Dialog Axiata PLC is Sri Lanka‘s largest telecommunications service provider, which operates Dialog Mobile, the country’s largest mobile phone network with over 6 million subscribers. Dialog is a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad and Dialog was Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 2005 and was the country’s first USD 1 Billion market capitalised company on the Colombo Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization. - Wikipedia 

Dialog GSM is the largest mobile operator in sri lanka and they did an awesome job by introducing latest mobile treads to the island. Dialog infrastructure is very stable and network is really wide n they are very innovative and fast in new technology.  At a given time if we take few random dialog users most of them may happy with coverage and features , but … why people complain and talk negative on dialog.

Let me share my story to detail my experience with dialog. I been using dialog connection ever since year 2000,  connection was 300RS monthly fee  and monthly commitment was 1500RS.  I was all good with dialog until I lost my mobile, it become worst that I was not in the country when my phone was stolen , at the same time when I came I manage to disconnect it by sending a letter to dialog. but it surprised me when I saw the bill , it was way over 12000RS I try calling them and writing them and ask two things.

1. Why my credit limit was exceeded to an unexpected amount 1500 -> 12000/= is way over the normal increment

2. Who authenticate to activate IDD  ( I kept IDD off on my personal dialog that my company has given my unlimited IDD connection)

for both questions dialog answer that it was due to their system automated increments and IDD is due to promotion they offered. both of changers done without any information or notification.  I been writing and talking to them but no one was able to provide me any solutions without moving towards legal issue.

With my bad experiences I kept dialog away from my company but we had few dialog data connections, recently I got a text massage to my data connection application saying

If you are a dialog users its always recommend that you to analyse your detail bill and stay awake and aware what you paying for , or else with the competition operators are very doggy to earn more from innocent users.

I assume this may help a lot for the beginners who is willing to learn photography, to learn how the combinations works between basic SLR camera controls use the manual mode and enjoy shooting.

Tablet’s for SME Business (Can we utilize Tablet PC’s and Mobile apps for Small and medium Business?)

Tablet

What is Tablet ?

Although tablet PCs have been in the market for some time it’s only recently they were able to make a huge impact on IT industry. A tablet PC is a laptop or a slate-shaped mobile computer, equipped with a touchscreen to operate the system with a stylus or a fingertip, instead of a keyboard or a mouse. Makers such as Fujitsu made headway in industries like healthcare more than a decade ago, while HP and Toshiba pioneered “convertible” laptops with screens that would spin and fold to transform a notebook into a tablet. Microsoft even had a specialized version of Windows XP, Tablet PC Edition, in 2004.

Evolution of Tablets

Years back tablets were utilized for specific vertical industries such as health care, inventory management, designers. Later on venders like HP, IBM, Toshiba attempt to convert notebooks to tablet make it as hybrid device where it acts as a notebook when its plugged to the keyboard dock and work as tablet after ditched from the dock. This concept had number of practical issues such as battery life, limited connectivity, cost of the hardware plus OS and application.

Rise of new generation tablets

Apple has improved its user friendliness with an eye for style. High tech, good user experience, stylish presentation can change the entire tablet pc industry. With the success of iPhone apple made next significant move by launching iPad in 2010 with same OSX OS platform and iTunes Apps store. Apples were able to convert large number of apps from iTunes to be compatible with tablets. Apps play an important role on tablet eco system. Apples iTunes apps store recorded highest number of mobile apps. Added to it all the developers are skilled and trend to develop new apps for the OSX mobile platform in Apple which was a big willing point for apple to come up with new tablet concept where they made it pretty much user friendly familiar iPhone eco system. Sooner the apple released iPad, Google’s Android released Android Tablet compatible OS to multi vendors and hardware manufactures such as, Samsung, Toshiba, Acer, View sonic released cost effective android based tablets.

Market Trend

Tablets market is growing faster than expected. Trend made it an undeniable device and most of the top hardware manufacturers have already released tablets. Tablet market has open door to some new vendors such as Amazon, Cisco, view sonic, companies that were never recognized as notebook or Smartphone manufacturers. Soon after market expanded Blackberry released “Playbook “to reserve the market position in the tablet market. Researchers stated that tablet sales directly has no impact on desktop or notebook market as it has generated new market , but expected things may change and notebooks share may reduce due to the upcoming trend towards tablets.

