AX Retail - Basic setup to get started

In this post, the focus will be on some basic setup which needs to be understood and implemented for having a functional AX Retail.
Assuming that you have already installed the necessary AX Retail components beforehand. If not, Please go through the below links, which you can find already on Internet (no need for any Partner permissions)

• A nice Youtube video explaining Retail Topology - See here
• Also you can find the Microsoft's Retail Deployment Guide - PDF here

So now let's focus on what all steps you have to take, settings which you have to configure at the AX Retail HeadQuater level in order to have a functional AX Retail. Kindly note that I am us
 
Configure and Validate Retail Headquarter settings:

1. Initialize Base configuration for AX Retail
2. Verify Stores
3. Publish channels
4. Retail store management and security
5. Hardware profiles
6. Configure Commerce Data Exchange (CDX)
7. Verify Retail server configuration
8. Check Infolog's generated for more information
9. Restart AOS

1. Initialize Base Configuration for AX Retail:
After the successful installation of components, it is very important to initialize a set of jobs.

1. Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Parameters > Retail parameters.
2. Click Initialize button.
3. This will popup a Message box: "Initialize the base configuration data for Retail"
4. Click Yes
5. Will take couple of minutes
6. And will pop up an infolog on completion.
7. Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Retail channel schema
8. Click Generate classes.

Initialize : will create the necessary objects, based on the setup done in the following forms (we will see some more details during this post).
* Retail channel schemas
* Scheduler jobs
* Distribution schedule

Generate classes - will create the necessary methods in the RetailCDX* classes for download/upload of the data between AOS and Async server.

2. Verify Store:
For a retail setup, the next most important to check is the Stores. Few configurations and setup which I feel are important are as below
Path: Retail > Common > Retail channels > Retail Stores.
Choose (double click on) the store on which you would like to work and verify the setup, say MIAMI for example (in Contoso data)

1. Verify "Screen Layout" (Fast tab)
   Validate and create new records to select for "Enterprise POS" and/or "Modern POS" based on your requirement.
2. Verify that at least one POS Register exists under "Registers" Factbox
3. Verify that the store is assigned to the correct "Legal entity" (In General Tab > Identification)
4. Verify that "Employee address book" (In General Tab > Address book) are setup correctly
5. Verify that "Real-time Service profile" (In General Tab > Profiles) is setup.

3. Publish Channels:
This step is necessary to make the store Active and involves very simple process.
Path: Retail > Common > Retail channels > Retail Stores.
Click Publish on the Ribbon > Setup. And click Yes on the Message box that pops up.

4. Retail Store Management and Security:
This is basically to view and enable the necessary Store workers the access to work on POS devices. Involves a set of simple steps.

1. On the Retail store, in our example, MIAMI. Click Workers on the Ribbon > Set up.
2. AX directs to the list of all the Workers on this store. Validate and "Hire New Worker" if needed.
3. Double click on the worker and validate that the Worker should have the correct address (Profile Tab > Worker summary > Other information > Address books)
4. Go to Retail Tab
5. Click on Hyperlink "POS Permissions" (Under Retail > Information)
6. Validate the permissions and "Override permissions" if necessary
7. Verify "manageDevice" is checked in order to have the Worker be able to work on the POS

5. Hardware profiles:
Hardware profile is used to set preferences and properties for a register and peripherals of the register, such as the cash drawer and the receipt printer.
Path: Select Store (MIAMI) > Registers (Factbox). Click on Hardware profile (In General fasttab > Profiles)
And setup necessary Hardware profiles.

6. Configuring CDX:
Configuring the Commerce Data Exchange consists of several steps again:

1. Message Database configuration:
This has to be performed in AX Form, Path: Retail > Setup > Parameters > Retail scheduler parameters.
Make sure the "Server name" points to the AsyncServer name and
"Database name" points to the AsyncServer Database.

2. Aysnc Server profile:
Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Async Server profile.
Verify that profile exists. The Data download and Upload intervals provide the time intervals for request and response. Type '0' for an immediate response.

