At its roots, BI depends on capturing accurate transactional data from business processes at the first level of detail and transforming these processes into a regular flow of meaningful entries in an ERP solution such as Microsoft Dynamics AX. Application consultants should consider the reports that are required by the customers and certify that the required data points are captured through the recording process for daily transactions. Whenever possible, the application consultant has a responsibility to also challenge the business process owners about the process, as it relates to using the data to make changes to optimize the business. The following diagram shows the detailed transactions block:

In some projects, consultants split their attention between business process workshops during business requirement gathering in the analysis phase, and the establishment of the data structure in forms during the design phase. It is vital to document the business process including the start point, end point, comprehensive steps of the process (if needed), the data path in each step, and exceptional cases for each process. On the other hand, the forms are a transformation of the business processes into the real work activities of employees (fields, grids, buttons, multiple selection, and so on).

The main processes that should be addressed in a typical ERP implementation include banks, fixed assets, procure to pay, cash to sell, costing, and budgeting, with the general ledger integration for each.

BI is the second block in the information hierarchy that uses the raw data of transactions to provide valuable information to different levels of the organization. BI adds a layer of aggregation on transactions and makes it possible to create a comparative analysis for key measures such as actual versus budget comparisons.

The consultant should identify the measures needed and how they will be utilized from the transactional level. These measures are raw numbers aggregated from specific fields that result from a definite process or a combination of business processes.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is delivered with 14 cubes covering the following areas:

Measures need to be informative, not just as raw numbers, but as a source for analysis at the management level. The consultant should identify the analytic dimensions as well as the dimensions needed by the process owner to analyze numbers. The most common example is sales revenue, which can be analyzed by dimensions such as customer segmentations, geographical locations, warehouses, and customer demographics. The following diagram shows the BI block:

Now that we have seen the importance of the structure of reporting blocks based on the business processes and daily transaction data, it is worth exploring the common scenarios that consultants may face when the reporting requirements cannot be met by the data that is being captured. This missing data would lead a consultant to revisit the business process that includes the entry of daily transactions, and identify a need for the cleansing of historical data, which may lead to the loss of some information.

The third block in the information source is the executive decision support, where all of the information is summarized and numbers are transformed into KPIs, indicators, analytic views, and dashboards. The following diagram shows the executive decisions block:

Executives do not have the luxury of time to drill down to all the comprehensive reports. They need a bird's-eye view of the overall enterprise performance to support them in taking critical business decisions. With the right low-level data, the ERP solution should be demonstrating its worth as a true decision support system that offers this visibility.

The conclusion is that when implementing a Microsoft Dynamics AX solution, there is no reliable information for executives without a solid BI platform that is based on a well-defined ERP. The ERP absorbs business processes, such as the daily transactions entered by workers with a high level of clarity.