Technology behind tablets

Tablet hardware is powered by well known ARM architecture. ARM is the most popular hardware used in mobile embedded computing devices because of its low power consumption. ARM processing power has been increased due to the demand generated by tablets. All new tablet pcs are released with dual core processors with 1gb or higher value. At same time tablet manufacturers made dedicated GPU to power display capabilities and rendering advance graphics.

Most of the tablets use NAND based memory technology, but Samsung and few more companies are working on few devices equipped with SSD based drives to provide higher capacity to tablet users.

For connectivity most of the devices are equipped with multiple radios inside the tablet hood. GSM 2G/3G, WIFI, Bluetooth is main connectivity options in tablets. But in addition to this most of them contain GPS radio to power navigation and location based apps.

Small and medium size business model

SME represent large portion of any economy, disregards to its capacity. The business strategies of SMEs can have lot of changers and variations often than larger companies, especially at their early growth phase. It is important to realize the importance of technology in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Compared to corporate businesses, SME faces few unique challenges with technology.

Technology adaption, change management and system integrations are widely spoken topics in SME’s. Selecting proper hardware and business tools for work needs a lot of research work.

Organization should consider where this can be utilized, where traditional computing can be replaced. Without huge total cost of ownership it may not be practicable to replace entire IT infrastructure. It’s a challenging task to find where we can operate tablets and archive highest ROI. Tablets are good at consuming and manipulating information, so we can use it for business analytics, KPI Dashboards, BI tools, enterprise portals.

Tablets meet Business

We can clearly state that first generation tablets were made for selected industries, latest tablets and apps deliver wide range of solutions and it can be used as Essential business tool. At the same time it can be used as a media device eBook reader and productivity tool. New tablet concept can be customized according to the requirements.

Potential business use and the business features

IT experts predict that tablets will become target platform for enterprise applications. Largest ERP vender paid huge amount of money to acquire SYBASE mobile solutions company to build SAP system integration tablets and smartphones. It was clear that sap and major venders discover the potential of been compatible with tablets.

At the moment my organization utilizes tablets for mainly on sales support. Nature of our business is to sell garment accessories. Most of our key account mangers carry iPads to demonstrate and preview labels on site. It makes it very simple for us to connect our ERP system (Microsoft Dynamics) that runs on top of Citrix Xen Studio. Citrix has own tablet app named “Citrix Receiver “for us to connect to ERP system in case we need to check live stock or confirm orders. Also we have an enterprise portal with many web apps to work with Purchasing, leave application, Travel plan and Product development request. Any Apple or Android based tablet can fulfill all given tasks and more without paying any extra and making any customization.

Let’s look at some winning points in tablets to attract business users.

Mobility – Ability to use any environment without connecting to any extra physical device makes it ideal in travelling. It’s possible to hold with a single hand and control entire system using second hand. Longer battery life helps to keep it up and running for approximately a single day without connecting to a charger.

Email server compatibility – Tablet optimized UI and push mails makes it best email experience. Setting up email account and working with tablets are very much simpler than typical desktop OS.

With the large screen, users find it very much visible and easy to manage. Tablets are compatible with industries top exchange sync, all popular web mails and all the secure and unsecure mail protocols. Blackberry playbook provides the same BES mail client of BB tablets.

VPN and wide range of connectivity – Tablets do have all type of typical connection methods such as WiFi b,g,n , HSDPA,HPUPA, to connect to internet. Business users are not only limited to internet. VPN is a basic requirement for business users to connect work place using tablets. Recent tablets are compatible with most of the common VPN protocols and dedicated apps available for unique connections such as Citrix SSL.

Data Safety – Tablets and smart phones have new feature that can secure your data safer than ever. New integration offers data backup , data replication , remote data wipe in case if you lost tablet. With the remote wipe user will be able to wipe out entire tablet using the web access.

