Jacob Roder’s superpower is finding a simple and elegant solution for complex software issues. His ability led him to become the CTO and Solution Architect for sa.global in 2013.
Jacob graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After school, he quickly migrated to software. His focus is manufacturing applications of Microsoft ERP systems. Today, Jacob specializes in trade and logistics, production, master planning, and inventory management modules and is certified in trade and logistics. He serves as a subject matter expert in sales and marketing management, trade and logistics, inventory and warehouse management, inventory costing, production control, and master planning.
In addition to standard implementations, Jacob is exemplary at debugging and resolving issues in struggling projects. When he’s not solving complex problems, you might find Jacob with a pen in hand, illustrating a delightful cartoon.
Are you looking for an easy way for your users to create support tickets with the IT staff? Is your IT staff using Azure DevOps, but it’s too confusing to get your end-users into? Do you not have ticketing software, but you have many remote users who need to raise…
The most interesting thing with the HoloLens 2 devices that we’ve sold is, that no matter the industry, the type of use cases seem to be pretty similar. Here are 3 of the top field-tested use cases we have heard from users. COVID-19 travel alternatives for industrial equipment manufacturers Due…
Look at all these KPIs! There’s all these wonderful out-of-the-box reports provided by Microsoft for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. When you spin up a new instance, the values just show up. Unfortunately, there’s not much of an explanation of how they’re calculated. Obviously, Microsoft is trying their best…
There is functionality within Dynamics 365 Finance and Operation which allows you to plan for material expiring before being used. In addition to tracking the shelf life of products and materials, it can help enable you in planning for the future to ensure that your organization isn’t accumulating excess waste….
Microsoft was kind enough to supply us with a HoloLens 2 in order to get out and show it to our customers. This happened about 8 weeks ago – haven’t had a lot of opportunities to showcase the technology, obviously. Instead, we thought we’d do a little blog post showing…
There are lots of pros and cons to working remotely. Pro? Don’t have to head into the office every day. Con? Don’t have a great way to communicate or interact with a team on a consistent basis. There are tons of collaboration tools these days. Being a Microsoft Partner, we…
What is the Solution Architect Bootcamp? Apparently, I missed the memo on these Solution Architect Bootcamps put on by the Fast Track Solution Architects at Microsoft. Since rolling out the most recent version of their program to help customers “implement high quality solution faster”, “go live with confidence” and “stay…
An important thing for anyone in the manufacturing or distribution space is understanding how much inventory is currently available for a given item. Not only that, but understanding how much of that inventory is already spoken for and how much demand is upcoming. Sometimes, inventory is “available”, but Dynamics doesn’t…
Cancel messages? Why bother!? I always hear the following question: “Why do I get cancel action messages on planned orders. If I’m supposed to cancel the planned order, why generate it in the first place!” To understand the mechanism behind this, two little tidbits about master planning logic are important:…
Since AX7 or Dynamics AX was released, reporting and access to the data has been a concern of mine. Also, since the release, the terms “entity store” and “BYOD” have been bandied about and interchanged, so I’ve been confused. I got to the bottom of this, though, by confirming some…
Here at sa.global, we hear a lot of requirements around how a customer aging report needs to look. In some instances, these requirements are driven by external parties (like a lender) that need a formal report in a certain prescribed way. In many other instances, though, these reports are used…
How to favorite a saved query Here is a tip that lots of users I encounter have not seen before. Although plenty of people use favorites in Dynamics AX, they often miss out one of the best pieces of functionality. In Dynamics AX (not just 2012,) it’s possible to save…
I’ve been doing a little bit of work with the Electronic Reporting engine in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, and I ran into a little trick that I wasn’t able to find listed on any forums, Yammer groups, LCS issues, or blog posts. WHAT WAS I TRYING TO DO?…
HOW CAN I USE MY HOLOLENS WITH DYNAMICS 365? I recently did a video and released it on a Friday night. No one saw it, but I still think it’s interesting, so I figured I’d document how it worked. Long story short, I wanted to try to create Microsoft Dynamics…
Price control to maintain sales price compliance – something that seems like it should be supported out of the box in Dynamics AX or Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Specifically, we’ve heard a number of companies say they want a way to review if a sales representative modifies a…
Background Let me first preface this post with giving a shout-out to the Critical Situation Management and Escalation team at Microsoft. I was able to work with them throughout the night to get a recent issue with Management Reporter resolved even though I created my ticket around 5:30 Central Time. …
We’ve come a long way! The reports that have looked the same since as far as I can remember have been updated to “Modern report designs”. They’re not usable for every condition (take a look here for instructions on how to install them and check out the caveats), but they’re…
Do you want to save time adding Main Accounts in Dynamics AX or Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, or have a need for some consistent setting to be applied across groups of similar Main Accounts? Maybe you just do it so infrequently you’d like that head start in setting one…
Findings from #UserGroupSummit I’m sitting here after attending the MSFT14 – Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations: Microsoft Managed Continuous Updates and Support Experience session at AXUG 2018 in Phoenix. I attended this session because I knew Shelly Bakke would be leading it and I knew she had the info…
On hand inventory – what does it all mean?? One of the most important parts of an ERP for a manufacturing or distribution company is knowing what material you have available, what you need to make, and where it all is. When you open up on the on-hand form in…