Microsoft Dynamics AX works with Microsoft Office
Microsoft Dynamics works like other Microsoft products that many people are familiar with. This helps to reduce the time required for training. On this page, you can see examples of how Microsoft Dynamics AX works with the Microsoft Office System to help you and your people work faster and easier. Other benefits include faster product adoption, and increased productivity.
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Microsoft Office-like interface is familiar and easy to use
The most recent Microsoft Dynamics AX user interface is based on Microsoft Office standards—in particular, on the Microsoft Office Outlook messaging and collaboration client. For example, navigation is list-based with a primary navigation control instead of a traditional main menu. And your people can create their own lists of favorites (just like in the Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet browser) to give workers fast access to the program areas they use most.
Feels familiar
Microsoft Dynamics AX feels familiar, even to first-time users. And you benefit from the thousands of hours of customer research that help make all Microsoft programs easy to use. It all adds up to faster, less expensive training and higher productivity.
Integration with Outlook empowers sales people
Many sales people use Microsoft Office Outlook. So tight integration between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics AX can make their lives easier and their working style more efficient.
Two-way synchronization
Two-way synchronization of appointments, tasks, and contacts between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics AX means that any time a user makes a change in one program, it is automatically reflected in the other program. So users can always have the latest information without having to reenter it.
Easy e-mail
Outgoing e-mail messages sent from Microsoft Dynamics AX are automatically stored in Microsoft Outlook while incoming e-mail messages are stored in the document handling system. Lists of e-mail addresses can be stored in Microsoft Dynamics AX, which helps make sending offers, newsletters, and similar documents both easy and efficient.
Integration with Excel increases productivity
Many workers prefer working with business data using Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet software. Users can quickly and easily import data they've entered in Microsoft Office Excel directly into Microsoft Dynamics AX. This means higher employer productivity because your people can work the way they work best.
Generate and fill-in templates—as easy as 1, 2, 3
An account manager can generate a Microsoft Excel template by exporting fields from the Customer table in Microsoft Dynamics AX. The manager can then fill in the template in Microsoft Excel or add data (for example, from a list the manager received in an e-mail message), and then import the data into Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Integrated PivotTable reports enhance business insight
Fast analysis
A sales executive can quickly compare and analyze product sales over the last four fiscal quarters by region or product. And the sales manager or a project manager can then analyze the sales executive's projects to determine the most profitable ones.
Easy exports to Microsoft Office drive efficiency
Your people can export relevant information from any field in Microsoft Dynamics AX into Microsoft Office Word. This feature is a powerful, efficient way to incorporate accurate business information—such as prices and item availability—into contracts, customer letters, proposals, and other business documents.
Mail merge and copy-and-paste features
Microsoft Dynamics AX has sophisticated mail-merge functionality for incorporating customer details easily into predefined fax, letter, and quotation templates. Plus, users can copy and paste directly from Microsoft Dynamics AX to Microsoft Word—or any other Microsoft Office program—making it both fast and easy to present data from Microsoft Dynamics AX, for example, in a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation graphics program slide show or a Microsoft Word document.
Linked Microsoft Office documents offer rapid data access
A powerful document-handling feature enables users to link relevant Microsoft Office (and other) documents with records in Microsoft Dynamics AX.
For example a sales person can associate the Microsoft Office PowerPoint slide show that closed the deal with a certain customer with the Customer record. Or a purchaser can associate a vendor's latest catalog with the Vendor record for easy reference when placing orders. The result: Your people get prompt, time-saving access to all kinds of useful information.
Powerful developer tools aid integration with other systems
Microsoft Dynamics AX has a unique three-tier architecture that makes it easy to integrate with other components, programs, and the Internet. Developers and partners can extend Microsoft Dynamics AX to provide new and unique Microsoft Office integration scenarios.
Fast customization
By using the Microsoft Office InfoPath information gathering program, a developer can quickly create a new Microsoft Office-based form for entering inventory items into the system. Similarly, a partner organization can rapidly create a customer solution in Microsoft Excel that enables employees to enter project time information into the project accounting module.
Visual modeling
Developers and power users can add-ons for Microsoft Office Visio 2003 drawing and diagramming software to generate views of the Microsoft Dynamics AX data and object model in the widely used Microsoft Office Visio format. This enables developers to visually represent the relationships between data and objects for more accurate specification writing and data modeling.
Next steps
To learn more about how integration with Microsoft Office programs can help you lower training costs, accelerate adoption, and increase productivity, contact Microsoft torequest more information.