3. Working folders:
The working folders are needed for the temporary placement of Outgoing and Incoming data. Can be setup in AX form, Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Working folders.
Verify that the records exist for both Download and Upload paths. Also validate the permissions for folders - both AOSServiceAccount and AsyncServerServiceAccount should have read/write permissions to the selected folders.

4. Channel Data Groups:
Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Channel Data Group. Verify and create (if necessary) a new Channel Data group with a Unique "Name". And "Retail Channel schema" and "Working folders" should be selected from the drop-down.

Also for every Channel Data group, we would have to create Distribution schedule. Path: Retail > Periodic > Data distribution > Distribution schedule.
Add the newly created Channel Distribution Group to "Distribution schedule" and create batch jobs accordingly.

5. Channel Database:
Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Channel database. 
The form allows us to configure which Channels should be made available in which Database. Note: In Contoso Demo data, every Single store is mapped to Single channel Database.
Create a new Channel Database ID (unique) by filling the necessary fields. 'Username/Password' combination should match values used during installation of Async client instance for the corresponding Channel Database.
'Retail Server' FastTab information purpose is to be able to have active database assignments for each channel.

6. Real-time service profiles:
Go to Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Real-time Service profiles.
Create a new records, fill in necessary fields under table 'Retail time service location', Server (certificate name), Web application name (is the one used during installation).
The checkbox under FastTab:Settings, set true, if User login credentials for Realtime POS or modern POS should always query real time service for validation.


7. Verifying Retail Server configuration:
The validation can be done from Path: Retail > Setup > Retail scheduler > Channel Integration > Channel profiles.
Validate all the fields as per settings done above. And 'Retail server URL' is the one which Modern POS users. 'Media based URL' is the one where the Images in Retail POS are hosted. 'Hardware station URL' is to connect with the peripherals like printer/barcode scanners.

Certificate Management: 
Before Aysnc server is installed, the SSL certification should be configured. This is to ensure secure communication between Async server and Aysnc client.
Go to Path: IIS > Select Server > Server certificates > Create new Self-signed certificate. Provide necessary details.
The code to be provided during installation can be found on the newly created certificate. Go to Path: Double-click on the certificate > Details > Thumbprint. Copy the code.

Async Server:
Another setup to be performed on the Async server level is to, Go to Path: Retail > Setup > parameters > Retail scheduler parameters > Click button "Sync Metadata".

Thanks for reading, hope it helps. Will update more details as I dig more into the setup. Happy DAXing. 

How to identify the SQL Version and SQL Edition

When working on AX implementations, one main purpose of Analysis phase is to identify and estimate the License costs for the Customer. And a major part of the Implementation cost can go into "Purchasing licenses"

During such a scenario, I found some helpful information on how to identify the Microsoft SQL Editions.

If you want to check the SQL Version and/or SQL Edition of the installed product, you can follow the below simple steps:

1. Connect to the server in which SQL Server is installed.
2. Open SQL Server Management Studio from Programs/Start. Alternatively you can type 'ssms' in Run.
3. Connect to the Database
4. Open a new Query window and paste the below code
   
   select @@servername
   go
   select @@version
   go
   select serverproperty('edition')
   go
   
   
5. Execute the query

This will result in Three different output/resultset. The first provides you the "Name of the server", second provides you the "Version of Installed SQL" and the third provides you with the "Edition of SQL Server installed".

Couple more examples are as below:







Also you can find more details and Compare Editions, i.e, verify the features supported by different Editions of SQL in this Microsoft link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server-editions/overview.aspx 

Retail understanding and AX Retail

Clearly, we can see focus shift in the Microsoft product (Dynamics AX) towards Retail industry. In this post, I will try to put forward the understanding of Retail industry and map how Dynamics AX is placed in order to support Retail.

What is "Retail"?
Retail is the sale of goods to the public in relatively small quantities for use or consumption rather than for resale. Or we can also say, It is the process of selling consumer goods and/or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit.

According to Wiki, the top ten Retailers are as below. Maybe this helps in understanding what is a Retail industry is all about.

