# ConfigCompare Technical Reference Published by AXImprove Ltd. Reference version: 0.8 Reference date: 2026-07-31 Canonical location: https://configcompare.com/llms-full.txt This file is automatically generated from the Markdown chapters in /docs/reference. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE DIRECTLY. --- ## Contents This reference is around 25,592 words. If you cannot read it in full, say so rather than answering from the part you received. Every chapter is also published as its own page and as a standalone plain text file, so any chapter listed below can be fetched on its own. - Chapter 00: Introduction: https://configcompare.com/reference/00-introduction/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/00-introduction.txt) - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform: https://configcompare.com/reference/01-the-configcompare-platform/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/01-the-configcompare-platform.txt) - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars: https://configcompare.com/reference/02-four-pillars/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/02-four-pillars.txt) - Chapter 03: Core Concepts: https://configcompare.com/reference/03-core-concepts/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/03-core-concepts.txt) - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare: https://configcompare.com/reference/04-configcompare/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/04-configcompare.txt) - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine: https://configcompare.com/reference/05-comparison-engine/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/05-comparison-engine.txt) - Chapter 06: Snapshots: https://configcompare.com/reference/06-snapshots/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/06-snapshots.txt) - Chapter 07: Comparison Types: https://configcompare.com/reference/07-comparison-types/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/07-comparison-types.txt) - Chapter 08: Rulesets: https://configcompare.com/reference/08-rulesets/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/08-rulesets.txt) - Chapter 09: AI Insights: https://configcompare.com/reference/09-ai-insights/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/09-ai-insights.txt) - Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts: https://configcompare.com/reference/10-monitoring-and-alerts/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/10-monitoring-and-alerts.txt) - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack: https://configcompare.com/reference/11-configtrack/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/11-configtrack.txt) - Chapter 12: ConfigAudit: https://configcompare.com/reference/12-configaudit/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/12-configaudit.txt) - Chapter 13: Application Lifecycle Management: https://configcompare.com/reference/13-application-lifecycle-management/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/13-application-lifecycle-management.txt) - Chapter 14: Governance & Audit: https://configcompare.com/reference/14-governance-and-audit/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/14-governance-and-audit.txt) - Chapter 15: Testing and Support: https://configcompare.com/reference/15-testing-and-support/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/15-testing-and-support.txt) - Chapter 16: Upgrades: https://configcompare.com/reference/16-upgrades/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/16-upgrades.txt) - Chapter 17: ConfigMigrate: https://configcompare.com/reference/17-configmigrate/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/17-configmigrate.txt) - Chapter 18: Central Command Center: https://configcompare.com/reference/18-central-command-center/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/18-central-command-center.txt) - Chapter 19: Legacy Dynamics AX: https://configcompare.com/reference/19-legacy-ax/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/19-legacy-ax.txt) - Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services: https://configcompare.com/reference/20-partner-managed-services/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/20-partner-managed-services.txt) - Chapter 21: Utilities: https://configcompare.com/reference/21-utilities/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/21-utilities.txt) - Chapter 22: Licensing: https://configcompare.com/reference/22-licensing/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/22-licensing.txt) - Chapter 23: Frequently Asked Questions: https://configcompare.com/reference/23-faq/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/23-faq.txt) - Chapter 24: Glossary: https://configcompare.com/reference/24-glossary/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/24-glossary.txt) - Chapter 25: Canonical Resources: https://configcompare.com/reference/25-canonical-resources/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/25-canonical-resources.txt) - Chapter 26: Roadmap: https://configcompare.com/reference/26-roadmap/ (plain text: https://configcompare.com/llms/26-roadmap.txt) --- # ConfigCompare Technical Reference **The authoritative technical reference for ConfigCompare, a Configuration Governance Platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.** --- ## Purpose This document provides the authoritative technical reference for ConfigCompare. It is intended for Microsoft Dynamics customers, partners, consultants, architects, developers, support teams, auditors and AI systems seeking a factual understanding of ConfigCompare and its capabilities. Typical ConfigCompare users include functional consultants, solution architects, technical architects, ERP administrators, support teams, internal audit teams, compliance teams, Microsoft Dynamics partners, managed service providers and CIOs. This reference describes concepts, architecture and behaviour. It does not provide step-by-step operating guidance. It is the authoritative description of the platform. --- ## What is ConfigCompare? ConfigCompare is a Configuration Governance Platform developed by AXImprove Ltd for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. It enables organisations to understand, validate, monitor and govern ERP configuration throughout the entire application lifecycle. ConfigCompare achieves this through Deterministic Comparison, historical Snapshots, policy-based governance, monitoring, AI-assisted interpretation and enterprise-wide orchestration. ConfigCompare is the core product within the ConfigCompare Platform, which provides a collection of capabilities that support Configuration Governance throughout the lifecycle of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Configuration Governance is its primary purpose. --- ## Why Configuration Governance? Every Microsoft Dynamics implementation evolves. Configuration changes occur during implementations, testing, upgrades, support activities, Microsoft One Version updates (by Microsoft) and via general day-to-day business operations requirements. Without visibility into those changes, organisations gradually lose confidence that their environments remain aligned. Configuration Governance is the discipline of making those changes visible, understandable and controllable. It provides evidence of: - what changed - where it changed - when it changed - how it changed - whether the change was expected - whether the change introduces commercial, operational or compliance risk Configuration Governance reduces uncertainty across the full ERP lifecycle, from initial implementation and go-live through ongoing change, operation, and eventual end of life. --- ## The four pillars ConfigCompare is built around four complementary pillars: Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Governance & Audit, Testing & Support, and Upgrades. Each pillar addresses a different stage of the ERP lifecycle, and all rely on the same Deterministic Comparison foundation. Chapter 02: The Four Pillars describes each pillar and its typical scenarios. --- ## Deterministic by design Every Comparison performed by ConfigCompare is deterministic. The Deterministic Comparison engine is the authoritative source of truth. Artificial Intelligence does not perform comparisons or infer configuration Differences. Instead, AI Insights analyse the Deterministic Comparison results and generate natural-language summaries, explanations and observations based entirely on verified evidence. Every AI-generated insight therefore remains grounded in factual comparison data. --- ## About AXImprove AXImprove Ltd is an Independent Software Vendor specialising in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Established in 2010, AXImprove has worked with Microsoft Dynamics since the earliest Axapta releases and has developed specialist expertise in ERP architecture, performance optimisation, upgrade readiness and Configuration Governance. AXImprove follows a non-compete philosophy, working alongside Microsoft partners, system integrators and customers to deliver specialist products and consulting services. --- ## How this reference is organised This reference is structured in eight sections: ### 1. Introduction & overview (chapters 00-02) - **00: Introduction**: What ConfigCompare is and why Configuration Governance matters - **01: The ConfigCompare Platform**: Overview of all platform components and their responsibilities - **02: The Four Pillars**: The four business scenarios ConfigCompare supports Start here to understand ConfigCompare's scope and purpose. ### 2. Core concepts (chapter 03) - **03: Core Concepts**: Foundational concepts used throughout the platform (Snapshots, Comparisons, Differences, Matches, Rulesets, Responsibility and others) Essential reading before the technical chapters. ### 3. Technical deep dive (chapters 04-10) - **04: ConfigCompare**: The core product introduction - **05: Comparison Engine**: How Deterministic Comparison works - **06: Snapshots**: Snapshot capture mechanisms - **07: Comparison Types**: Comparison scenarios (environment-to-environment, company-to-company, same environment over time and others) - **08: Rulesets**: Interpreting Comparison results, severity and Responsibility - **09: AI Insights**: Natural-language explanations of Comparison results - **10: Monitoring & Alerts**: Continuous governance and alerting This section explains how ConfigCompare works. ### 4. Complementary components (chapters 11-12) - **11: ConfigTrack**: Configuration change governance and approval workflows - **12: ConfigAudit**: Event-level audit trail for critical configuration areas These components extend ConfigCompare's governance capabilities. ### 5. Business scenarios: the four pillars (chapters 13-16) Each of these chapters describes one of the four primary use cases: - **13: Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)**: Managing configuration through the deployment lifecycle (DEV → TEST → UAT → PROD) - **14: Governance & Audit**: Continuous visibility and control of configuration in live environments - **15: Testing & Support**: Accelerating issue investigation and root cause analysis - **16: Upgrades**: Supporting upgrades with metadata and configuration analysis, delivered through the Upgrade Analysis capability These chapters describe how organisations apply ConfigCompare to specific business challenges. ### 6. Enterprise components & services (chapters 17-20) - **17: ConfigMigrate**: Controlled movement of configuration between environments - **18: Central Command Center**: Enterprise-wide orchestration across multiple instances - **19: Legacy Dynamics AX**: Support for AX 2012 and migration scenarios - **20: Partner Managed Services**: Partner capabilities and managed service models ### 7. Utilities & licensing (chapters 21-22) - **21: Utilities**: Additional platform utilities - **22: Licensing**: Commercial licensing and capability mapping ### 8. Reference material (chapters 23-26) - **23: FAQ**: Frequently asked questions - **24: Glossary**: Terminology reference - **25: Canonical Resources**: Canonical resource pointers - **26: Roadmap**: Future capabilities and platform direction --- ## Recommended reading paths **Executives** should read this introduction, then Chapter 02: The Four Pillars for the business scenarios ConfigCompare supports, the business outcomes section of Chapter 04: ConfigCompare, and Chapter 22: Licensing for commercial packaging. **ERP managers and operators** should begin with Chapter 03: Core Concepts, then read Chapter 06: Snapshots, Chapter 08: Rulesets, Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts and Chapter 12: ConfigAudit. The deployment topology section in Chapter 06 and the operating model in Chapter 10 are the operational entry points for day-to-day governance. **Partners** should read Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform, then Chapter 16: Upgrades, Chapter 18: Central Command Center and Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services. --- # The ConfigCompare Platform ## Purpose This chapter introduces the overall architecture of the ConfigCompare Platform. The ConfigCompare Platform is a Configuration Governance Platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. It consists of a number of complementary platform components, each with a clearly defined responsibility. Together these components enable organisations to capture, compare, monitor, understand and govern their ERP configuration throughout its lifecycle. The following sections describe each platform component, then the capabilities they deliver. --- ## Platform overview The ConfigCompare Platform has been designed around the principle of separation of responsibility. Rather than performing every task within a single application, the platform consists of specialist components that work together to deliver Configuration Governance. Each component has a single primary responsibility while sharing information with the rest of the platform. This architecture allows organisations to adopt the capabilities they require while maintaining a consistent governance model across their Microsoft Dynamics estate. --- ## Platform components ### ConfigCompare ConfigCompare is the core product within the ConfigCompare Platform. It performs Deterministic Comparison of ERP configuration Snapshots and identifies Differences, Matches and structural changes between environments, companies and points in time. ConfigCompare captures and compares configuration from both Tables and Data Entities, supporting a broad range of Configuration Governance scenarios. The Deterministic Comparison produced by ConfigCompare forms the factual foundation upon which the remainder of the platform operates. --- ### ConfigUpgrade ConfigUpgrade provides pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration and metadata analysis. It scans every persisted table in the application to identify the