E-Learning suffrance

As part of my personal brain training with Ax 2009 I started off with reading the Microsoft Official Training Materials for Microsoft Dynamics® - more specifically the 80011* DEVeloper material they had. It was a great kick-off point by sitting down for 4 days and working through the first two or three modules that they offered. With copious amounts of head scratching, coffee and crying on the course tutor's shoulder we learnt a lot in a little time.

Now however after 6 months I'm an expert... And those of you who have been working in the ERP industry for last 20 will know how much of a joke that last sentence is. Therefore I applied myself to the Best Practices White Paper for Ax 2009. It's a popular resource related to developing with the product and well worth a perusal. It really should be done and dusted if you intend to write MorphX code as part of your career.

Next up was to broaden my horizons and get a better grasp of the individual modules available. The E-Learning catalogue provides an interesting offering of resources to the training materials available in pdf, and also in electronic plus interactive format. Furthermore you can see what modules you have completed and those still available. Best yet your boss can see how you are progressing with that fascinating multi-company, multi-currency Financials module. While having paper in my hand is always best I enjoyed sitting at my desk at work plodding through the catalogues available, sound off (the text is read out by a clear speaking American lady but I just can't handle having to listen to more than one woman telling me what to do in my life, thanks), and then click away at the Next button until the mini-tests arrive. My theory is that 50% of the difficulty of the exams vary more depending upon your own experience with ERP than the product itself.

And now it's all gone (for me). I had access via Customer Source but now I'm left with only my company's Partner Source but with no access to the E-Learning catalogue. I get the following message in a page with 240+ down votes:

You do not have unlimited organizational access to E-Learning for Microsoft Dynamics and related business products.

Enroll in a Partner Service Plan today to receive access!

Sadness.