More and more business apps – Business productivity apps are growing. Most of the enterprise apps, ERP, CRM systems have tablet apps on the market. Also banks and service providers have apps that are freely available for users to download from tablet apps stores.

Cloud compatibility – By the nature most of the tablet apps are compatible with cloud, dropbox, box.net skydive. The latest Amazon Fire (Will be released in November 2011) is bundled with cloud storage. Apple is planning to release iCloud with data sync with own cloud solution for upcoming apple products. Windows 7.5 Mango is bundled with unlimited office data on cloud using sky drive. Rumors revealed that Google also working on Google drive to provide storage facility in addition to Google docs.

Social Media and PR – Tablets have native apps to all famous social media sites. Also apps like social hub make it simple to post single update that can update multiple sites at same time. The ability to use in any environment not conducive to a keyboard and mouse such as lying in bed, low lighting when a lighted screen is the input source, standing or with one hand. Lighter weight, lower power models can function similarly to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle.

Tablet Apps for business

Tablet apps are almost like smartphones apps, where tablets take advantage of larger screen and faster processors. Soon after tablet OS been released apps developers made a quick translation from Smartphone apps to tablets. When the time tablets were introduced iTunes apps store and Android Market had millions of apps and reasonable portion of business productivity tools. At the times of writing this report most of the major ERP,CRP and enterprise apps has released or working on releasing tablet apps for users. Tablet apps are light weight, free or low cost apps, and they are so simple to install or administer. Also entire application set can be updated and patched using a single click on tablet platforms.

Tablet Key Players

Apple Inc

Apple has changed IT industry in many ways. Most of the times Apple is first to introduce technology plus vision to make significant changes in IT industry such as graphical user interface, iPod’s ,iPad’s Apps Store. Apple made the first appliance with new generation tablets with the experience they learned from the iPhones. Wow factor on any apple products made quick addiction to general public and made open new market for IT venders and apps developers.

Think / Quick Office, Apple iWork

Alternative to MS office in tablets, android pro version cost approximately 15$. Also some venders like Samsung has bundle the pro version in to device. Using free version you will be able to view and edit office docs but to open new document you may need to have pro license. Application supports latest Microsoft and open office Docs, Excel, Presentations formats.

Evernote

Everynote is totally free and it help to store notes , and capture website or document content and sync between browser and tablet. When you spot something interesting on web you can highlight them on browser and read it later on tablet when you are free.

WebEX/Go to meeting, Mighty Meeting

Both apps enable remote meetings, presentations and remote training to be conduct using tablets. It supports 2-way online conference facility, chat and screen sharing and more.

Skype, Viber, Fring

Skype and Viber provide VOIP audio and video calls using 3g/wifi connections. Viber can make phone calls to any smartphone that runs viber with using the phone number at zero cost. Fring is widely used to make group video calls using VOIP,

Google Docs

Google Docs works as both Cloud storage and MS Office alternative. It can be used to create and edit word, excel and presentations and save them on Google cloud, it works pretty smooth with real time collaboration with multiple users.

Bento

Bento is an excellent database app for small business owners; it can be used for sales support, inventory management and powerful data base system.

Application Development,

Apps development is not the same as typical desktop apps development. Mobile apps developer widely use Flash, Flex , Air, HTML5 and more into web based frameworks. Mobile apps are very dynamic and need a lot of attention on connectivity and screen size, also need to be optimized for low power and lower CPU consumption.

How Consumers Use Tablet PCs

Google surveyed over 1400 tablet PC owners and found:

68% of tablet users spend at least 1 hour a day on their tablet 77% of respondents report that their desktop/laptop usage decreased due to the tablet 82% of respondents said they primarily use their tablet at home more than 1 in 3 respondents uses their tablet more than they watch TV Increase on working away from office, checking email, customer presentation, sales support clearly states that business users are growing.

Disadvantages

1. Customization

UI customization is limited due to vender restrictions; Compared to IOS Android is user friendly with customization. Personal apps need to be installed through apps store. Users find it bit complicated than working with desktop OS.

2. IT Policy implementation

IT policy implementation is a must for corporate to maintain compliance. With tablets it was not practicable until blackberry released its first tablet. RIM was able to enforce BES policy trough BB eco system as same as they did for BB mobiles.

1. Higher cost — Tablet PCs can cost significantly more than their non-tablet notebooks

2. Input speed — handwriting can be significantly slower than peak typing speeds

Why not Laptops?

There are many predictions such as “Tablets may take over notebook market share Tablet PCs act as the hybrid device between notebooks and smart phones. Faster processors and rich applications made it closer to notebook experience and light weight and touch screen and connectivity features made it more towards a mobile device. Compared to notebooks tablets score higher in mobility, faster start time and longer batter life. People refer to travel with all in one device than travelling with heavy notebook plus charters.

Top Business Tablet PCs

1. Apple iPad2

iPad is the game changer in new era of tablets. Sleek design, typical apple stylish and solid hardware made a huge attempt back in 2010 to gain largest market share. Still apple records the highest portion of the market share and they continue to develop new version to sustain in same position in the tablet market. It works with iTunes ID and use same iTunes apps store.

2. Samsung Galaxy Tab

It is the Best selling Android based tablet in the market. Samsung has released 7” 8.9”, 10.1” screen size tablets with higher technical specifications than iPad at the low price. Easy customization and open source android made it more easy to use tablet. Compared to iTunes Apps store, android has freer or cheaper apps for tablets. It works with Google ID and Android Market,

3. Blackberry Playbook

RIM share its well establish business communication eco system with tablet technology using this device. RIM has proven and most desirable push mail system connected to most of the mail servers already. Playbook is an ideal selection when users are addicted and familiar with BB smart phones. Powerful CPU, larger screen, customized calendar and few new business apps will make a good choice for business users.

4. Cisco Cius

Cisco is the new player in tablet market. Cisco is willing to redefine the way you work using customized android OS bundled with great new communication and productivity apps. Device is introduced as business tablet where it has video and audio conferencing, VPN and many business productivity tools bundled with device.

5. Amazon Tablet aka Kindle Fire (Coming soon)

Amazon kindle was known as e-book reader and they share knowledge on e-books and EC2 cloud experience with new tablet. This was just released and it’s also based on Android OS and android apps. Amazon has customized UI and integrate cloud solution to new device where you get all your e-books, music and movies from Amazon cloud. Also it will back up all your media back to Amazon cloud.

It has made a supportive price tab 199$ with all new cloud experience which is plan to release on November 2011.

Conclusion

Tablets may not replace notebooks, but still useful for business, specially small and medium size business. We have enough facts and numbers to prove that tablets going to be the future trend and SMEs need to pay attention where they can utilize this new trendy device with existing systems. It will be challenging where cost of device and apps customization may be little bit higher at the moment. Typical scenario cost may go down with the demand and it will be easy adoption for users. IT decision makers should study more, analyze and map with future plans and dedicate space for tablets and mobile apps development. Mobile solutions has taken over many business processors already , when your business is moving to mobile and cloud based solutions tablet can be a handy undeniable productivity tool.

By Saptha Wanniarachchi

• Achieve Fast Time to Value

With prebuilt industry capabilities for manufacturing, distribution, services, retail, and Public Sector, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps you meet your business requirements by deploying your solution quickly and delivering results right away. Streamline your organization end-to-end with rich ERP capabilities, including human capital management, financials, and compliance management. Support specific business requirements easily with packaged solutions from the worldwide Microsoft® Partner Network.

• Grow Your Global Solution

Removing barriers to international growth is essential for business development. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables you to expand your operations to new geographies with builtin, country-specific localizations in a single solution to meet regulatory requirements for 36 countries.1 Enable entities across your multisite, global organization to share the same data, business rules, and processes in order to harmonize and streamline business practices. Also support your business growth by easily adding users and transactions, as well as
configuring more complex business scenarios.

• Work Smart and Fast

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can help you improve productivity by providing RoleTailored access to information, tasks, and business processes along with powerful business intelligence. Gain deeper insight into critical business data across your organization with relevant performance indicators, self-service business intelligence, and reporting in key business areas.

