Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics AX Support services Microsoft Dynamics AX development helps by improving areas of your business, such as consolidation of customers, by bringing processes, information and people together to promote trade and collaboration. This provides the solution which has been designed to meet your business needs. While development is key, it is also important to utilize AX support services to deal with issues as they arise, provide support to the business operation and as solution improvements are requested that these are optimized to meet your business needs. An AX Support services team ensures that they understand business requirements and delivers higher quality service and solutions. Support services are a well established service offering in the market. Microsoft Dynamics AX support benefits include: Better, Faster, Smarter
People in organizations can make informed and practical decisions only when they are provided with forward looking support services. They help in bringing solutions to the surface, developing insights and tasks that are relevant to business functions. The Service team opens up the possibilities of what is possible from the AX solution supporting business ideas. It places resources at the disposal of the people in your organization and makes sure that the solution is provided seamlessly. Support services not only support the existing system but also help with developing better, faster and smarter ways to work. The Future Business requirements keep changing and it’s important for businesses to adopt an approach towards understanding the impact of these. In as much as these changes affect the AX solution, Support services are key in helping to understand the challenges and impacts on your business and the solution. They are in effect supporting the constant evolution of Microsoft Dynamics AX after the first installation. The Structure
The usual set up of a Service support agreement is a contract between the AX Service provider and the business for a predefined time period which contains two main elements, the Scope and the Service Standards; Predefined Time Period – This commitment allows the Service provider to maintain the required level of experienced resource to meet their clients’ requirements. It would be unusual for a support service contract to be less than one year as any less does not provide security to either the business or the service provider. Support Scope This can vary depending on a business’s structure and requirements but a good example would be a Supplier providing the following support services to a Client: 1. Functional scope – the Supplier providing second and third line support for the Client AX system. First line being the responsibility of the Client. 2. Technical scope – all bug fixing and development services will be provided by the Supplier in line with the functional scope. 3. Application of service packs and version upgrades may be included or dealt with separately. 4. Infrastructure services and technical hardware support for AX and SQL. The Supplier will provide a range of support types to the Client. These could be: 1. Help desk incident calls 2. Consulting advice or support on live application – onsite or offsite 3. Technical advice or support on live application – onsite or offsite 4. Other ad-hoc services such as training and assistance on data migration planning Service Levels – Service levels can again vary depending on a business’s structure and requirements. As an example a Service provider may offer a service similar to this example: Service Level A: 1. Provide guidance on correct usage of the application 2. Diagnose application bugs and provide a fix or escalate to Level B 3. Escalate all other problems to Level B Service Level B: 1. Investigate and fix application bugs escalated by Support Level A
2. Provision of service packs and maintenance recommended by Microsoft 3. Technical support and maintenance Linked to Service Levels is response time. Again this will vary dependant on requirements but as an example of the structure: Priority Critical High Moderate Low
Description
Confirmation (Call Logging) 1 hour 2 hours 4 hours 1 day
Response Time
Target Fix Time
System Down 2 hours ½ day Significant Impact 2 hours 1 day Minor Impact 2 days 3 days No Business 5 days 10 days Impact At SMYL we would welcome the opportunity to assist you as you consider your Dynamics AX support specially the Dynamics AX 2012 support - options and requirements.
For best Microsoft Dynamics AX / Axapta support services, please visit www.smylsolutions.com About Author: Gaurav Bansal is the author of this article and having a vast knowledge and experience in Microsoft Dynamics AX software. He is working with SMYL which is a certified Microsoft partner and providing services related to Dynamics AX.