Microsoft Dynamics AX has been around since it was renamed from Axapta back in the early days of the millennium. As each new release has come out, Microsoft have announced and stopped mainstream support for earlier versions. In line with this, mainstream support ended back in October 2018 for AX 2009, AX 2012 and AX 2012 R2.
When a release exits mainstream support, Microsoft will no longer provide non-security or regulatory updates for your system. Any issues that you find in AX from that point onwards will be checked and fixed in D365 but not in your AX system. If you want to implement the fixes, you will need to make, test and deploy the changes yourself.
AX 2012 R3 is the final version of the AX family and is now coming up on the end of mainstream support itself. The Microsoft website shows the dates for end of Dynamics AX support as 12 October 2021 although other sources have said that they will extend this out to April 2022.
This leads to one key question: What should you do if you are still running on an earlier version of the software? You have a few options, and this article will go through them:
- Continue your current version without support cover
- Find a Dynamics AX support partner and continue your current version
- Upgrade to Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management
- Some combination of the above
Are you considering an upgrade from Dynamics AX 2012?
Download our guide to find out the key differences between AX and Dynamics 365, and how you can begin the switch:
Continue on current version without Dynamics AX support cover
There are some things that you need to have in place if you are going to continue to support your own AX version – these are best practice guidelines for AX management no matter what path you are taking. This is not a hard task necessarily although there are a few different elements to it. One key point is that you have no-one to fall back on if things go wrong. For this reason, it is worth ensuring that you have a support set up that is robust as possible.
This option would suit organisations with minimal customisations and / or robust change control processes. You will probably view Dynamics as a legacy application likely to be retired in the near to medium term.
Managed services capability
Although this sounds fancy, it can be as simple as an agreed first point of contact for all the AX users in your organisation when they find an issue – this person can then log all incidents raised in a central place and either provide help or pass the query on to the change request process.
Change request process
To make sure that only important changes get passed on to the relevant team, you should have a process around change requests – this will usually mean that a requester must provide information about why a change is needed, and then a panel decide whether this is approved for development. Usually, the group making the decision is composed of both business and technical people to consider the issue from all angles.
Development capability
As Microsoft are no longer providing fixes to issues that you are encountering, you need to be able to do so yourself. At a minimum this will require a developer with good knowledge of the Dynamics AX object model and X++ capability. Alternatively, consider using the Power Platform for new development outside of your system, which can then easily transfer to your new system when you decide to upgrade.
Source control
Source control is a centralised place in which your code is stored, which is accessible to any developer, and helps to ensure that the development team stays up to date with each other’s changes.
Environment & release strategy
This could just be a map of the environments that you have in your infrastructure, and an explanation of how any releases that you make transition between those environments. At a minimum, there should be four environments – Dev, Test, Pre-Prod and Production.
Regression test packs
A regression test sets out what elements will be tested after a release has been made – it helps to ensure that no functional areas have been set back by the fix and is vital before moving into production.
Find a Dynamics AX support partner and continue on current version
The next option is to stay on your current AX version as above but find a support partner to work with to take some of the tasks off your hands. This means that you get the same level of structure to your AX implementation, but there is less need for you to do the heavy lifting if you do not have the capability already. This would be suitable for organisations with a large amount of customisation and / or lack of rigorous change control enabling you to pass some of the risk to a managed service provider.
One thing to be clear about though is that some of the items in the list should absolutely remain with you. Too many organisations rush to outsource areas which are important business knowledge and therefore should remain in-house. From experience anything customer or stakeholder facing should remain in-house. You can move anything that is not external facing to a Dynamics AX support partner:
|
Can move |
Remain in-house |
|
Managed services |
Change request process |
|
Development capability |
Regression testing |
|
Source control |
Business analysis |
|
Environment & release strategy Quality Assurance |
Service delivery |
When you do find a Dynamics partner, you should obviously make sure that they are willing to take on AX clients – the skillset required for the older versions of AX is getting more rare in the marketplace and they may not have the capability. Read our blogs about choosing a Dynamics partner and switching your Dynamics partner for more information
Move up to Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management
An upgrade to the latest version may not be the simple option, but there are many reasons why it is the right thing to do. This will be particularly relevant where your organisation sees the Dynamics solution as being of strategic business importance. A D365 implementation is permanently in support due to the Microsoft OneVersion update schedule. Read our blog here for more information about the upgrade process and options that you have.
Combine the above
Experience tells us that the most common approach is a combination of the above options. You should be able to find a Microsoft Dynamics partner who can help you to combine the choices in line with your capabilities. For example, we have clients for whom we provide Dynamics AX support whilst we are working on their upgrade to D365. Alternatively, you could take most of the support work in-house but look for a partner who can help support you during peak times, or when a development is beyond your technical capability.
With Dynamics AX support coming to an end soon, there are a number of options you can take in order to ensure your solution is not just fully supported, but enhanced and optimised to deliver real value to your business. If you’re looking for more advice on what to look for from a Dynamics support partner, download our guide below to the 5 key factors you need to consider:
