An Unwillingness To Accept The Truth Does Not Make Those Who Have Liars

It’s happened to the best of people – Copernicus, Magellan, Scully & Mulder and now me. “What’s that?” I hear you ask. Well let me tell you the story…

Week before last I was at the AXUG (Dynamics AX User Group) Summit and to earn my keep I had 8 presentations and also a four hour training session that I gave titled “How To Implement Dynamics AX In An Afternoon” (which was actually scheduled for the morning slot but that is not what this story is about) where I planned to show how to start with a blank Dynamics AX partition and then load and configure all of the core financial modules (GL, Cash, Payables & Receivables) and then the operations modules (Products, Inventory, Sales & Purchasing).

This was a pretty ambitious undertaking which I thought that I could do, I didn’t have enough time to do a run test run. I have to admit, I was a little worried that I had bit off more than I could chew to compress a 24 hour training class that I had done in the past into 4 hours.

Let’s face it when you boil down Dynamics AX, all you really need to configure is the Ledger, Products, Customers and Vendors and you should be up and running. Everything else is just windows dressing and polishing up of the processes. I had proven that with the Bare Bones Configuration Guide series that I had spent the last two years compiling.

And I wanted to prove a point that Dynamics AX is not a complicated product to set up and it shouldn’t take you weeks (or even months) to configure a base company within Dynamics AX and also show how the students could do this themselves and also learn a lot more about the inner workings of Dynamics AX through the process.

In addition, I wanted to prove that the people who say that Dynamics AX is a complicated product and that it will take an exorbitant amount of time and money to get even this base system up and running are misguided (this is a polite version of the word) and there needs to be a change in attitude.

So I distilled all of my guides into an expert edition that covered 11 of the core guides and with that in hand I dove in head first into the training session.

Now back to the point of the story – which is the unwarranted persecution of people that were trying to fix the misconceptions of the world and make everyone’s life just a little better…

Later on that week I was coming down in the elevator on the way to the conference and a gentleman got on as well. I thought that I would chat to him for the 30 seconds that we were on the elevator to pass the time.

He asked if I was attending the conference, I said yes.

I asked if he was enjoying the sessions and presentations, he was.

He asked me what I was doing there and I mentioned that I was speaking and also had given a training course.

He then asked what the training course was on and I said that it was “How To Implement Dynamics AX in an Afternoon”.

All he could say to that was – “You are a liar!”

OMG – as he stepped out of the elevator I was shocked at the venomous allegation that one small comment provoked. I’m guessing that he made a living from implementing Dynamics AX and I had rattled the foundation of his belief system.

Because the training that I gave worked and I was able to set up all of AX, load in and configure the ledger, set up cash management, load in customers, vendors and products and then configure the inventory, sales and procurement, all within the 4 hour time slot. And all of the students went home with a door prize of a starter kit to do it themselves and also all of the data that I had used for the training so that they could do the same thing themselves.

On the bright side he did prove a point that my mission to convert all of the misguided heathen out there was not done.

PS. For those of you that have been converted and have completed the entire Bare Bones Configuration Series, then you deserve an award. if you can send me proof that you have set up a blank company then I will send you a care package that includes a Bare Bones Configuration Privateer merit badge and also a couple of other goodies.