Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 released
After the Virtual launch of April 10, 2014 Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 has been released on May 1, 2014. This version is now generally available and includes many new features. The codebase has been expanded significantly. As announced earlier this year on the Technical conference in February, this will be the base for the new major release Microsoft is working on with the codename ‘Rainier’. Most highlighted new features are the new Warehouse and Transportation management modules. But there is much more in this release…
What’s new?
There are some larger new features in AX 2012 R3 as well as some minor updates. I will list some highlights of this release. This should be not a big surprise as there was written on the internet a lot before.
This is a list (not exhaustive) of some new or enhanced features:
- Warehouse Management
- Transportation Management
- Demand forecasting
- Modern Point of Sales
- Call center sales
- Customer and vendor Rebate management
- Trade allowance management
- Product kits (retail)
- Serial Number Tracking Enhancements
- Product change management
- Master Data Management
- Hosting in Azure supported (IaaS)
- Lifecycle Services
- Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2014
A nice brochure will inform you also about new features.
Where to find it?
New special pages for the AX 2012 R3 release are created on Customersource and Partnersource. These pages contains information related to the product as well as the download for the installation files and related tools. Demo data is also available. The demo data must be imported to the AX 2012 R3 database using the Test Data Transfer Tool. When you install AX, you first have to complete the setup checklist in the AX client. Then you can copy the data. This will only import business data, all setup data like users are not overwritten. A new virtual (demo) machine with AX 2012 R3 is expected to be released mid May 2014.
On Partnersource there is also a Launch portal with some other detailed information about what’s new, some training for partners and also links to pricing information.
Upgrade to AX 2012 R3?
When you are an existing customer of Microsoft Dynamics AX and want to upgrade to AX 2012 R3, there are upgrades possible from AX 4.0, AX 2009 and all current versions of AX 2012. An upgrade guide can be found on the AX 2012 R3 release pages on Customersource and Partnersource. The links were provided earlier in this post.
When you want to upgrade from AX 2012 R2, there is a new way how the code will be compared and conflicts will be resolved or marked. Some Microsoft Dynamics AX MVP’s included me were asked to do some testing. Tommy Skaue (MVP) explained this procedure already in his blog.
Important note: Be informed that the new Warehousing functionality is completely different compared to the WMS II features in older versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX (AX 2012 included). AX 2012 R3 has both features of Warehouse management. When you currently use WMS II features you can upgrade to R3, but there is no migration to the new Warehouse Management features possible. When you are using WMS II and now wants to use the new Warehouse management, a reimplementation is required. Both WMS II and the new Warehouse management are built upon the code WMS I features.
More to come…
Within the next days and weeks many information and blogs will be posted. New installation guide, system requirements document and upgrade guide are expected if they are not updated already. I will also post some interesting information about this new release, so keep watching my blogs…
That’s all for now. Till next time!
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