I’m in the CIO’s office scoping and gathering requirements for the data warehouse project that he wants me to deliver. The session is going good. I’m getting that “feel” for what he wants and an understanding of his vision. Then, he says something that almost rocks me out of the chair.

“Brandon, I’ve heard that Dynamics AX can’t do this, but I would really like a system that allows us to make predictions in a way that gives us competitive advantage.”

TRANSLATION: DATA MINING

Brandon’s DEFINITION: DATA MINING: turning raw data into patterns that result in useful inferences about the past, present, and future that result in competitive advantage.

This is a common misconception. AX is like a treasure trove for those companies wishing to take their BI Efforts to the next level. A rich database schema correlated with some modern ease of use tools has made it entirely possible for organizations to begin reaping the competitive advantage that comes from data mining Dynamics AX.

So, I dedicate this series to all of you organizations loving your AX systems and looking to press competitive advantage to the next level. We’ll look at some simple tools that you already have or can have for free if you have AX. Then, we’ll see just how easy it is to get started with DATA MINING. Does it go deeper? Of course, the decisions that come from a good data mining project can often result in millions of dollars from competitive advantage, but there is always a starting point. Surprisingly, these starting points can generate many financial advantages as well.

In this series, we will examine 3 Data Mining Scenarios that I’ve encountered in Dynamics AX and see how we can use free tools to deliver competitive advantage.

Hold your horses, this will be a fun series!