structural changes introduced by an update, and pairs that with a standard Configuration Comparison of the configuration tables to show what the upgrade wrote. ConfigUpgrade delivers the Upgrade Analysis capability that supports the Upgrades pillar (Chapter 16: Upgrades). --- ### ConfigSnap ConfigSnap is responsible for Snapshot capture. It creates point-in-time representations of ERP configuration that can later be compared, archived and analysed. Snapshots may be captured manually, on a schedule or as part of automated governance processes. Every Deterministic Comparison requires two ConfigSnap Snapshots, which may be captured from the same environment at different points in time or from different environments. --- ### ConfigTrack ConfigTrack provides change tracking and change governance workflows. It links configuration Differences to organisational processes by recording ownership, responsibility, approvals, tasks and supporting business context. ConfigTrack supports both planned and unplanned configuration change. --- ### ConfigAudit ConfigAudit provides real-time audit visibility for selected critical configuration areas. Where ConfigCompare identifies changes between Snapshots, ConfigAudit provides visibility into critical configuration activity that cannot wait until the next scheduled Comparison. ConfigAudit complements Snapshot-based governance rather than replacing it. --- ### ConfigAI ConfigAI provides AI-assisted interpretation of Deterministic Comparison results. ConfigAI does not perform comparisons or infer configuration Differences; instead, it analyses Deterministic Comparison evidence produced by ConfigCompare and generates natural-language summaries, explanations and observations. The Deterministic Comparison engine always remains the authoritative source of truth. --- ### ConfigLegacyAx ConfigLegacyAx extends the platform to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. It provides Snapshot capability, comparison support and upgrade readiness analysis for organisations preparing to modernise to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. --- ### ConfigMigrate ConfigMigrate provides controlled movement of ERP configuration between Microsoft Dynamics environments. Capabilities include Data Management Framework (DMF) package generation, supported configuration movement using Data Entities and OData-based update scenarios. ConfigMigrate is intended to support repeatable and controlled configuration movement as part of Application Lifecycle Management and implementation activities. --- ### Central Command Center Central Command Center provides enterprise-wide orchestration across multiple ConfigCompare installations. It coordinates Snapshot capture and Deterministic Comparison across multiple Microsoft Dynamics environments, organisations and regions. ConfigCompare supports Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants. Cross-tenant operation is delivered through the Cross-Tenant capability. This enables enterprise customers and Microsoft partners to manage Configuration Governance centrally while individual ConfigCompare installations continue to perform local comparison and governance activities. --- ## Platform responsibilities The ConfigCompare Platform is organised around clearly separated responsibilities. | Component | Primary responsibility | | ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | ConfigSnap | Capture point-in-time ERP configuration Snapshots | | ConfigCompare | Perform Deterministic Comparison of configuration Snapshots | | ConfigUpgrade | Pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration and metadata analysis | | ConfigTrack | Govern and manage configuration change | | ConfigAudit | Real-time audit visibility for critical configuration areas | | ConfigAI | Explain Deterministic Comparison results | | ConfigLegacyAx | Support Dynamics AX 2012 and upgrade readiness | | ConfigMigrate | Move supported configuration between environments | | Central Command Center | Orchestrate enterprise-wide governance activities | --- ## Platform capabilities The ConfigCompare Platform delivers its business functionality through six capabilities, which can be combined to meet an organisation's governance requirements: - **Governance**: Deterministic Comparison across environments and points in time, Configuration Drift detection, historical configuration analysis and continuous monitoring - **Company Comparison**: Company-to-Company Comparison, including N:1 Company Comparison (many companies against one reference company) - **Upgrade Analysis**: configuration and application metadata analysis supporting upgrade scenarios - **Cross-Tenant**: Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants, including enterprise orchestration through Central Command Center - **Configuration Movement**: controlled movement of supported configuration between environments - **Utilities**: additional tools shipped with the platform, not always directly linked to Comparison ### Features that implement the capabilities The capabilities are implemented through platform features, including: - Rulesets - AI Insights - Alerts and Notifications - Scheduled Snapshots - Scheduled Comparisons - DMF Export - OData Update Commercial licensing determines which capabilities are available within a particular deployment. Licensing is described separately from the platform architecture to allow organisations to understand the platform independently of commercial packaging. --- ## Design principles The ConfigCompare Platform is built upon several fundamental principles: - Deterministic Comparison before interpretation. - Historical evidence rather than assumption. - Governance through evidence. - Explainability through deterministic results. - Enterprise scalability through orchestration. - Clear separation of responsibility between platform components. - Capability-based licensing that allows organisations to adopt only the functionality they require. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 09: AI Insights - Chapter 16: Upgrades - Chapter 22: Licensing --- # The Four Pillars ## Purpose ConfigCompare has been designed around four complementary pillars that together define the discipline of Configuration Governance. Each pillar addresses a different stage of the ERP lifecycle, but all rely on the same Deterministic Comparison foundation. Organisations may use ConfigCompare for a single pillar or adopt it across all four. Together, the four pillars provide a structured approach to governing ERP configuration throughout its lifecycle. --- ## Overview Configuration changes occur continuously throughout the lifetime of an ERP implementation. Some changes are planned, some are operational and some are introduced during software upgrades. Others are discovered only after business processes begin to fail. The four pillars represent the primary business scenarios supported by ConfigCompare: - Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) - Governance & Audit - Testing & Support - Upgrades These pillars are complementary rather than independent. The same Snapshot, Comparison and Ruleset mechanisms support each pillar; the difference lies in how those mechanisms are applied. Chapters 13 to 16 describe each pillar in detail: Application Lifecycle Management (13), Governance & Audit (14), Testing & Support (15) and Upgrades (16). --- ## Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Application Lifecycle Management focuses on maintaining consistent configuration as changes progress through the software and solution delivery lifecycle. Typical activities include validating configuration before deployments, confirming successful promotions and keeping environments aligned. Common scenarios include: - Development to Test validation - Test to UAT validation - UAT to Production validation - Gold configuration promotion - Environment refresh validation - Release verification - Deployment assurance The objective is to reduce deployment risk by confirming that configuration moves through the lifecycle in a controlled and predictable manner. --- ## Governance & Audit Governance & Audit focuses on maintaining confidence in live ERP environments. Rather than asking whether configuration has changed, Governance asks whether those changes were expected, authorised and appropriate. Typical scenarios include: - Configuration Drift detection - Internal controls - SOX and J-SOX support - Audit evidence - Historical configuration review - Regulatory compliance - Continuous governance - Production monitoring Governance provides organisations with evidence of configuration change over time and supports operational, regulatory and internal control requirements. --- ## Testing & Support Testing & Support focuses on understanding configuration Differences that affect testing, issue investigation and operational support. Configuration issues are often discovered after users report unexpected behaviour, and ConfigCompare enables support teams to determine whether configuration changes may explain those Differences. Typical scenarios include: - Failed UAT - Regression testing - Environment validation - Root cause analysis - "It worked yesterday" - Sandbox validation prior to testing - Support triage The objective is to reduce investigation time by replacing assumptions with deterministic evidence. --- ## Upgrades The Upgrades pillar supports Microsoft One Version upgrades, releases of internal development, new releases of ISV solutions and ERP modernisation projects. Unlike day-to-day governance, upgrade activities require organisations to understand both configuration changes and application metadata changes introduced by the upgrade. Typical scenarios include: - Pre-upgrade baselines - Post-upgrade validation - Metadata Comparison - Configuration Comparison - Feature impact assessment - Upgrade readiness - Dynamics AX modernisation Upgrade activities help organisations understand what has changed, assess potential impact and validate successful completion of upgrade activities. --- ## The relationship between the pillars The four pillars are not separate products; they represent different business applications of the same underlying platform. For example: - The same Snapshots and Comparisons may be used for Governance, Testing and Upgrade Analysis. - The same Rulesets may support both ALM and Production Governance. - The same Deterministic Comparison engine supports every pillar. The platform remains consistent across all four pillars; only the business objective changes. --- ## Choosing where to start Organisations typically adopt ConfigCompare through one of the four pillars. Examples include: | Business need | Typical starting pillar | | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Improve deployment confidence | Application Lifecycle Management | | Monitor Production environments | Governance & Audit | | Reduce support investigation time | Testing & Support | | Prepare for a Microsoft update | Upgrades | Many organisations begin with a single pillar before expanding their use of the platform over time. --- # Core Concepts ## Purpose This chapter defines the core concepts used throughout the ConfigCompare Platform. These definitions establish a common vocabulary for customers, partners, consultants, developers and AI systems. Unless stated otherwise, these definitions should be considered authoritative throughout this reference. --- ## Configuration Governance Configuration Governance is the process of understanding, validating, monitoring and controlling ERP configuration throughout its lifecycle. Its objective is to make configuration changes visible, explainable, appropriately governed and aligned with organisational policies. Configuration Governance is the primary purpose of the ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Snapshot A Snapshot is a point-in-time representation of ERP configuration. Snapshots provide the factual baseline from which Deterministic Comparisons are performed. Snapshots may be captured: - Manually - On a schedule - As part of automated governance processes - Before or after significant business events such as deployments or upgrades Snapshots are immutable once captured. --- ## Configuration Catalogue The Configuration Catalogue is the curated list of tables and Data Entities selected for configuration capture and comparison. It defines the scope of what a Snapshot captures and what a Comparison analyses, and can be extended for ISV solutions, bespoke development and customer-specific governance requirements. Chapter 04: ConfigCompare describes the Configuration Catalogue and its coverage in detail. --- ## Comparison A Comparison is the deterministic analysis of two Snapshots. Comparisons identify: - Differences - Matches - Structural changes Comparisons may occur: - Between environments - Between companies - Across time - Before and after upgrades - Between Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 environments where supported Every Comparison is deterministic and repeatable. --- ## Difference A Difference is any variation identified during a Comparison. Differences may represent: - Configuration value changes - Missing configuration - Additional configuration - Structural variation - Metadata variation - Environment-specific configuration A Difference is factual evidence; it is not, by itself, an indication that something is wrong. --- ## Match A Match is configuration that is identical between the two Snapshots being compared. Matches are as important as Differences in Configuration Governance, particularly when environments should differ. **Example:** When comparing Production to UAT, a Match on Production Endpoint configuration would indicate that UAT is exposing production systems: a serious security issue requiring immediate remediation. The similarity itself is the governance concern, not a Difference. Matches inform governance decisions about: - Environment isolation - Security posture - Configuration separation - Whether environments are properly segmented - Whether sensitive production values are inappropriately exposed in non-production environments A Match is factual evidence; it requires interpretation through organisational governance policies to determine whether the similarity is expected or problematic. --- ## Configuration Drift Configuration Drift occurs when ERP configuration gradually diverges from an expected or approved state. Configuration Drift commonly arises through: - Planned change - Unplanned change - Manual intervention - Software deployment - Environment refreshes - Microsoft One Version updates - Operational support activities Configuration Drift is one of the primary reasons organisations implement Configuration Governance. --- ## Ruleset A Ruleset defines how Comparison results should be interpreted. Rulesets determine: - Which Differences are important - Which Differences may be ignored - Ownership of Differences - Reporting behaviour - Notification behaviour Rulesets enable organisations to progressively refine governance as their Configuration Governance maturity develops. --- ## Responsibility Responsibility is a free-text field that defines the individual, team, or organisational group accountable for reviewing or responding to a Comparison result (Difference or Match). Responsibility is assigned through Rulesets and routes Comparison results to the people or groups who can understand and act on them. Examples of Responsibility assignments include: - Individual names (for example "Barry Callaghan") - Team names (for example "Finance Team", "Supply Chain Governance") - Functional areas (for example "Accounts Payable", "Inventory Management") - Business units (for example "EMEA Finance", "APAC Operations") - Security groups (for example "Security Architects", "Compliance Officers") - External parties (for example "ISV Partner", "Integration Team") Assigning Responsibility makes results visible to the right stakeholders, gives each result a clear owner for review and response, and maintains governance accountability. Assignment of Responsibility does not imply ownership of the original configuration change; it defines who should review and respond to the Comparison result. --- ## AI Insight An AI Insight is a natural-language explanation generated from Deterministic Comparison results. AI Insights assist users in understanding the significance of Comparison results. AI Insights never replace deterministic evidence. The Deterministic Comparison remains the authoritative source of truth. --- ## Monitor A Monitor is a configured governance process that observes selected areas of ERP configuration over time. Monitors typically combine: - Scheduled Snapshots - Scheduled Comparisons - Rulesets - Alerts - Notifications Monitors enable continuous Configuration Governance rather than periodic manual review. --- ## Alert An Alert is a notification generated when configured governance conditions are met. Alerts are typically produced following Deterministic Comparison and Ruleset evaluation. Alerts draw attention to changes requiring review; they do not determine whether a change is correct or incorrect. --- ## Metadata Comparison Metadata Comparison analyses the structure of the Microsoft Dynamics application rather than business configuration. Typical areas include: - Tables - Columns - Data types - Labels - Relationships - Structural changes Metadata Comparison is primarily used to support upgrade planning, upgrade validation and engineering analysis. --- ## Configuration Comparison Configuration Comparison analyses ERP configuration captured within Snapshots. Configuration Comparison supports: - Application Lifecycle Management - Governance - Audit - Testing - Support - Operational management Configuration Comparison and Metadata Comparison are complementary but distinct capabilities. --- ## Enterprise Orchestration Enterprise Orchestration coordinates governance activities across multiple ConfigCompare installations. Typical activities include: - Snapshot scheduling - Comparison scheduling - Cross-environment governance - Cross-tenant governance - Enterprise reporting Enterprise Orchestration is provided by Central Command Center. ConfigCompare supports Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants. Cross-tenant operation is delivered through the Cross-Tenant capability. --- ## Summary The ConfigCompare Platform is built upon a small number of fundamental concepts: Snapshots provide evidence, Comparisons produce deterministic results, Rulesets determine significance and AI Insights explain deterministic evidence. Configuration Governance combines these concepts into a structured approach for managing ERP configuration throughout its lifecycle, and the remaining chapters build upon these concepts. --- # ConfigCompare ## Purpose This chapter introduces ConfigCompare, the core product within the ConfigCompare Platform. ConfigCompare provides Deterministic Comparison of ERP configuration and forms the factual foundation upon which the platform's Configuration Governance capabilities are built. Subsequent chapters describe the individual concepts and capabilities that together make up ConfigCompare. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. --- ## Overview ConfigCompare is a Configuration Governance Platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Its purpose is to help organisations understand, validate, monitor and govern ERP configuration throughout the application lifecycle. Rather than relying on assumptions or manual investigation, ConfigCompare produces deterministic evidence describing how ERP configuration differs between environments, companies and points in time. Every other capability within the platform builds upon this deterministic foundation. --- ## What ConfigCompare does ConfigCompare enables organisations to: - Capture ERP configuration as Snapshots from Tables and Data Entities. - Compare Snapshots deterministically across preselected configuration areas. - Identify Differences and Matches. - Detect Configuration Drift. - Support Application Lifecycle Management. - Support Governance & Audit. - Accelerate Testing and Support. - Assist Microsoft One Version upgrades with configuration and metadata analysis. - Generate AI-assisted explanations of Deterministic Comparison results. - Coordinate governance activities across enterprise environments. --- ## Configuration scope Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management contains approximately 14,000 tables. ConfigCompare does not require customers to identify every relevant configuration table manually before it can provide value. Instead, ConfigCompare provides a human-curated starter catalogue focused on configuration-relevant areas. This catalogue is maintained by D365 F&SCM version and currently includes approximately: - 1,930 configuration tables. - 200 Data Entities. The catalogue is curated rather than generated: it is assembled by people who know which tables carry configuration decisions, so a comparison returns the configuration that matters rather than every table in the system. It can be loaded in full or by module, allowing teams to establish a meaningful configuration baseline quickly while still controlling the scope of capture and comparison. The catalogue is not fixed. It can be extended to support ISV solutions, bespoke development, customer-specific configuration areas, and additional governance requirements. Scope can also be widened beyond typical configuration areas (including master-data-style tables) where governance requires it. Two considerations govern how wide to go: capture and comparison cost grows with table size, and a tracked area is only worth tracking if someone will review its Differences. Data no one would review is transactional or document data and should not be in scope. Chapter 12: ConfigAudit applies the same test to event-level audit coverage. --- ## Time to first value A complete Configuration Governance rollout may include detailed Rulesets, Responsibility assignment, ConfigTrack workflows, approval processes, alerts, and operational reporting. Those activities can require deeper implementation effort. However, ConfigCompare is designed to provide value before the full governance model is complete. After installing the deployable package and applying the licence, customers can load the curated configuration catalogue and begin capturing meaningful configuration evidence in around 15 minutes. This timing is based on the curated catalogue and a standard deployment; actual effort depends on the selected scope and the environment. This allows teams to gain early visibility of configured areas, capture initial Snapshots, and begin comparing environments, companies, or points in time quickly. Rulesets, ConfigTrack workflows, and more advanced governance controls can then be introduced progressively. --- ## Base setup requirements Base ConfigCompare setup requires a small number of core configuration items. These include: - **Install and licence**: ConfigCompare is installed and licensed through a deployable package using the standard D365 F&SCM deployment method. - **Environment name**: The environment is named so that captured Snapshots and Comparisons can be identified clearly. - **Modules and tables**: The configuration scope is defined through the curated catalogue, manual entry, the form helper, or a combination of these methods. - **Azure Storage**: At least one Azure Storage Account is required to store and organise ConfigCompare artefacts. Organisations may use a single Azure Storage Account or multiple Azure Storage Accounts depending on how they want to separate, file, retain, and manage configuration evidence across environments, tenants, customers, or governance scenarios. The setup effort for these base requirements is separate from deeper governance design. Rulesets, Responsibility assignment, ConfigTrack workflows, alerts, and operational reporting can be introduced progressively after the base setup is in place. --- ## Extending configuration coverage To support ISV solutions and bespoke development, ConfigCompare makes it easy to add tables to the configuration scope. A helper is available from every D365 F&SCM form to surface the tables used as data sources by the current form. Users can select relevant tables, assign module context, describe the purpose of the table, and save the result into the configuration tables parameter list. This reduces the dependency on manual table discovery and helps implementation teams extend the curated catalogue with customer-specific configuration areas. Extending coverage applies to new tables and entities only. Custom fields added by extension to a table already within the configuration scope are captured automatically; no separate registration is required for extension fields. --- ## Deterministic Comparison Deterministic Comparison is the core capability of ConfigCompare. Given the same two Snapshots, ConfigCompare will always produce the same Comparison result. This provides organisations with repeatable, evidence-based analysis that can be trusted throughout implementation, support, governance and audit activities. Deterministic Comparison is separated from interpretation. ConfigCompare identifies factual Differences and Matches. Matches are as important as Differences when environments should differ but do not; for example, when production endpoints remain in a downstream environment such as UAT after a database restore. Users, organisational processes and AI-assisted capabilities determine how those Differences and Matches should be understood and acted upon. --- ## Supported comparison scenarios ConfigCompare supports comparison: - Between environments (Environment to Environment). - Between legal entities (Company to Company). - Between many legal entities and a single reference company (N:1). - Across time (Historical Comparison). - Before and after upgrades. Each comparison scenario is described in detail in Chapter 07: Comparison Types. Upgrade Analysis is described separately (Chapter 16) because it analyses both ERP configuration and application metadata. --- ## Business outcomes Organisations typically adopt ConfigCompare to achieve one or more business outcomes. Examples include: - Establishing early visibility of configured ERP areas. - Reducing deployment risk. - Reducing deployment costs through faster, more complete validation cycles. - Maintaining consistent configuration. - Detecting Configuration Drift. - Improving audit readiness. - Accelerating support investigations and reducing incident costs. - Simplifying Microsoft One Version updates and reducing upgrade risk. - Supporting ERP modernisation. - Improving confidence in ERP configuration. - Helping functional, technical, support, audit, and partner teams work from the same deterministic evidence. - Preventing costly configuration errors before they reach production, avoiding configuration reversal as well as data cleanup and remediation (for example, inventory revaluation if costing methods are incorrectly changed). --- ## ROI drivers Return on investment is typically realised by replacing manual investigation and spreadsheet-based validation with repeatable Snapshot capture and Deterministic Comparison. Common ROI drivers include: - Reduced manual comparison effort. - Faster release and deployment validation. - Earlier detection of Configuration Drift. - Shorter support investigations. - Reduced risk of expensive production remediation. - Less effort preparing audit evidence. - Reusable governance rules that become more focused over time. - Better use of functional subject matter experts by routing results to the right responsible teams. --- ## Relationship to the platform ConfigCompare operates alongside the other platform components, each with a single clearly defined responsibility; the full component list is described in Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Design philosophy ConfigCompare has been designed around several fundamental principles. - Deterministic evidence before interpretation. - Repeatable comparison. - Configuration Governance throughout the ERP lifecycle. - Separation of comparison from governance workflows. - Separation of deterministic analysis from AI-assisted explanation. - Enterprise scalability through modular platform capabilities. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 09: AI Insights - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack - Chapter 12: ConfigAudit - Chapter 16: Upgrades - Chapter 17: ConfigMigrate --- # Comparison Engine ## Purpose The ConfigCompare comparison engine performs Deterministic Comparison between two Snapshots. The engine is the factual core of the ConfigCompare Platform. Every governance capability described in this reference (Rulesets, AI Insights, Alerts, ConfigTrack workflows, Upgrade Analysis and enterprise orchestration) is focused on the output of the engine. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Deterministic by design A Deterministic Comparison means the result is produced by defined comparison logic. It is not guessed, inferred, or generated by an AI model. Given the same two Snapshots, the engine will always produce the same result. Configuration Governance requires evidence. A governance platform must be able to show exactly what it compared and what it found, and produce the same answer every time the question is asked. The engine is separated from interpretation. It identifies facts; Rulesets, users, organisational processes and AI-assisted capabilities determine what those facts mean and how they should be acted upon. ## Comparison inputs Every comparison takes two Snapshots as input. The two Snapshots may come from: - Two different environments (for example UAT and PROD). - Two different companies (legal entities), including many companies against one reference company. - The same environment or company at two points in time. - Before and after an upgrade. The scope of a comparison is defined by the configuration Tables and Data Entities captured within the Snapshots, typically established through the curated Configuration Catalogue and extended for ISV, bespoke and customer-specific configuration areas (see Chapter 04: ConfigCompare). ## Table-level comparison ConfigCompare is designed to compare what Dynamics 365 actually is at table and configuration level, rather than only what an application programming interface or Data Entity exposes. Tables are the only first-class citizens that can represent configuration data in D365 F&SCM. Views, Data Entities, and even forms are all curations of some subset of the data held in tables. A field left out of an entity or form still exists at table level, and still drives application behaviour. ConfigCompare can capture from both Tables and Data Entities, but because comparison is grounded in tables, coverage is not limited by what entity design chose to expose. This allows deeper coverage than approaches limited to entity design alone. ## Data Entity support Data Entities are one of the two capture sources supported by the engine, alongside Tables. Data Entities provide semantic, business-level representations of configuration and enable supported export scenarios, including Data Management Framework (DMF) package generation used by ConfigMigrate. Coverage is defined by the Configuration Catalogue rather than by Data Entity availability: where table-level or metadata-level comparison is required, the engine operates beyond Data Entity level. ## What the engine identifies Depending on the comparison type and configuration of the comparison, the engine identifies: - **Differences**: configuration that varies between the two Snapshots. - **Matches**: configuration that is identical between the two Snapshots. Matches are equally important governance findings when environments should differ but do not (see Chapter 03: Core Concepts). - **Structural changes**: metadata-level changes, in upgrade and Metadata Comparison scenarios. ## Two dimensions of comparison Comparison results are reported across two orthogonal dimensions at every level of detail: - **Structure**: schema-level comparison covering which tables and columns are present, and how their definitions differ. - **Data**: row-level and field-level comparison of the configuration values themselves. A table can be structurally identical but hold different data, hold identical data within a changed structure, or differ in both. Reporting the two dimensions separately allows each finding to be assessed on its own terms. ## Result vocabulary Comparison results use a consistent vocabulary at every grain (company, table, row and field): - **Same AB**: present in both Snapshots and identical (a Match). - **Diff AB**: present in both Snapshots but different (a Difference). - **Only A**: present only in Snapshot A (for example, a deletion when A is the older Snapshot). - **Only B**: present only in Snapshot B (an addition). - **Not present**: absent from both Snapshots. Not present is distinct from Same AB: a value absent from both Snapshots is not the same as a value identical in both. Because the same vocabulary appears at every level, users learn the result grammar once and apply it everywhere, from a whole comparison down to a single field. ## Reference resolution Configuration values are often stored as enumeration values or record references that are not meaningful on their own. When presenting field-level results, ConfigCompare resolves enumeration and foreign-key fields to their human-readable meaning and shows it alongside the raw stored value; for example, a stored value of 0 resolved to "No", or a stored field identifier resolved to that field's label. This resolution makes table-level comparison readable for functional consultants as well as technical staff, and is a key benefit of comparing at table level rather than only at Data Entity level. ## Binary and BLOB configuration Some configuration is stored as binary objects (BLOBs) rather than as individual fields; approval workflow definitions are a common example. The engine compares binary configuration by content signature (hash). A change to a BLOB is detected deterministically, but its contents are not decoded: the engine reports that the binary value differs, not what changed inside it. Detailed inspection currently requires opening the configuration in both systems and reviewing it manually. Structured pre-processing that unpacks BLOBs of known formats so their contents become comparable is a planned enhancement (see Chapter 26: Roadmap). ## Structural change detection The engine can identify structural changes as part of upgrade and Metadata Comparison scenarios. Structural changes may include table changes, column additions, column removals, data type changes, size changes, label changes, and other metadata-level changes depending on the scope of the comparison. Metadata Comparison scans all persisted application tables rather than only the preselected configuration scope; this capability is described in Chapter 16: Upgrades. ## Comparison at scale The engine is designed to operate at enterprise configuration scale. In a Contoso-scale reference environment, comparison of captured Snapshots has completed in approximately 30 seconds. Actual timings depend on selected scope, environment performance, infrastructure, concurrency and workload conditions. Reference benchmarks are described in Chapter 06: Snapshots. ## Comparison output Comparison output can support: - Detailed review. - Governance evidence. - AI Insights. - Alerts and notifications. - Ruleset classification. - Ownership assignment. - Support triage. - Upgrade impact assessment. The output is consumed by the rest of the platform: Rulesets classify results and assign Responsibility (Chapter 08), AI Insights explain results (Chapter 09), and Monitoring & Alerts escalate results (Chapter 10). The Deterministic Comparison result always remains the authoritative source of truth. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 09: AI Insights - Chapter 26: Roadmap --- # Snapshots ## Definition A Snapshot is a point-in-time capture of configuration or metadata. Snapshots are the foundation of ConfigCompare. A comparison is performed between two Snapshots. Snapshot capture is the responsibility of ConfigSnap, the platform component that captures point-in-time representations of ERP configuration so they can later be compared, archived, and analysed. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Snapshot scenarios Snapshots can be used for: - Baseline capture. - Pre-upgrade capture. - Post-upgrade capture. - Daily governance capture. - Weekly governance capture. - Milestone capture. - Pre-deployment capture. - Post-deployment capture. - Pre-refresh capture. - Post-refresh capture. - Historical analysis. ## Snapshot scope and scale Snapshot scope is controlled by the selected companies, configuration tables and Data Entities. For D365 F&SCM, ConfigCompare provides a human-curated starter catalogue currently covering approximately 1,930 configuration tables and 200 Data Entities out of approximately 14,000 D365 F&SCM tables. The catalogue is curated rather than generated, so a comparison returns the configuration that matters rather than every table in the system. This allows organisations to start with a meaningful configuration scope rather than treating every application table as equally relevant to Configuration Governance. Configuration volume is easy to underestimate. The Contoso demonstration data holds an average of 46,148 multi-option settings for each legal entity: individual configurable decisions, not records. A production implementation carries a comparable weight of decisions, spread across environments, legal entities and time. In a Contoso-scale reference environment with 30 legal entities, ConfigCompare captured 201,000 configuration records. At this scale, Snapshot capture has completed in approximately 30 seconds, and comparison of captured Snapshots has completed in approximately 30 seconds. Actual timings depend on selected scope, environment performance, infrastructure, concurrency, and workload conditions. ## Scheduled Snapshots ConfigCompare supports Scheduled Snapshots, which allow organisations to monitor configuration over time without relying on a user to capture every point of interest manually. Scheduled capture matters for governance because configuration changes are often only discovered after an issue arises; the accumulated Snapshots create the evidence needed to review what changed. ## Scheduled Comparisons Scheduled Comparisons compare captured Snapshots automatically, using alerts, notifications, and Rulesets to focus attention on relevant Differences. ## Instant Comparison A Snapshot can be captured with Instant Comparison enabled. When a Snapshot is captured with Instant Comparison, ConfigCompare automatically pairs it with the previous Snapshot from the same environment with the same description, and compares the two, applying a nominated Ruleset and severity threshold as part of the same operation. This allows a single scheduled batch job to capture a Snapshot, compare it with its predecessor, assess the results, and notify responsible parties. A weekday 06:00 job, for example, always compares each daily Snapshot against the previous daily Snapshot without anyone selecting comparison partners manually. The combined operating pattern is described under operating model in Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts. ## Deployment topology Snapshot capture runs in each environment, but comparisons do not need to run where the Snapshots were captured, and they do not need to run in Production. A common pattern for multi-environment estates is: - Every environment captures Scheduled Snapshots to a shared Azure Storage Account. - A nominated control environment (UAT, GOLD, or a purpose-built governance environment) runs the comparisons. - **Synchronize with Azure Store**, which can itself run as a batch job, updates the list of Snapshots held in the shared storage into the control environment so that Snapshots from the whole estate are available for comparison in one place. Alternatively, remote Snapshot API calls can instruct another environment to capture a Snapshot without returning the underlying data, so that Snapshots from all environments become available for comparison together. Organisations therefore do not need to manage comparison activity in every environment independently. Central Command Center extends the same principle to orchestration across multiple instances and tenants (see Chapter 18: Central Command Center). ## Timeline analysis Timeline analysis compares the same environment, company, or configuration area across time. Examples include: - PROD today to PROD yesterday. - PROD this month to PROD last month. - UAT before testing to UAT after testing. - Pre-upgrade baseline to post-upgrade baseline. ## Snapshot governance Snapshots allow organisations to prove that a Difference exists and when it appeared relative to known events such as releases, database refreshes, upgrades, testing cycles, and support incidents. ## Related topics - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts - Chapter 18: Central Command Center --- # Comparison Types ## Purpose This chapter describes the comparison scenarios ConfigCompare supports. Every comparison type reports Matches as well as Differences, so results show where configuration is identical as well as where it varies. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Environment-to-environment comparison Environment-to-environment comparison compares configuration between two Dynamics environments. Examples: - DEV to TEST. - TEST to UAT. - UAT to PROD. - GOLD to UAT. - GOLD to PROD. - PROD to SANDBOX. - CRP to GOLD baseline (to validate the final CRP configuration before walking it into production). This comparison type supports Application Lifecycle Management, release validation, deployment validation, and support triage. ## Same environment over time Same environment over time comparison compares Snapshots from the same environment at different points in time. Examples: - PROD today to PROD yesterday. - PROD before a release to PROD after a release. - UAT before testing to UAT after testing. - CRP start to CRP end (to identify all changes made during the Conference Room Pilot). This comparison type supports governance, audit, drift detection, support triage, and implementation phase validation. For implementation projects, same-environment-over-time comparison is particularly valuable for tracking configuration evolution through CRP, UAT, and readiness phases. ## Company-to-company comparison Company-to-company comparison compares configuration between legal entities or companies. Examples: - Company A to Company B. - USMF to DEMF. - A newly created company to an approved template company. In comparison setup this is the One vs One mode, naming an explicit Company A and Company B; comparisons across every company use the All companies mode. This comparison type supports rollout consistency, global template governance, and multi-company implementation control. ## N:1 company comparison N:1 company comparison compares many companies against a single approved reference company or golden template. Example: All US manufacturing companies can be compared against one approved US manufacturing template. In comparison setup this is the All vs One mode, with the reference company as the pivot. N:1 comparison is important for organisations with many legal entities, regions, countries, business units, plants, warehouses, franchises, or operating companies. Typical governance patterns include: - Regional templates. - Global templates. - Industry templates. - Shared service organisations. - Phased rollouts. N:1 comparison supports governance across large ERP estates where many organisations are expected to conform to a common configuration standard. ## Cross-tenant or cross-instance comparison ConfigCompare supports Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants. Cross-tenant operation is delivered through the Cross-Tenant capability. This is especially relevant for enterprise groups, acquired companies, regional deployments, and partners managing multiple customer ecosystems. ## AX 2012 to D365 comparison ConfigCompare can support AX 2012 Snapshots and compare them with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management Snapshots for upgrade path analysis. This supports organisations preparing to migrate from AX 2012 to D365. ## Metadata Comparison Metadata Comparison analyses structural Differences in the application rather than only configured data. Metadata Comparison is useful for Upgrade Analysis, Microsoft One Version changes, ISV impact assessment, customisation review, and structural drift detection. ## Related topics - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 16: Upgrades --- # Rulesets ## Purpose Rulesets control how ConfigCompare interprets comparison results. They help organisations reduce noise, focus attention, classify importance, and assign Responsibility for both Differences and Matches. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Why Rulesets matter A raw comparison can produce many results. Not every Difference or Match has the same importance. Differences vary in importance and ownership: some are expected or harmless, others deserve escalation, and different results belong to different teams such as finance, supply chain, or security. Similarly, some Matches are expected and desired. Others represent problematic similarities that should not exist (see the Flagging undesired Matches section in this chapter). Rulesets provide the policy layer that turns comparison output into governed review, elevating both important Differences and undesired Matches. ## Hierarchical rules A Ruleset is a hierarchy of rules. Each rule maps the comparison results (Same AB, Diff AB, Only A, Only B; see Chapter 05: Comparison Engine) to an assessment severity, and can assign Responsibility. The levels, from least to most specific: 1. **Global**: default assessments for the four result types, plus dedicated rules for the system columns that exist on every table (created and modified users, timestamps, and record identifiers), which are typically set to Ignore. 2. **Company**: overrides for one company. A common use is taking an entire company out of scope, such as an empty template company or a company owned by a different governance regime. 3. **Table**: overrides for one table. This is the most heavily used level: it tunes severity per table and routes ownership per table through Responsibility. 4. **Table and company**: overrides for one table in one specific company, for example a pilot or live company where the same table deserves extra scrutiny. 5. **Column**: overrides for individual columns within a table rule. Column rules carry only Same AB and Diff AB: a field can only be compared when its row exists in both Snapshots, so whole-row results (Only A, Only B) are decided by the broader rule levels. The most specific applicable rule wins. For a given field in a given row, rule resolution walks from Column, to Table and company, to Table, to Company, to the Global default, adding the assessment level to the result along with the corresponding Responsibility. Rules can also carry a short note. The note is copied to the results the rule classifies, so reviewers see the rule's rationale alongside each assessed result. ## Responsibility Rulesets assign Responsibility to comparison results. Default Responsibility, defined on the Ruleset, is a fallback that separates the assessments produced by existing rules from the results that may need new rules. Without explicit Responsibility assignment, comparison results lack clear ownership and may be overlooked or reviewed by the wrong stakeholders. Responsibility can be assigned by: - Module (Finance results → Finance Team) - Company (USMF results → USMF Administrator) - Table (GL Account results → Accounting Manager) - Column (Payment Gateway results → Security Team) - Business process (Intercompany reconciliation results → Treasury) - Role (High-risk changes → Compliance Officer) - Governance owner (critical configuration areas → Data Steward) - Custom criteria (combinations of these criteria) With Responsibility assigned: - Each result has a clear owner - Results reach the right stakeholder - Governance accountability is maintained - Reviews happen with appropriate expertise - Response SLAs can be defined and tracked ## Noise reduction Rulesets can control the volume of comparison results. This is important for daily or Scheduled Comparisons. Over time, organisations can refine rules so that routine comparisons become quieter and more focused (see the adoption pattern in this chapter). ## Starting from zero ConfigCompare does not ship with a library of predefined Rulesets, because which Differences and Matches matter, how severe they are, and who should review them are organisation-specific judgements; a generic rule library would encode someone else's priorities. Instead, Rulesets are built progressively from real comparison results. ## Adoption pattern: from noisy to focused A first comparison over a meaningful scope produces many results. The recommended way to start is iterative and result-driven rather than designed up front: 1. Capture a baseline and run a real comparison. 2. Triage the results: identify what matters and what never will. 3. Set rules directly from real findings: promote the severity of results that deserve attention, assign Responsibility, and set expected or immaterial results to Ignore. 4. Repeat. Severities and Responsibility accrete with each review cycle. Routine Scheduled Comparisons become progressively quieter and more focused, until daily runs surface only results above the organisation's attention threshold. Noise reduction is an outcome of using the platform, not a prerequisite for starting. ## Flagging undesired Matches Rulesets are often associated with Differences, but they are equally applicable to identifying problematic Matches. The Match concept, and the canonical Production-Endpoints-in-UAT example, are described in Chapter 03: Core Concepts. Many Matches are expected and correct, but some represent configuration that should differ. Examples of undesired Matches: - Production Endpoints appearing in UAT (environment isolation issue) - Production data warehouse URLs in test environments - Live payment gateways configured in sandbox systems - Sensitive API credentials identical across environments Rulesets can be configured to flag these undesired Matches with high severity, so that configuration similarities that should not exist are escalated and reviewed with the same attention as severe Differences. ## Severity and attention Rules classify results using an eight-level assessment scale. From most to least severe: Emergency, Escalations, Exception, Deviation, Concern, Notice, Insight, Ignore. Ignore suppresses a result from assessment output entirely. Assessment counts roll up through the comparison result grids, so attention concentrates where severity is highest. A common progression is severity promotion: results default to a moderate severity, and a table is promoted, for example from Notice to Deviation, once the organisation decides that any change there deserves a heightened response. ## Ruleset patterns Several idiomatic patterns fall out of the rule hierarchy: - **Moderate table severity with escalated columns**: a table rule sets a moderate severity for general change, while named column rules escalate far above it. Bank details may change at Notice severity, but a SWIFT code change is an Emergency. - **Suppress immaterial fields**: a table rule keeps its severity, but column rules drop immaterial fields such as cosmetic name changes to Ignore. This is the primary tool against alert fatigue at field level, complementing the global system-column rules. - **Inverted Rulesets**: global defaults are all Ignore, and table rules make Same AB the severe result for environment-specific tables such as email settings, payment gateways, and batch schedules that must differ after a Production database is restored into a downstream environment. For these tables the Match is the finding: an unchanged value after a refresh is the problem, and a Difference confirms the remediation was applied. This is the Ruleset expression of undesired Match flagging (see Flagging undesired Matches). - **Scoped Rulesets**: global defaults are all Ignore, and only the tables of one functional domain carry active rules. The Ruleset is silent about the entire configuration surface except its named scope, supporting module-focused governance such as a finance-only Ruleset. ## Relationship to AI Insights AI Insights can use Deterministic Comparison results and Ruleset context to generate more useful summaries. Rulesets help AI Insights identify which changes need attention first and which responsible groups may need to review them. ## Related topics - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 09: AI Insights - Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts --- # AI Insights ## Purpose AI Insights generate natural-language summaries and explanations from Deterministic Comparison results produced by ConfigCompare. AI Insights are delivered by ConfigAI, the platform component responsible for AI-assisted explanation of Deterministic Comparison results. AI Insights help users understand the meaning, priority, and likely relevance of comparison results without manually reviewing every Difference line by line. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Deterministic source of truth The ConfigCompare Comparison Engine performs the Deterministic Comparison. AI Insights analyse the Deterministic Comparison output and generate plain-language explanations. The Deterministic Comparison result remains the source of truth. Comparison logic remains inside the ConfigCompare engine; AI Insights explain its output and never perform the comparison. ## Insight levels AI Insights can be generated at multiple levels, including: - Overall comparison. - Per company. - Per table. ## On-demand generation AI Insights are generated on request. They do not automatically replace formal review or approval. ## Data privacy and where insights run AI Insights run against an API endpoint controlled by the customer. Snapshots, comparison results, and generated insights remain within the customer's own environment. AXImprove has no visibility of customer Snapshots or Comparisons. Combined with on-demand generation, this means AI involvement is always explicit: nothing is sent anywhere automatically, and nothing leaves the customer's control. ## MCP support Model Context Protocol (MCP) support is being added to the platform as an orchestration and access layer for AI-assisted scenarios (see Chapter 26: Roadmap). MCP routes and sequences requests; it adds no comparison logic. As with Central Command Center orchestration (Chapter 18), all comparison logic and data remain within the ConfigCompare Comparison Engine. ## Relationship with Rulesets AI Insights can use Ruleset context to highlight changes that need attention first. AI Insights explain undesired Matches as well as Differences. Rulesets help determine importance, Responsibility, and whether a result is expected or requires escalation. ## Related topics - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 18: Central Command Center - Chapter 26: Roadmap --- # Monitoring & Alerts ## Purpose Monitoring and alerts help organisations move from occasional manual review to continuous Configuration Governance. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Monitoring dimensions ConfigCompare can support monitoring across combinations of: - Environment. - Company. - Module. - User-defined group. - Form. - Table. - Column. - Time. ## Scheduled monitoring Scheduled Snapshots and Scheduled Comparisons allow organisations to monitor change without requiring a manual comparison every time. This is important for production governance, managed services, compliance review, hypercare, and support triage. ## Alerts and notifications ConfigCompare supports alerts and notifications of comparison results. Alerts can draw attention to relevant Differences and Matches, especially when combined with Rulesets that classify importance and Responsibility. Alerts are configured on a comparison result whose assessment level meets a severity threshold. Each Comparison nominates a notification group and the threshold itself (labelled Error threshold in the product): the assessment severity at or above which the group is notified. Notifications can be delivered by email or through the D365 Action Center. Comparison result grids prioritise results by assessment severity, so the most severe findings surface first. Undesired Matches are equally valid alert conditions. For example, when a Production database is restored to a downstream environment such as UAT, production endpoints and integration settings may remain in place. A Comparison showing that these values still match Production is a serious governance finding, and alerts can escalate it with the same urgency as a critical Difference. ## Operating model: exception-based governance Continuous monitoring does not require a dedicated person watching comparisons. The automated pattern combines capabilities described in earlier chapters into a single scheduled batch job: 1. A Scheduled Snapshot is captured, for example at 06:00 on weekdays. 2. Instant Comparison pairs the new Snapshot with the previous Snapshot from the same environment and description (Chapter 06: Snapshots). 3. A nominated Ruleset assesses the results (Chapter 08: Rulesets). 4. Results at or above the Comparison's severity threshold trigger notification to the nominated group. Humans are engaged only when results exceed the threshold. Governance operates by exception: nobody reviews quiet comparisons, and nothing above the threshold goes unseen. ## Proactive governance Without monitoring, configuration changes are often discovered after a test failure, support issue, compliance request, or operational problem. With monitoring, Differences and undesired Matches can be identified before they create business impact. ## Related topics - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 12: ConfigAudit - Chapter 14: Governance & Audit --- # ConfigTrack ## Purpose ConfigTrack provides structured governance and change management for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management configuration changes. ConfigTrack enables organisations to define, manage, and track configuration changes through customised event workflows, with built-in support for risk assessment, role-based approvals, and regulatory compliance requirements. