Snap-in applications—part of the new breed of applications called Office Business Applications (OBAs)—can help your people get timely and accurate data out of or into Microsoft Dynamics AX, without ever having to leave the Microsoft Office applications with which they are most familiar. Microsoft Dynamics snap-in applications are sample applications that developers can customize and build upon to enable your people to work with the familiar environments of Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook, Word, Excel, and Office SharePoint Server. These applications, combined with the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX, can help reduce training costs and IT complexity and help your people be more productive.
Snap-in applications for Microsoft Dynamics AX are distributed under the Microsoft Permissive License. Microsoft customers and partners can extend or customize the applications. They can even use components of them within their own applications. Microsoft Dynamics partners are encouraged to use these snap-in applications as examples to create snap-in applications for specific roles, verticals, and industries—and to share them within the business community.
Note
Applications modified or created by Microsoft partners or independent developers might not have been tested by Microsoft. Be sure any modifications or customized applications you're using have been created by a certified Microsoft partner, and be sure to ask the partner or developer about his or her testing process.
Contact your partner to learn more about the following sample snap-in applications available for Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Office.
Business Data Lookup snap-in
Instantly insert relevant data from Microsoft Dynamics AX directly into the Word document, Excel workbook, or Outlook e-mail you are working on. For example, a sales associate who wants to respond to a customer request regarding order status can quickly open the Business Data Lookup task pane in Microsoft Word and easily locate the Microsoft Dynamics sales order information needed for the customer. This helps to ensure a quick response and improved customer satisfaction.
Expense Management snap-in
The Expense Management snap-in integrates with the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Expense Management capabilities to enable employees to record expenses while travelling and disconnected from the corporate network. Then, upon return, the expenses can be submitted for approval and reimbursement from within the Microsoft Excel environment.
Custom Report Generator snap-in
Extract, view, and analyze relevant data from Microsoft Dynamics AX in a neatly formatted Microsoft Office Excel report. If your finance controller wants to analyze the operating performance of the company against the budget and drill down into the data to understand areas that might require attention, he or she can view the latest information with the click of a button.
Timesheet Management snap-in
Now you can use your Outlook Calendar entries to submit timesheets without having to sign directly into Microsoft Dynamics AX. For example, a consultant who needs to track time spent by project can use the Microsoft Office Outlook appointments—that he or she already keeps—to get time utilization reports into Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Vacation Management snap-in
Now you can use your Outlook Calendar to submit vacation requests without having to sign directly in to Microsoft Dynamics AX. An employee who needs approval for some personal time can easily request the approval by sending an e-mail message that generates a vacation request. The manager can readily view vacation history and approve the request.
Customer Journal snap-in
Make your customer meetings more productive with direct access to all the relevant information you need about your customer right on your laptop. The Customer Journal snap-in uses Microsoft Office Infopath to capture details, like orders and credit history from your business solution database, in one convenient and easy-to-use document. You can then take notes offline when visiting with your customer and synchronize the notes when you're back in the office.
