Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

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Posted on by SteveWhyte

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Hi:

I need some advice. Can anyone tell me which AX modules (Trade, Logistics, Finanicals etc) offers the best opportunities should I want to become an AX consultant and offer my services in the open market?

Steve

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Hello Steve,

I would say that there is no module that provides the 'best' consulting opportunities.

Select the module that fits your experience, background and interests and you will never run out of work.

Best regards,

Ludwig

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SteveWhyte 583 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Hi Ludwig:

Can you email me, my email address is [removed by community moderator.]

I just completed my doctoral dissertation and I will be doing my final defense within the next 7 days. I have 2 masters degree and my background is finance (I used to be an auditor with Price Waterhouse Coopers) and I am also an accomplished C# and X++ developer. I need some advice and I would really appreciate it if you could email me.

Steve

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Hello Steve,

I would suggest that you edit your last post and remove at least your email because it can be accessed through your user profile. I would also suggest to remove personal Information about your degrees, etc. because you never know who will use or abuse this publicly shared information.

Many thanks and best regards,

Ludwig

P.S. Just sent you an email :-)

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Vilmos Kintera 46,149 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 for Operations is considered to be an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning system, you can read up about the terminology here for example:

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/what-is-integrated-erp-75126

What this means is that the modules are not really stand-alone parts of the system, but they are interconnected and changing values within one module has an impact in another module. This is in order to seamlessly transfer business processes across department, giving them access to the relevant part of the whole solution, only which they should worry about.

By this analogy a true AX functional consultant can specialize for larger modules to gain better insights in a specific business area, such as Financials or Warehousing/Supply chain management/Distribution and so on, but they still should be aware at least on a high level that what happens if you post a sales order confirmation (warehouse reservations, inventory costing, intercompany orders, etc.) or a sales invoice (posting profiles, impact on the ledger and sub-ledgers, tax code matrix, what is a chart of accounts) for example. As you see just processing a simple sales order goes through at least 3 areas/modules of your system if not more depending on your setup (i.e. by using projects, load planning and shipping, or other interconnected modules).

On top of that, a really good consultant does not just stop at knowing the setups and business flow, but they also understand the technical bits at a comfortable level to be able to read some code, be familiar with table names behind the forms so you could troubleshoot if something in the data does not add up, or even provide more accurate specifications for your developers, or are not afraid to dig out some information from SQL Server/Analysis Services cubes directly to feed inputs for your BI team.

In general, you need a broad understanding system-wide of AX both functionally and technically to be a great asset for an implementation Partner, ISV or Customer.

As far as which module has the highest demand depends on your demographic location and the size of business you are aiming at to work for. Large enterprises are dealing with Financials, Project and Manufacturing mainly. Middle tier implementations tend to have Warehousing and Distribution areas as their main focus. Retail is also gaining momentum.

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guk1964 10,888 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

You need to define 'best'.

Are you looking for example for highest daily rates - that might be for a specialist skill with little demand , or for continuous work which might be repetitive work done on every project like data loading or report writing, or security set ups, or do you mean most interesting work, or most challenging, do you want to travel internationally or work from home? Do you have any experience of mrp implementation? of project or people management? or of working alone/running your own business, or re you looking to join a consulting practice or a large end user or.......?

How much skill and time do you have to study, how much budget, what access to training resources and mentors? and what financial or technical exposure do you have? - do you wan to do this forever or is a stepping stone to another role if so then what? what is right for you depends on those factors also and the answer may change again in 5 years time. . Following on from the previous comment, consulting is not really about Software, or coding, or configuration - those are just available tools. in what ways are you able to use such tools to solve problems, improve business processes, deliver bottom line results .

If you think about those questions then you will be best placed to answer your own question - think of it as self consultation.

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Adriaan Van Nuffel 391 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

IMHO: you should become a consultant in Lean Manufacturing. The Lean Manufacturing functionality in Ax is not widely known, but very powerful.

Since it's not widely known, you'll be in an unique position.

Manufacturing plants will always be interested in ways to improve their manufacturing processes, and ways to reduce their administration. Lean manufacturing is the way to go, for this.

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Ajit 8,755 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Sounds like you could be a good techno-functional :). Welcome to the AX world. Happy DAXing!!

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SteveWhyte 583 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Great advice

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Vilmos Kintera 46,149 on at

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RE: Which AX module provides best consulting opportunities?

Cheers. Please take your time to mark all helpful answers as Verified.

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