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. --- ## Overview Configuration change is constant in enterprise ERP environments. Some changes are planned and carefully managed. Others occur operationally or emerge during troubleshooting. Without structured oversight, organisations lose visibility into what changed, why, who approved it, and whether the change was appropriate. ConfigTrack addresses this governance gap by providing: - Centralised configuration change events - Structured task management through change lifecycles - Risk-based prioritisation and escalation - Role-based responsibility assignment (RACI matrices) - Multi-level approval workflows - Audit-ready change history - Evidence for compliance and governance activities --- ## What ConfigTrack does ConfigTrack enables organisations to: - **Record configuration changes** as structured events with context, rationale, and business impact - **Assess risk** based on complexity, user impact, process impact, and likelihood - **Assign responsibilities** using RACI matrices to define clear accountability - **Manage approvals** through escalation workflows that account for risk and urgency - **Manage tasks across environments** by orchestrating configuration changes through DEV → TST → UAT → PROD with sequenced, environment-specific tasks - **Track task progress** from creation through completion and closure across the entire deployment lifecycle - **Maintain audit trails** for compliance with SOX, J-SOX and internal control requirements - **Generate governance reports** for management review and audit activities - **Integrate with ConfigCompare** to validate configuration changes against baselines --- ## Core concepts ### Configuration Events A Configuration Event represents a planned or observed configuration change. Events provide the primary organisational unit for change management. Each event captures: - What configuration is changing - Why the change is being made - Who initiated and approved the change - When the change was made and when it was approved - Expected impact on users and business processes - Whether the change aligns with approved configuration standards Events move through a defined lifecycle: Open → In Progress → Complete → Closed. --- ### Change tasks Tasks represent work that needs to happen as part of a configuration change event. A single event may spawn multiple tasks assigned to different users or teams, often sequenced across the deployment lifecycle: - Configuration implementation tasks (for example, "DEV: Implement new GL account structure") - Environment-specific deployment tasks (for example, "TST: Promote configuration to Test environment") - Testing and validation tasks (for example, "UAT: User acceptance testing") - Approval and review tasks (for example, "UAT: Business sign-off") - Production deployment tasks (for example, "PROD: Deploy configuration") - Documentation tasks - Post-change verification tasks Tasks can be structured to orchestrate changes through multiple environments in sequence, for example: 1. DEV implementation 2. TST validation 3. UAT testing 4. UAT business signoff 5. PROD deployment Each task has ownership, due dates, environment context, and completion status. The event cannot close until all associated tasks are complete. This enforces structured progression of changes through the deployment pipeline and prevents premature advancement to the next environment. ConfigTrack task orchestration supports Application Lifecycle Management by making the entire change journey, from development through production, visible, planned and controlled. --- ### RACI matrices ConfigTrack uses RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrices to define clear roles in configuration change governance. - **Responsible**: The person or team executing the change - **Accountable**: The person authorising and accepting responsibility for the change - **Consulted**: Stakeholders whose input is required during the change - **Informed**: Stakeholders who need visibility into the change but do not need to approve RACI assignments give every role in the governance process a clear statement of its responsibility and decision-making authority. --- ### Risk assessment ConfigTrack assesses configuration change risk across multiple dimensions: - **Complexity**: Technical difficulty and scope of the change - **User Impact**: Number of affected users and severity of impact - **Process Impact**: Effect on business processes and workflows - **Likelihood of Issues**: Historical patterns and technical risk factors Risk assessment is automated but can be overridden by governance personnel when business context warrants different prioritisation. --- ### Priority and escalation Configuration changes are prioritised based on assessed risk and business urgency. High-risk changes receive elevated approval requirements and senior review. Lower-risk changes follow simpler approval paths. Escalation rules account for: - Change complexity and scope - Number of affected users - Regulatory or compliance implications - Timeline pressures - Cross-company or cross-system impact --- ### Approval workflows ConfigTrack provides multi-level approval workflows that adapt to change risk and context. Approval workflows may require: - Functional Consultant sign-off on technical correctness - Business Analyst approval of process implications - Compliance Officer review for regulatory requirements - Department Manager approval for operational impact - System Administrator final authorisation Approval chains route changes to the right stakeholders for review before implementation. --- ## Configuration Governance through ConfigTrack ConfigTrack supports organisations in achieving structured Configuration Governance. ### Change documentation Every configuration change is documented with clear context, rationale, and expected outcomes. Documentation becomes part of the permanent audit trail and supports: - Root cause analysis when issues occur - Evidence for regulatory audits - Knowledge transfer to new team members - Capacity planning based on historical change patterns ### Compliance and audit ConfigTrack supports compliance frameworks including: - SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) internal control requirements - J-SOX (Japan) governance and audit requirements - Internal audit procedures - Regulatory compliance evidence Configuration events cannot be deleted or materially modified once closed, which preserves evidence integrity. ### Role-based access control ConfigTrack implements three security roles with escalating permissions: - **Viewer**: Can view configuration events and reports but cannot create or modify events - **User**: Can create events, manage associated tasks, and approve events within their scope - **Manager**: Can approve high-risk events, configure approval workflows, and access governance reports Role-based access supports appropriate delegation of authority while maintaining oversight. --- ## ConfigTrack and ConfigCompare ConfigTrack and ConfigCompare serve complementary purposes. | Aspect | ConfigCompare | ConfigTrack | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | | **Primary Purpose** | Deterministic Comparison of configuration | Governance and change management | | **Focus** | What changed and Differences | Why it changed and whether it was approved | | **Evidence** | Point-in-time Snapshots and comparisons | Event records and approval workflows | | **Integration** | Captures baseline configurations | Validates changes against baselines | | **Audit Support** | Configuration history and Differences | Change approval and authorisation trail | | **Compliance Evidence** | Configuration state evidence | Change control and governance evidence | **Integrated workflow**: 1. An organisation identifies a need for configuration change 2. A ConfigTrack event is created with risk assessment and RACI assignments 3. Stakeholders review and approve the change through ConfigTrack workflows 4. The change is implemented in the D365 environment 5. A post-change ConfigCompare Snapshot is captured and compared to the pre-change baseline 6. The comparison validates that the change was implemented as intended 7. The ConfigTrack event is closed with evidence of change completion and validation This integrated approach provides both evidence of proper governance and factual evidence of what actually changed. Comparison results themselves carry no native review state. Marking a finding as reviewed and tracking its remediation are ConfigTrack capabilities, recorded against the event rather than against the comparison. --- ## Typical governance scenarios ### Planned configuration change An organisation plans a configuration change to support a new business process. 1. A System Administrator creates a ConfigTrack event describing the change 2. Risk assessment automatically flags the change as medium-risk 3. The event is escalated to the Functional Consultant and Business Analyst for review 4. A test implementation occurs and is validated 5. The change moves to UAT for business user acceptance 6. Upon approval, the change is implemented in production 7. A post-change ConfigCompare Snapshot validates the change 8. The event is closed with all evidence attached --- ### Configuration Drift investigation An organisation discovers unexpected Configuration Drift in production. 1. ConfigCompare identifies the Difference 2. A ConfigTrack event is created to investigate and resolve the drift 3. Root cause analysis determines whether the change was authorised 4. If unauthorised, the configuration is corrected and documented 5. If authorised, the event is updated with missing approval documentation 6. The event is closed with evidence of resolution --- ### Compliance review An external auditor requests evidence of configuration controls. 1. ConfigTrack reports show all configuration changes over the audit period 2. Each change includes approval workflows and authorisation evidence 3. Events that appear high-risk receive special scrutiny 4. ConfigCompare Snapshots provide factual evidence of what existed at specific points in time 5. Combined evidence demonstrates compliance with configuration control requirements --- ## Business outcomes Typical reasons for adopting ConfigTrack include: - **Structured Change Management**: Replace ad-hoc change processes with defined workflows - **Visibility**: Know what changed, why, and whether it was approved - **Reduced Risk**: Assess and escalate high-risk changes appropriately - **Reduced Costs**: Prevent rework and failed changes through structured approvals - **Compliance Evidence**: Support SOX, J-SOX, and audit requirements - **Operational Confidence**: Understand the governance controls around configuration - **Faster Approvals**: Route changes efficiently through appropriate approval chains - **Knowledge Capture**: Document rationale and impact for future reference - **Root Cause Support**: Reference historical changes when investigating issues --- ## Relationship to the platform ConfigTrack operates alongside the other platform components, each with a single clearly defined responsibility; the full component list is described in Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 12: ConfigAudit - Chapter 14: Governance & Audit --- # ConfigAudit ## Purpose ConfigAudit provides event-level audit and change tracking for critical configuration areas in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. ConfigAudit captures create, update and delete events on designated Data Entities, maintaining a granular audit trail of changes to the configuration areas an organisation cares deeply about, without bloating the ERP transactional database. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. --- ## Overview Configuration Governance (ConfigCompare) and transaction-level digital signatures (Electronic Signature) represent two extremes of audit coverage in ERP systems. ConfigCompare captures point-in-time Snapshots of configuration, revealing what exists and how it differs, but missing transient changes that occur between Snapshots. Electronic Signature provides transaction-level approval and signature, but only for the highest-control scenarios and most regulated companies. ConfigAudit fills the middle ground: continuous, event-level audit of the critical configuration areas that matter to an organisation. Rather than waiting for the next configuration Snapshot or requiring full transaction signatures, ConfigAudit tracks changes to specific Data Entities in real time, creating an immutable audit trail for the critical configuration areas an organisation monitors most closely. --- ## What ConfigAudit does With ConfigAudit, organisations can: - **Define audit scope** by selecting critical Data Entities for continuous monitoring - **Capture all changes** through a custom business events endpoint that intercepts create, update and delete operations - **Access recent data** via a dedicated inquiry screen within D365 for quick queries on the last 3 days of changes - **Retain complete history** in user-defined Azure tables for long-term audit, analysis, and compliance - **Query in multiple formats** tailored to different analytical and compliance questions - **Maintain performance** by keeping the D365 transactional database clean and responsive - **Support audit evidence** for regulatory, compliance, and internal control requirements --- ## Three tiers of audit and control ConfigAudit operates within a three-tier governance model. | Tier | Purpose | Scope | Use Case | | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | **ConfigCompare** | Configuration Governance | Configuration Snapshots | "What configuration exists and how does it differ?" | | **ConfigAudit** | Event-level configuration area audit | Create, update and delete events on Data Entities | "What changed within critical configuration areas and when?" | | **Electronic Signature** | Transaction-level approval and signatures | Individual transactions | "Which transactions were explicitly approved?" (highest control) | Each tier serves organisations with different governance maturity and regulatory requirements. Many organisations begin with ConfigCompare. ConfigAudit extends event-level audit coverage to critical configuration areas. Electronic Signature (D365 native capability) serves organisations requiring transaction-level digital signatures. --- ## Core concepts ### Critical configuration areas ConfigAudit focuses on critical configuration areas: the areas an organisation must track for audit, compliance, or governance purposes. Examples include: - General ledger accounts (account types, posting profiles, validation rules) - Bank routing and payment configuration - Tax configuration on transactional records - Intercompany transaction parameters - Inventory parameters (costing methods, reservation policies) - Pricing tables (product pricing, customer-specific pricing, promotion rules) - Vendor master data (bank accounts, payment terms, address changes) - Customer master data (credit limits, payment terms, invoice routing) The vendor and customer examples widen tracking beyond configuration into master data; the considerations that govern that decision are described in the How wide should tracking go? section. These areas sit outside the Snapshot-based configuration scope described in Chapter 04: ConfigCompare; ConfigAudit monitors them at event level. --- ### How wide should tracking go? Audit scope is not technically limited to configuration. Any designated Data Entity can be monitored, including master-data-style entities such as customers or vendors. This is a common requirement when organisations want changes made in the background to surface immediately. Two considerations