• Drive New Business

Take advantage of new business opportunities by improving the insight into your business, and having the ability to implement change more
easily. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 offers unlimited views on your business, giving you the visibility you need. Enhanced modeling capabilities, such as the Organizational Model or workflow, then helps you manage changes in the structure and business processes of your organization, and fosters innovation with a central business process repository, including capabilities for five major industries.

• Support Business Today and Tomorrow

Choose a flexible deployment model that best supports your organization and can easily be adjusted to meet your changing business demands: on-premises or in the cloud. Easily complement your installation with cloud-based services and take advantage of the flexible Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 solution architecture that enables incremental implementations, changes, or upgrades. Choose the governance model that best fits your organization: centrally managed, decentrally managed, or a combination of both.

• Gain a Competitive Edge

Differentiate your business from competition. The ability to rapidly adapt your system to support your unique needs can give you a significant edge over your competitors. The model-driven, layered architecture allows you to develop and maintain unique business processes easily and enables a relatively easy upgrade to new releases.

• Get Everyone on Board

Employees want to use a solution with a familiar and intuitive user experience that makes their jobs easier, and is simple to use and learn. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables people to find, sort, visualize, and use information through an easy-to-use user interface that looks and works like Microsoft Office. Work easily with everyday tools by sharing data between Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Office 2010.

• Connect and Collaborate

Easily connect employees, customers, suppliers, and partners through integrated self-service collaboration capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables you to streamline basic supply chain collaboration with self-service, Microsoft SharePoint®– based vendor, customer, and employee portals, and end-to-end business process integration through Sites Services.2 Simplify advanced supply chain collaboration with adaptable web services and share information easily by using collaboration tools such as Microsoft LyncTM and by creating SharePoint collaboration sites directly from within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

• Lower Your TCO

In addition to improved productivity gains, lower your total cost of ownership (TCO) through simplified life cycle management and quick installations. Use Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services to help ensure a quick and reliable setup and configuration of your ERP solution. In alignment with the RoleTailored design of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the simplified Business Value Licensing model ensures that you buy the exact number of licenses you need—no more, no less— with options to easily add more licenses as your business grows.

• Leverage the Power of the Microsoft Platform

It’s our fundamental value proposition: The interaction of ERP, business and productivity applications, communications solutions, and the underlying technology platform—that works on-premises or in the cloud. We call it pervasive interoperability. With Microsoft Dynamics AX 2102, you get a business solution from Microsoft that is backed by an ongoing commitment to research, development, and innovation. Combined with a global ecosystem of specialized partners, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 uses the power of the Microsoft platform to deliver a powerfully simple solution.

We heard from customers and partners that to get a good return on investment, the user interface is a key component. Enterprise Portal (EP) needed to score high on both look-and-feel and usability in this release. To meet and exceed customer and partner expectations, the user interface has gone through a major revision in this release. We built our user experience on the already familiar Office and Windows platforms. User interaction was made intuitive and consistent across the product, information and actions are easily discoverable, and tasks are completed in fewer steps, leading to a reduction in time spent on tasks.

The key capabilities of EP user interface

Action Pane:  Built along the lines of SharePoint 2007 and Office 2007 successful and well-adopted ribbon interface, EP has Actions Panes in this release.  The toolbars in the list and task pages have been replaced by the Action Pane. The commands are organized into a set of tabs along with relevant icons for visual cue. The tabs on the action pane display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas. This improves the discoverability of actions and simplifies accessing and acting on the application features.

Model dialogs: In the previous versions of Enterprise Portal, viewing, editing and creating items in a list page forced the user to navigate to the task page away from the list page. By navigating away, all the user interactions previously completed on the list page—such as filtering, sorting, page navigation, etc.—are all lost when the user navigates back to the list page after completing the task. Since the navigation reloads and refreshes the list page, the user had to start all over again to regain their previous settings. In Microsoft Dynamics AX6 all the task pages are opened as Model dialog boxes on top of the list page instead of navigating away, so the context is preserved. The task page is highlighted on top of the list and when the task page modal dialog is closed, it puts the highlight back on to the list page preserving the setting along with the refreshed data. This makes finding, viewing, creating and modifying data much simpler and consistent across the product. Built on SharePoint 2010 dialog platform, all this is done through meta data setting by developers without the need to write any code.

