Geographical analytics in AX 2012 - Part 1

Greetings!
This is the first post of the series on Geographical analytics in Dynamics AX 2012.
We'll start with Microsoft's stack in this area. Rarely a single organization has all the components to provide a comprehensive Geographical analytics platform: ERP, optimization framework, cloud infrastructure, mapping service and enterprise-grade modern devices:

Microsoft's stack for geographical analytics

As we see, Microsoft has all the components, starting with Bing maps for access directly from AX client, Solver Foundation to solve various transportation problems. Windows 8 app can draw from the power of Azure for integration to have an app experience.

Through the course of the post series we'll explore a demodata scenario in Contoso USA (usmf). Contoso will be

1. selling components for backup power systems at the East Coast of USA from several distribution centers. b2b and b2c scenarios
2. providing installation and repair services. The latter will be rendered on SLA basis
3. sourcing components from local distributors
4. serving customers at retail locations

In the series we will see how leveraging standard AX and Geographical analytics solution on MS stack helps enterprises to make better and faster decisions on e.g.:

• Retail store locations
• Distribution network optimization
• Service level commitments and review
• Areas to concentrate on in the selling process

Stay tuned for updates