the same familiar user interface and navigation from Skype. For me it gives immersive and close communication with friends and family members abroad, thousands of miles away without feeling the great distances and coping with small screens in PCs, tablets and smartphones. In fact, Skype on Xbox is also comparable to Telepresence - expensive conferencing tool with large screens found in many executive offices around the world.


Auto Zoom
Kinect camera can zoom into speaker automatically and amazingly in the right context during increased activity, such as  speaking or moving around the room. Once your friend or family member joins you nearby on sofa or elsewhere, the Kinect camera can automatically detect the change and broadcast full family of participants on the screen. No desktop PC or mobile based software has this capability and experience in general use.

"Xbox Call" + Name
If user likes to use voice for giving commands to Skype for calling, it is also possible - say "Xbox Call" and name your contact in Skype favorites (works from anywhere in Xbox). This is similar to familiar experience on Cortana for Windows phone and Siri on iPhone, but available now on TV console.

Call Landline and Mobile Phones from Your TV
Sure, technically speaking it is Xbox One console, but the user experience is as calling from TV.

One Service, Many Devices
Skype is probably one of the best cases by Microsoft enabling its service and device strategy where data and user experience is integrated across mobile, PCs and console connected to TV. Furthermore, now Skype can be used to communicate with Microsoft Lync users, but more about that next time.