Fact Box: In Microsoft Dynamics AX6, all list pages have Fact Boxes and a Preview Pane to provide more information from related objects in context for the selected object. This gives users an overview of a given object, enableing them to initiate more actions in context and thereby reduce the need to open additional windows or navigate to other places in the navigation layer. Fact boxes can also act as preview panes at the bottom of the list page. This allows more information to display about the selected object itself in a list page and overcomes the space limitations of the number of columns displayed in the list.

FastTab : Collapsible and expandable FastTabs replace traditional tabs on task pages in EP. Key fields can be promoted on a summary line that display even when the tab is collapsed. The traditional tabs can display information from one tab only at a time.  But with FastTabs and its auto summary fields, users can get full view of the selected object and all its important data in one shot without the need to navigate between different tabs.

Filters: Enterprise Portal now has a Quick Filter in all the list pages to allow the user to find data quickly. Developers can enable most common filtering fields readily available as Facet Filter at the top of the list page to increase their discoverability. Power users can build complex filtering conditions using the Advanced Filter control which allows multiple filter conditions.

Search: In Microsoft Dynamics AX6, EP makes search seamless by integrating with SharePoint Search through Business Connectivity Services (BCS). Microsoft Dynamics AX queries, Microsoft Dynamics AX Navigation metadata, and document attachments are published as BCS entities through Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup and end users can search for business data, metadata and attachments. For example, a user could search for customers, a link to the report, and any attached documents.

Navigation: In Microsoft Dynamics AX6, the quick launch displays items in a hierarchical view instead of a flat list as in prior versions. This way, related navigational elements are grouped together and are displayed in a familiar Outlook-type navigation control. The information architecture has been revisited in this release with consistent navigation taxonomy. This will help the end users quickly locate and navigate to the correct places to do their tasks.

Actions: Actions on the list page are more discoverable through the Action Pane. Also they can be exposed as hyperlinks on the list columns and as actions in a Fact Box. List Page also supports taking action on multiple items for bulk changes.

New Controls: In Microsoft Dynamics AX6, we also added a number of new controls for displaying complex data in a usable way such as Account control for financial dimensions, Hierarchical grid view for resource scheduling, and Reference field for displaying composite keys.

Export to Excel: Users can seamlessly export any list into Excel through a command in Action Pane. This brings the power of Excel to the fingertips of EP users for analyzing and comprehending large amounts of data from a list page. With the Microsoft Dynamics AX Office Add-in, data could be refreshed at a later time directly from Excel to get the latest information.

LookUps: For quick data entry, lookups with a fewer number of rows (under 50 rows for example) could be made to render in-client instead of on the server. This reduces the wait time for the lookup to load tremendously improving the user experience and reducing the time it takes to enter data.

With these changes, users are now able to get and control more information in less time than ever before. Next time we’ll look at how Enterprise Portal rapidly responds to business needs.

Source : Solutions Monkey

Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6488762

Dynamics AX 2012 is now generally available in 25 countries and 23 languages. The new ERP system now supports more than 40 roles within an organization with a new set of tools, such as the Unified Natural Models, serving as a library of business processes.

Business Analyst vs System Analyst

Business Analyst and System Analyst are job roles evolved with the growth of information technology. Role of Business Analyst (BA) can be observed in many industries but more widespread in IT industry. This job requires various academic and professional qualifications depending on the job requirement. Systems analyst works in all the industries, but they should possess professional background in information management. In both the job roles, analytical skills, proper planning, team work and innovative thinking can be considered as keys to success.

Business Analyst

The role of Business Analyst could significantly diverge depending on the industry in consideration. During the past decade, the role of BA has mostly associated with the IT industry as an important job. BA acts as a bridge between the customer and the development team. Business process and requirements are translated to functional specifications by a business analyst. The business analyst works with the development team during the entire implementation process. In software development, BA plays the role of testing the implementations done by the team to ensure that customer needs are satisfied. Business Analyst should possess the relevant functional knowledge in the area in which the job is assigned. For example, in an ERP if the development is to satisfy IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) compliance, BA should have a sound accounting background so that, he/she can map the accounting standards’ requirement with the system features. BA should develop a good confidence with the development team so that, any uncertainties are always discussed with the BA before the implementation proceeds.