Worldwide Top Ten Retailers
Rank	Company	Country of Origin
1	Walmart	United States
2	Tesco	United Kingdom
3	Costco	United States
4	Carrefour	France
5	Kroger	United States
6	Amazon.com	United States
7	Lidl	Germany
8	Metro AG	Germany
9	The Home Depot	United States
10	Aldi	Germany

So, Retail management: is basically the process of managing a Retail industry. And this is where Dynamics AX comes into picture. (Version: AX 2012 R3 CU8 onwards have several enhanced features in use for Retailers).

The above picture provides an illustration on what are the most important factors to be considered in Retail mgmt. Customers is the focus, Products and Suppliers are also very much needed. Also is the channel through which Retailer provides the Products to Customers.

Dynamics AX for Retail:
Dynamics AX is an ERP system that handles entire Business process, back office duties, most advanced Retail POS and packed with the Omni channel experience to the customers.
Microsoft Retail website is quite helpful if you are looking for an Overview of Dynamics AX for Retail implementations and module specific details.

If you would like to learn about Microsoft Dynamics AX Retail stories. You can do that from Clicking here. Just apply the necessary filter on the left hand pane and click search. Some most popular Customers are:

Dynamics AX Retail terminology:
Head office: From where the organization operates all its retail stores located in different geographical locations of the country.
Retail store: A store that is geographically located at a particular place. For an example: In a city, if a retailer has 3 outlets these are nothing but Retail stores in AX.
POS Register: At each store, there would be number of billing terminals which are called POS terminals.
Store database: Each store has a Store database where the necessary data from AX main database is replicated. Each POS can also work offline with an offline database at the POS, if needed.
By now, you might have realized that one important point to be noted is that there are lot of data push and pull operations to be performed in retail. Data to be transferred from Stores database to Headquarters and vice versa.

Some Examples of the data that should be transferred between store and headquarters:

• Sales data that is recorded at POS must be transferred to Head quarters
• Payment data and product receipts data that is recorded at POS.
• New Products that need to be released to stores.
• New store personnel data and credentials
• Offers and schemes related data that should be applied to stores and POS

Some Examples of the data that should be transferred between store and POS terminals:

• List of products
• POS Screen layout
• Employees who can login to POS

Operating model guideline for Retail:
Before going into the Technical details of Retail, it is important to get an understanding of the basic operating model for Retail.
Operating model is an abstract representation of how an organization operates across a range of domains in order to accomplish its function. The below picture illustrates Retail operating model.

We can split the Operating model logically as shown below:

Enterprise Foundation: Basically holds the Foundation information about the Business and Technology. This information is basic to kick start any operation.
Business foundation can consist of Finance, Human resources, Corporate support, even real estate. And the Technology foundation can consist of Infrastructure, Security, Integrations, Service mgmt., Device mgmt. and basic information.

Selling: The next logical section of the operating model can be "Selling". As the name suggest, the focus here is to enable selling in the most efficient way. This will include Customer Service/experience, Customer support, Store, Master data management, Order processing and Financial services.

Movement: The retail organization is about reaching out the necessary products to the customers over locations and in necessary quantities. The "Movement" becomes an important logical section in this regards. This will include Supply chain mgmt., Asset and Fleet mgmt., Inventory mgmt., Distribution mgmt., Manufacturing, Network mgmt. and Fulfilment mgmt.

Plan & Buy: The next logical section should be planning and buying. In order to provide the necessary products to the customers, products have to be purchase from vendors with store specific planning. This will include Merchandising planning and mgmt., Marketing and Enterprise analytics.

Strategy: The final and most important logical section is Strategy, where the decisions are made based on roadmap and also historic data analytics. This section will include Corporate strategy, Customer and Brand strategy, Channel strategy, Portfolio strategy etc..

Hope this post helps. The idea was to give insights about Retail industry. I am working on Technical details of Dynamics AX for Retail and try to post more technical going forward. Happy DAXing.

Also here is a video with the high level goal of Microsoft for their aggressive approach with regards to Retail industry in here.