Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–FRx FRx Report Manager
Microsoft is slowly phasing out FRx, and will be replaced ...a.netcominfo.com/webinars/slides/FRx vs...
Transcript of Microsoft is slowly phasing out FRx, and will be replaced ...a.netcominfo.com/webinars/slides/FRx vs...
• Microsoft is slowly phasing out FRx, and will be replaced by Management Reporter
• FRx will be supported for the remainder of the current SL, GP, AX, NAV lifecycles
• FRx will NOT be available in new releases of SL, GP, AX, NAV
• Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics ERP is designed to help users create
financial reports that can be tailored to meet the needs of any company.
• Designed by accountants for accountants, Management Reporter empowers finance
professionals to create high-volume, presentation-quality reports in minutes.
• The report wizard makes it easy to design, store, and generate reports from reusable
building blocks that contain row, column, and tree definitions, which eliminates the need
to re-create common scenarios each reporting period.
• Management Reporter 2012 integrates with the following Microsoft Dynamics ERPs:
• Management Reporter will only work with Microsoft Dynamics ERP.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2
Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011
Microsoft Dynamics SL 2015
An installation of Management Reporter consists of:
• Server
• Database
• Data provider that connects to a Microsoft Dynamics ERP database
• At least one client computer
These components can be installed on machines arranged in a variety of topologies,
but all elements must be installed for the application to run.
Server components for Management Reporter store information for reports and control access to the report
data. The server components consist of:
Application service: Controls access to Management Reporter data and provides connectivity to client
computers.
Process service: Generates reports and runs report schedules that are created by the Management
Reporter client components. This service also runs the data mart integrations for Microsoft Dynamics ERP
systems.
Management Reporter database: Stores the report building blocks, reports available to be generated,
and historical reports. During installation, a new database can be created or Management Reporter can
be connected to an existing database.
Datamart database: Contains General ledger data that is copied from the Microsoft Dynamics ERP
database to aid in generating reports for Management Reporter 2012. This is installed only for data mart
integrations.
The Management Reporter client components communicate with the server components, which performs
most of the report processing for your Microsoft Dynamics ERP system. You can manage, view, analyze, print,
or export reports from within the client. The client components consist of:
Report Designer: Designs reports with Microsoft Dynamics ERP data, schedules reports, and generates
reports with up-to-date financial data.
Desktop Viewer: Displays the reports that are generated in Report Designer in a read-only format, and stores
the reports in a report library.
Web Viewer: Displays the reports that are generated in Report Designer in a web browser. The reports are in
a read-only format.
Note: The Management Reporter client components do not have to be installed on the same computer as the
Management Reporter server components, but you must be connected to a computer that has the server
components.
• Management Reporter uses the same approach to report design that exists in FRx, and combines this with a
robust architecture and an improved user interface that is familiar and more consistent with other Microsoft
applications.
• You’ll appreciate the performance, stability, and new features that Management Reporter delivers. Here are
some of the key enhancements:
- New code & architecture w/ 64-bit support
- Enhanced & Improved stability
- Improved performance
- SQL server
- Improved multi-user environment
- Active directory
- Report library, report viewer
- Undo feature!
- Greater report creation flexibility
- Increased customized formatting
- Organization by folders
- XBRL support
MR functionality goes beyond what FRx offers by including:
• Direct integrations to ERP general ledger
• Reusable building blocks of Report, Row, Column and Tree definitions
• A Report Library where reports can be secured
• Enhanced Collaboration and sharing
• Easier to configure companies
Terminology changes
FRx MR
Specification set Building Block
Row Format Row Definition
Column Layout Column Definition
Reporting Tree Reporting Tree Definition
Drill Down Viewer Report Viewer
Link to GL Link to Financial Dimensions
Account Set Dimension Set
Will Management Reporter include features and functionality from FRx?
• Although the functionality gaps between FRx and Management Reporter are minimal,
Microsoft Dynamics will continue to focus Management Reporter on the features and
capabilities that customers need most.
• This includes covering the most common usage scenarios with similar features between
FRx and Management Reporter.
Yes!
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By upgrading to Management Reporter, you can:
• Improve performance and stability: Take advantage of a proven business intelligence (BI)
architecture from Microsoft and the centralized database storage of Microsoft SQL Server so that
you can focus on your job while data, formats, and reports are hosted and stored securely.
• Increase productivity and effectiveness: Generate, view, and distribute reports in the centralized
Report Library, which helps people get the information they need to quickly analyze data and make
informed decisions.
• Transition easily: Use the Management Reporter Migration Wizard to quickly move your report
definitions from FRx and maintain formatting.
• Customize existing reports: Use new customization features to modify migrated reports with the
familiar, yet enhanced look and feel of FRx.
• Greater Report design flexibility: When you create reports, you can create various dimension
combinations and reuse them between different reports. You can also control how dimension
descriptions are formatted and displayed, and format headers for rolling forecasts. Before you generate a
report, you can run a missing account analysis to quickly identify accounts and dimensions that have
been omitted from report building blocks.
• Increased Financial report collaboration: Report scheduling options help you automatically generate
reports on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. Enhanced report distribution options allow you to
publish to Microsoft Excel® worksheets and the read-only .XPS report format. Microsoft SharePoint® is
also supported. Enhanced security options for reports are also available.
• Interactive report viewing: Desktop Viewer has enhanced options for viewing and analyzing reports
that have been generated, add comments to generated reports, create charts based on report data, and
quickly search report data for specific information.
• Deeper Microsoft Dynamics ERP integration: You can select data in a report and view the original
data in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP database, based on the company, account, and period that is
defined in the report. Management Reporter also helps you display or filter on properties of
dimensions and transactions to design more precise financial reports.
• Help protect financial data: Leverage the enhanced security of Management Reporter to help
protect sensitive data and business information.
• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): Pricing and licensing costs for Management Reporter are
designed to make upgrading from FRx as easy as possible.
I. Management Reporter Designer Users are included in each AM and BE Edition Full Access User for
no additional charge.
II. Management Reporter Designer Users are available a la carte to AM, BE, PRO and STD Edition
customers.
III. Also, upgrading to Management Reporter positions you to achieve an increasingly higher ROI as
Microsoft adds functionality such as budgeting and forecasting in future releases.
Are FRx data and reports easy to migrate to Management Reporter?
1. The Management Reporter Migration Wizard makes it quick and easy to migrate report
definition data from FRx to Management Reporter.
2. First is the actual data migration, where Rows, Columns, Trees, font styles, and lists of
companies are transitioned over. This is a migration and conversion process, because
all FRx data is copied to the Management Reporter database, where it is converted to
the dimension-based system of Management Reporter.
3. Next is the validation process. Validation by the Implementation team consists of
evaluating each building block to ensure it meets all the necessary formatting
requirements in Management Reporter.
Yes!
Validation will help you:
• Ensure proper formatting of your reports.
• Save time by validating before report generation.
• Automatically prevent invalid formulas because it requires you to validate
and save building blocks as you go.
Side note – If you decide to continue with FRx, on a Microsoft Dynamics ERP version
which allows it, you can migrate to MR at any point..the decision is yours!
Management Reporter Demo!
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