System Analyst

System Analyst (SA) mainly works with configuring system requirements of an organization. System analyst should have a sound knowledge on computer software, hardware and networking. The academic background of a System Analyst could mainly associate with computer science, information science or management information systems. The main responsibilities include interact with end users and customers, plan the system flow, manage design considerations, and implementation while managing time-lines. SA is responsible of documenting user requests in to technical documentation. SA should always discuss with the end user of the computer system regarding the information flow and their specific requirement. System Analysts experiments with different computer system plans and try various tools and steps until they find the system is the fastest, easy to use and cost is fully optimized. In this process, analyst has to test the system and ensure that information is processed without mistakes.

What is the difference between Business Analyst and System Analyst?

Role of Business Analyst and System Analyst is mostly associated with the IT industry. Both job roles require professionals in the relevant disciplines. Members of both the job roles have to be a good team players and should accomplish organizational objectives while ensuring that the customer/end-user objectives are met. Effective communication, first-rate analytical and problem solving skills play a major part in the success of these professionals.

BA could be from any discipline and need not posses IT knowledge at all in some cases. In an ERP software development, there are BAs with Accounting, Finance, Human resource management, engineering and supply chain knowledge and background. But a SA should always possess the relevant information science/management knowledge. BA mostly collaborates with the end customer(s) of the product and with the development team. SA work with the end users of the organizations and with the IT department.

In summary, System Analyst plays a technical job role and Business Analyst focuses more on business processes and underlying concepts and practices.

Source : http://goo.gl/TVFC1

Public Sector organizations, like educational institutions, not for profit organizations, and governments, are continuously facing the challenge of reduced budgets while still being expected to deliver greater value to their stakeholders.  This challenge has only increased in the past few years with the strain of the recession.  Successful public sector leaders know that they need to focus on results and providing value and accountability to stakeholders.

A proficient Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution can help Public Sector organizations achieve these goals.  Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps manage finances, funds and grants, procurement, human resources, and service delivery.   It helps increase efficiencies within the organization allowing for better use of limited resources.  Dynamics AX 2012 also helps organizations maintain transparency allowing for consolidation of services and reduction of cost, as well as fiscal responsibility to stakeholders.

There are 5 main reasons why Dynamics AX 2012 is a great fit for public sector organizations.

1. Purposely built for the public sector – Dynamics AX 2012 helps manage complex regulatory, budget, and grant compliance requirements to optimize the use of funds.  It has capabilities built in to increase accountability, transparency, and performance unique to the Public Service sector.  These industry specific features are available right out-of-the-box.
2. Improved delivery of services – Dynamics AX 2012 proactively tracks revenues, expenditures, and personnel resources against defined budget objectives. With Dynamics AX 2012 quickly access real-time information to improve decision making and help control spending.
3. Ability to adapt easily to evolving needs of stakeholders – Integrated customer relationship management (CRM) tools can help gain deeper insight into patron and stakeholder needs. Use this insight to adjust processes for better service delivery. Flexible budget controls allows for the agility to align resources with budget objectives.
4. Address mandates – Adapt to changing regulatory and administrative requirements with real-time insight and configurable workflows. Manage complex multiyear, multi funded projects and grant requirements for timely reimbursement.
5. Support transparency and openness – Increase organizational transparency and agility with budget visibility, helping you avoid budget overruns before funds are committed. Role-based security enforces better control and accountability.

These five unique product features, coupled with other features in Dynamics AX 2012 and working with a partner who has a rich background in supporting and servicing public sector organizations, can help your Public Sector organization manage challenges while helping you achieve your organization’s mission.

Interested in learning more?  Read  a case study about the City of Redmond and attend the Dynamics AX 2012 launch event on Sept 8th, 2011.

By Encore Business Solutions, Western Canada’s Public Sector Specialist  Source :ERP Softwareblog