Four Signs Your Dynamics AX Support Isn’t up to Scratch

Here we look at 4 signs your Dynamics AX support isn’t up to scratch: 

Lack of Communication  

• Does your current support partner remain in regular contact with you?  
  
  
• How quickly do they respond to your questions? 
  
  
• Are they pro-active in helping you achieve your goals? 

Since the discontinuation of Microsoft’s Support for Dynamics AX, the level of support from associated Microsoft Partners has become a key topic within the space. The level of commitment from your support partner is vital in helping your business achieve its overall goals using  Dynamics AX.. It is commonplace that many companies  feel abandoned by their support partners and many have resulted in transitioning to other solutions to resolve the issues, which obviously costs time, money and effort.  

In order to fully support your business, your support partner must ensure consistent and regular contact with  to make sure you are comfortable with the system moving forward and that you are not experiencing any emerging issues which need addressing. Further to this, support partners should provide routine health reports and recommendations on a regular basis to provide feedback about how  improvements can be made to your system to improve overall productivity, efficiency or even make cost savings. 

Lack of Help or Support  

• Do they understand your market/industry?  
  
  
• Are you valued by your support partner? 
  
  
• Can they physically support you effectively? 
  
  

A lack of support can be the result of many different factors regarding the ability of support partners to deliver appropriate services.. The size and scale of a support partner can be an influential factor on the level of support received. This can be down to prioritisation of customers within a large corporate entity, meaning that the smaller and less ‘important’ clients get a slower or reduced rate of support compared to that of bigger companies needing the same services.  

Having industry leading professionals at hand is another key factor which effects the overall level of support that partners can provide. Whether it is manufacturing, distribution or service management, having people who know your industry inside and out will help you  to adapt your Dynamics AX system so that its potential is maximised. .   

The physical location in terms of country and time zone can also be a major factor in the effectiveness of the support provided due to the difference in working times, for example a large support partner based in the USA may not be able to effectively provide constant support to a company based in the UK. This becomes a painful process as support may only be available during certain hours, and the question is, what if something happens outside of those hours? 

Implementing a disaster recovery plan  

• Do you have a disaster recovery plan? 
  
  
• Do you know what one is? 
  
  
• In the event of a disaster, how do you return to business as normal? 

Disasters can come in all shapes and sizes, from human/employee error, natural disasters, calculated attacks and the list goes on. Disasters always seem to happen at the most inconvenient time and in some cases it cannot be avoided no matter what procedures or plans you put in place. You may not be able to avoid them, but you can always plan for them in order to keep disruption to a minimum and get back on track as soon as possible.  

Business data is important, which is why it must be preserved and kept securely to ensure the prevention of losing the data or for it to be used in any other way than its intended purpose. This should be a key consideration of your support partner; ensuring your business has a robust plan in place, so that in the event of a disaster you can get up and running in as little time as possible without causing further issues. So, the question is: do you have faith in your disaster recovery plan? 

Find out about Syscom's disaster recovery services

Support with upgrades and new releases 

• Does your current partner only offer you upgrades or new releases when prompted? 
  
  
• Do they help you to utilise new technology? 
  
  
• Do they help increase security with new tech and updates?  

The level of support provided for Dynamics AX solutions can be widespread and diverse in terms of the actual implementations businesses receive. More active support partners will provide security updates, bug fixes and patches to ensure your systems are secure and up to date and never leave your exposed to external threats. They should also provide access to updated functionality and features throughout to help you get the most out of your Dynamics AX installation.  

If you feel that your Dynamics AX support isn’t up to scratch, find out about our AX Medic service. Get in touch today.