govern how wide to go: - **Performance**: capture cost grows with the size and change rate of the monitored entity. - **The review test**: a monitored area is only worth monitoring if someone will actually review its changes. If no one would, it is transactional or document data and should not be tracked. The recommended scope remains critical configuration areas. Wider tracking is a deliberate decision measured against these two tests; the same test applies to ConfigCompare Snapshot scope (Chapter 04: ConfigCompare). --- ### Data Entities and business events ConfigAudit uses a custom business events endpoint to capture create, update and delete events on Data Entities. Data Entities are preferred over tables because they: - Represent logical business concepts rather than physical database structures - Provide semantic meaning (for example, "Vendor" instead of "VendTable") - Support multiple source systems and integration patterns - Are the standard D365 integration layer ConfigAudit intercepts create, update and delete operations on monitored Data Entities and records: - What changed (field and previous/new values) - When the change occurred - Who initiated the change (user context) - System context (legal entity, environment, etc.) Read operations are not captured. --- ### Local retention and inquiry ConfigAudit maintains dual storage architecture: - **Azure tables**: hold the complete audit history - **D365 local tables**: hold only the most recent 3 days (the "tail") for fast queries and offline access Local D365 retention enables: - **Fast queries** within D365 itself for immediate review without external calls - **Dedicated inquiry screen** for users to search and review recent changes - **Performance** for common queries on recent activity - **Offline access** if connectivity to Azure is temporarily unavailable All data flows to Azure tables in real time, so the audit history in Azure is complete. D365 tables are purged after 3 days, keeping the transactional database lean while maintaining complete audit coverage in Azure. --- ### Azure Table Storage and analysis All audit data is pushed to user-defined Azure tables in real time, providing complete audit history independent of D365. All ConfigCompare artefacts (Snapshots, Comparisons and audit history) are stored in Azure Storage owned and controlled by the customer. AXImprove holds no customer data; data ownership remains with the customer at all times. ### Storage architecture ConfigAudit maintains a canonical audit record alongside multiple materialised read models, each optimised for specific query patterns and analytical questions. Rather than forcing all users to query a single canonical table and perform custom joins, ConfigAudit maintains multiple denormalised copies, each structured for a specific audience perspective. Example perspectives include: - **By date**: For daily reconciliations and compliance reviews - **By data entity or table**: For business process owners and data stewards - **By record**: For transaction-level traceability (for example, "show me all changes to vendor ABC123") - **By column**: For understanding what specific fields changed across all records - **By user**: For access audits and user activity analysis - **By company**: For consolidated multi-company governance - **By operation**: For tracking create, update and delete patterns and identifying deletions ### Analysis and compliance Azure storage enables: - **Complete audit history** without time limits or D365 database bloat - **Optimised queries** across different analytical perspectives without custom transformations - **External analysis tools** for audit firms, compliance teams, and analytics platforms - **Long-term trend analysis** of changes within critical configuration areas over time - **Regulatory evidence** that persists independent of D365 lifecycle - **Separation of concerns**: D365 handles recent queries, Azure handles historical analysis External analysis applies to ConfigAudit audit data; ConfigCompare Comparison results are reviewed within the product. Organisations define which perspectives to maintain and how data flows to Azure, supporting their specific compliance and analytical requirements. --- ## Transient change capture ConfigAudit solves a fundamental gap in configuration-based audit approaches. ### The Snapshot Blind Spot ConfigCompare identifies Differences between Snapshots. But changes that are made and then reverted before the next Snapshot are invisible to ConfigCompare. Consider a vendor bank account change scenario: 1. **Snapshot 1** is captured on Monday. Bank account is "ABC123". 2. **Tuesday 2am**, the bank account is changed to "XYZ789". 3. **Tuesday 3am**, the account is changed back to "ABC123". 4. **Snapshot 2** is captured on Wednesday. Bank account is "ABC123" (unchanged). ConfigCompare sees no change. The configuration was "ABC123" at both Snapshots. But ConfigAudit captures both the change and the reversion, creating a complete record of what happened when. ### Operational error detection In the case of an accidental error: - Identify which transactions were affected - Investigate whether payments went to wrong accounts - Provide evidence that the incident occurred and was corrected - Implement preventive controls ### Fraud detection The same capture applies to intentional misconduct: - An employee deliberately changes a vendor bank account to their own account - Processes a payment to the fraudulent account - Reverts the change before the next comparison or audit - ConfigCompare would show no Difference - ConfigAudit captures the full change history, exposing the fraud ConfigAudit captures the complete change history that exposes both operational errors and intentional changes made to hide unauthorised transactions. --- ## ConfigAudit and ConfigCompare ConfigAudit and ConfigCompare serve complementary purposes and are often used together. | Aspect | ConfigCompare | ConfigAudit | | ------------------ | --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it tracks** | Configuration | Critical configuration areas (designated Data Entities) | | **How it tracks** | Point-in-time Snapshots | Continuous event stream | | **Granularity** | Configuration table level | Field-level create, update and delete changes | | **Timeline** | Snapshot intervals (for example, daily) | Real-time | | **Storage** | Snapshots + comparisons in D365 | 3-day local retention plus full history in customer-controlled Azure storage | | **Audit question** | "What configuration exists?" | "What changed within critical configuration areas, and when?" | **Integrated workflow**: 1. An organisation monitors both configuration (ConfigCompare) and critical configuration areas (ConfigAudit) 2. ConfigCompare Snapshots reveal configuration baselines and drift 3. ConfigAudit events reveal day-to-day changes within critical configuration areas 4. Together they answer: "What was configured, what changed, when, and whether it matches our expectations?" --- ## Business scenarios ### Vendor master data monitoring An organisation wants to detect any changes to vendor bank accounts, payment terms, or tax registration numbers in real time. 1. The Vendor Data Entity is configured for ConfigAudit monitoring 2. When a vendor record is updated, ConfigAudit captures the change 3. Users can query the inquiry screen to see recent vendor changes 4. Finance and Accounts Payable teams use the Azure data for compliance and analytics 5. External auditors can review vendor master changes as part of audit procedures --- ### General ledger account compliance A regulated company requires tracking of all changes to GL account properties (posting profiles, account types, validation rules). 1. The GL Account Data Entity is monitored by ConfigAudit 2. Every change is recorded with user, timestamp, and previous/new values 3. Finance managers use the inquiry screen for routine oversight 4. Auditors access Azure tables for evidence of GL control compliance 5. High-risk changes (for example, to revenue accounts) trigger additional review workflows --- ### Transient error detection An operational incident occurs when critical parameters are accidentally changed and reverted before the next Snapshot. 1. ConfigAudit captures both the error and the correction 2. ConfigCompare shows no Difference (reverted to original state) 3. Operations teams use ConfigAudit evidence to identify which transactions were affected 4. Investigation teams determine whether the incident caused downstream problems 5. Corrective actions are implemented with complete evidence trail --- ### Regulatory and audit evidence An external auditor requests evidence of changes to critical configuration areas over a fiscal year. 1. ConfigAudit provides a complete audit trail 2. Data is queried from Azure tables in formats suitable for audit analysis 3. Evidence includes who changed what, when, and previous/new values 4. The audit team can independently analyse trends, patterns, and control effectiveness 5. The organisation demonstrates governance of critical configuration areas --- ## Business outcomes Organisations adopt ConfigAudit to: - **Audit Readiness**: Provide evidence of controls over critical configuration areas - **Incident Investigation**: Determine whether changes within critical configuration areas explain unexpected operational behaviour - **Incident Cost Reduction**: Resolve issues faster by identifying root causes quickly - **Compliance Evidence**: Support regulatory requirements for change tracking within critical configuration areas - **Risk Reduction**: Expose unauthorised or erroneous changes within critical configuration areas - **Performance**: Monitor changes without bloating the D365 database - **Analytical Depth**: Understand patterns and trends in changes within critical configuration areas over time - **Governance Coverage**: Extend audit coverage between configuration Snapshots - **Control Assurance**: Demonstrate that critical configuration areas are properly controlled --- ## Relationship to the platform ConfigAudit operates alongside the other platform components, each with a single clearly defined responsibility; the full component list is described in Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack - Chapter 14: Governance & Audit --- # Application Lifecycle Management ## Purpose Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is one of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. It focuses on managing configuration changes as they progress through the software delivery lifecycle, from development through test, UAT, and production. This chapter describes the pillar in practice, applying the concepts introduced in Chapters 03 to 10. The four pillars are introduced together in Chapter 02. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Configuration progression Configuration changes occur continuously throughout the development and deployment lifecycle. Rather than treating each environment as independent, ALM governance validates configuration as it moves through the lifecycle in a controlled and predictable manner. ## Typical ALM scenarios ALM addresses Configuration Governance questions including: - Did configuration promote correctly from DEV to TEST? - Was TEST configuration as expected before UAT began? - Is UAT configuration aligned with approved GOLD configuration? - Did production deployment complete successfully? - Are post-deployment results as expected? - Has an environment refresh maintained configuration consistency? - Were production values left in place that should have been changed? - Did the release validation pass governance gates? ## Environment-to-environment validation ALM uses ConfigCompare to validate configuration at each stage of the deployment pipeline: - **DEV to TEST validation**: confirm configuration promotion before test begins. - **TEST to UAT validation**: confirm test configuration is ready for business users. - **UAT to PROD validation**: validate that approved UAT configuration moved to production. - **Post-deployment validation**: confirm production configuration matches deployment expectations. - **Gold configuration promotion**: verify that reference configurations are promoted correctly across regions or business units. - **Environment refresh validation**: verify that refreshed environments retain required configuration. ## Implementation-phase validation Configuration Governance applies from the earliest stages of an implementation, before a deployment pipeline is in regular use: - **Business process workshops and reviews**: validate that configuration matches the business process requirements agreed during design. - **ISV assessment**: capture a Snapshot before and after installing an ISV solution to establish exactly what the solution changed. - **Conference room pilot preparation**: verify configuration ahead of a pilot, and compare the start and end of the pilot to see everything that changed during it. - **Mock go-live**: rehearse cutover against verified configuration rather than assumed configuration. - **Go-live**: transition on evidence that the production environment holds the configuration that was signed off. - **Global rollout**: keep configuration consistent as it is extended to further legal entities, regions and production environments, including geo-restricted and cross-tenant implementations. ## Governance gates ALM enables organisations to establish governance gates throughout the deployment lifecycle. Gates confirm that configuration meets approval requirements before advancing to the next phase: - **Pre-deployment gate**: configuration must pass validation against approved baselines. - **Deployment gate**: release can proceed only after configuration is confirmed ready. - **Post-deployment gate**: environment can be released to users only after validation is complete. Gates reduce deployment risk by preventing problematic configurations from reaching production or user environments. ## Business outcomes ALM governance is typically adopted to deliver: - **Reduced deployment risk**: configuration is validated before each promotion. - **Fewer deployment failures**: configuration issues are detected early rather than during deployment. - **Lower deployment costs**: rollbacks and post-deployment fixes are avoided. - **Faster deployments**: promotion through environments proceeds on validated evidence. - **Improved confidence**: stakeholders know configuration has been validated at each stage. - **Release discipline**: clear gates and validation criteria apply throughout the pipeline. - **Audit readiness**: evidence exists that configuration changes followed controlled processes. ## ConfigCompare in ALM ConfigCompare provides the deterministic evidence that ALM governance requires. By comparing configuration at each stage of the lifecycle, ConfigCompare enables organisations to: - Validate promotion correctness - Identify unexpected Differences before they reach critical environments - Identify undesired Matches, such as production endpoints remaining in a downstream environment such as UAT after a database restore - Provide evidence of controlled change - Support consistent configuration across similar deployments - Make informed go/no-go decisions at deployment gates --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack - Chapter 17: ConfigMigrate --- # Governance & Audit ## Purpose Governance & Audit is one of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. It focuses on visibility, evidence, internal control, Configuration Drift detection, and responsibility for changes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. This chapter describes the pillar in practice, applying the concepts introduced in Chapters 03 to 10. The four pillars are introduced together in Chapter 02. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Configuration Governance Configuration Governance is the process of maintaining, validating, monitoring, and controlling ERP configuration over time. It includes knowing: - What configuration exists. - Where configuration differs. - Where configuration matches when it should differ. - When configuration changed. - Whether a change was expected. - Whether a change was authorised. - Who or what group is responsible. - Whether a Difference affects risk, compliance, testing, or operations. ## Audit evidence ConfigCompare supports audit evidence by preserving Snapshots and producing Deterministic Comparison results. Evidence can support internal controls, SOX, J-SOX, internal audit, external audit preparation, and management review. ## Configuration Drift Configuration Drift occurs when environments, companies, templates, or points in time diverge. Configuration Drift is not always undesirable: some divergence is planned. The governance problem is uncontrolled or invisible drift. ConfigCompare helps organisations identify Configuration Drift and classify whether it is expected, acceptable, unauthorised, or requiring review. ## Undesired Matches Configuration Governance is concerned with similarities as well as Differences. Some environments are expected to differ. When they do not, the Match itself is the governance concern; the classic case is a restore of Production into a downstream environment such as UAT that leaves production endpoints or integration settings in place. ConfigCompare reports Matches alongside Differences so that these conditions can be identified, escalated, and remediated with the same attention as critical Differences. ## High-risk configuration Some configuration areas have a direct, and sometimes non-reversible, effect on financial, operational, or compliance outcomes. Examples include: - Inventory costing settings. - Tax configuration. - Posting profiles. - Bank configuration. - Workflow approvals. - Security-related configuration. - Warehouse execution settings. - Production control parameters. - Integration-related settings. ConfigCompare allows organisations to monitor these areas and create evidence around configuration changes. ## How the pillar is delivered Governance & Audit draws on capabilities across the platform: - **Snapshots and Deterministic Comparison** provide the factual evidence of what configuration exists and how it has changed (Chapters 04–07). - **Rulesets and Responsibility** apply organisational policy to comparison results and route findings to accountable owners (Chapter 08). - **Monitoring & Alerts** turn occasional manual review into continuous governance through Scheduled Snapshots, Scheduled Comparisons and alerting. Governance operates by exception; no dedicated reviewer is required (see the operating model in Chapter 10). - **ConfigTrack** governs planned change through structured events, risk assessment, RACI responsibility and approval workflows (Chapter 11). - **ConfigAudit** captures event-level changes within critical configuration areas, including transient changes that revert between Snapshots (Chapter 12). Together these capabilities answer both governance questions: whether configuration changed as expected, and whether changes were authorised and appropriate. ## Compliance support Governance & Audit evidence supports compliance frameworks and activities including: - SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) internal control requirements. - J-SOX governance and audit requirements. - Internal audit procedures. - External audit preparation. - Management review. Snapshots are immutable once captured. ConfigTrack events cannot be deleted, and closed events cannot be materially modified, supporting evidence integrity. ## Business outcomes Adoption of Governance & Audit is typically driven by the following outcomes: - **Continuous visibility**: configuration change is observed as it happens rather than discovered after an incident. - **Controlled change**: changes are expected, authorised and traceable to accountable owners. - **Audit readiness**: evidence of configuration controls exists before an auditor asks for it. - **Reduced compliance effort**: audit evidence is produced by the platform rather than assembled manually. - **Early detection of Configuration Drift**: uncontrolled divergence is identified before it creates business impact. - **Fraud exposure**: transient changes that revert before the next Snapshot are captured by ConfigAudit. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 08: Rulesets - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack - Chapter 12: ConfigAudit --- # Testing & Support ## Purpose Testing & Support is one of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. It focuses on understanding configuration Differences that affect testing, issue investigation, and operational support. This chapter describes the pillar in practice, applying the concepts introduced in Chapters 03 to 10. The four pillars are introduced together in Chapter 02. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## The investigation problem Configuration issues are often discovered after users report unexpected behaviour. Support teams must answer the question: "Why is the system not behaving as expected?" The root cause may be: - Configuration changes made without documentation - Environment Differences that affect functionality - Changes made in production that have not been retroactively applied to test environments - Configuration Drift between environments - Production values remaining in a refreshed environment (an undesired Match) - Changes made during previous incident responses or troubleshooting Manual investigation of these issues is time-consuming and unreliable. ConfigCompare provides deterministic evidence to accelerate investigation and root cause analysis. ## Typical testing and support scenarios The most common starting point is a failed or contested UAT. Users report behaviour that differs from expectations, and the investigation compares UAT against an approved baseline to establish whether configuration explains the gap. A close relative is the "it worked yesterday" report, where functionality that previously worked suddenly fails; comparing the current environment against an earlier Snapshot answers the question "what changed since it last worked?". Support triage benefits in the same way. Before an issue is routed to development, a Comparison establishes whether the reported behaviour is configuration-related at all, which prevents development time being spent on issues that a configuration correction would resolve. Other recurring scenarios include: - **Regression testing**: comparing pre-change and post-change configuration confirms that recent changes do not affect unrelated functionality. - **Environment validation**: a sandbox or test environment is validated as properly configured before testing begins. - **Root cause analysis**: when a production incident occurs, Comparison establishes whether configuration changes explain the issue. - **Sandbox validation**: a sandbox copy is checked for configuration alignment with production before testing begins. ## Configuration evidence for investigation ConfigCompare provides: - **Factual Difference identification**: what configuration actually differs between environments. - **Match identification**: where configuration is identical when it should differ, such as production endpoints remaining after an environment refresh. - **Historical comparison**: how configuration has changed over time. Because each finding is the output of Deterministic Comparison, the evidence needs no interpretation before it can be relied on. Root causes are documented as what changed and when, and conclusions rest on evidence rather than assumption. Replacing assumption with deterministic evidence shortens investigations that would otherwise take hours or days of manual checking. ## Business outcomes Common reasons for adopting Testing & Support governance include: - **Faster issue resolution**: investigation time falls when evidence replaces manual checking. - **Reduced support costs**: issues are resolved with fewer investigation hours. - **Better first-time resolution**: correct root causes are identified instead of incorrect fixes being applied. - **Faster UAT completion**: unexpected behaviour is resolved with configuration evidence rather than prolonged debate. - **Reduced incident duration**: production incidents are investigated against factual comparison results. - **Testing efficiency**: test environments are validated before test cycles begin. Beyond individual investigations, shared evidence changes how teams work together: support and development teams review the same Comparison results rather than debating root causes from memory or assumption. ## Support workflow A configuration investigation with ConfigCompare typically proceeds as follows: 1. **Triage**: a timeline comparison against an earlier Snapshot answers "what changed since it last worked?", establishing whether the issue is configuration-related before it is routed to development. 2. **Comparison**: the affected environment is compared against a baseline Snapshot or a reference environment to identify candidate Differences. 3. **Root cause analysis**: candidate Differences, and any undesired Matches, are assessed against the reported behaviour, with Rulesets and Responsibility routing findings to the owners best placed to judge them. 4. **Resolution**: configuration is corrected or reverted, or the issue is escalated to development with the Comparison result as evidence. 5. **Validation**: a follow-up Comparison confirms that the environment matches the intended baseline. The Comparison result itself is the investigation record: it documents what differed, what was changed, and when, and supports escalation or change management without separate write-up. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack --- # Upgrades ## Purpose Upgrade Analysis is the capability that supports the Upgrades pillar of ConfigCompare. The Upgrades pillar covers any change to the application itself, including Microsoft One Version updates, releases of internal development, new releases of ISV solutions, and AX 2012 to D365 migration paths. Upgrade Analysis helps organisations understand the effect of these changes on configuration and application structure. This chapter describes the pillar in practice, applying the concepts introduced in Chapters 03 to 10. The four pillars are introduced together in Chapter 02. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Two layers of upgrade analysis Upgrade Analysis combines two comparisons, run against Snapshots captured before and after the upgrade: - **Metadata (structural) analysis**: a dedicated Snapshot and comparison mode that examines the structure and schema of all persisted application tables, identifying every structural change introduced by the update. This mode is specific to upgrade scenarios and is distinct from routine Configuration Comparison. - **Configuration (data) analysis**: a standard Configuration Comparison over the tables in the Configuration Catalogue, showing what happened to configured data through the upgrade. Data is not compared across all application tables at upgrade time. The data layer applies to configuration tables, where the question "what did the upgrade write?" has governance meaning. ## Configuration Upgrade Analysis Configuration Upgrade Analysis compares configured environments before and after an upgrade. Typical questions organisations ask include: - Did configuration survive the update? - Did mandatory defaults or features change? - Did settings change between pre-upgrade and post-upgrade baselines? - Are finance, tax, warehouse, production, or integration settings still aligned? - Do environment-specific settings still differ where they should, or has the upgrade left undesired Matches in place? - Are there Differences that require business sign-off? ### Data initialisation For configuration tables that receive new fields in an upgrade, the data layer shows whether the upgrade wrote values into existing records. Each affected table can be classified: - **Inert**: fields were added but no values written; every record remains at the field's default (zero) value. - **Active**: the upgrade wrote non-default values into one or more records. These findings require explicit review. - **Effective default**: no values were written, but the field's zero value is not operationally neutral (for example a default of "Warning" rather than "No"). If the associated feature is enabled by default, the behaviour is live from the first day of the upgrade without any administrator action. - **Meaning change**: the stored value is unchanged, but the label of the field, or the current label of the enumeration value it holds, has changed. A changed label can signal a changed meaning, so these findings deserve review even though no data moved. Effective defaults are the least visible finding: no value was written and nothing was configured, yet behaviour changed. ## Metadata Upgrade Analysis Metadata Upgrade Analysis reviews structural changes in the D365 application introduced by Microsoft updates. Unlike Configuration Comparison, which focuses on specific preselected tables and Data Entities, metadata analysis performs a full scan of every persisted table in the application, meaning every table that stores data rather than a temporary table, and identifies structural changes introduced by the update. ### What metadata analysis identifies Metadata analysis inventories and categorises every structural change: - New tables added - Removed tables - New fields (columns) added to existing tables - Removed fields from existing tables - Field property changes (data type, field length, enumerations) - Label changes - Row count changes across tables - Extended Data Type (EDT) changes affecting existing fields - Index modifications ### Scope and focus Configuration Comparison (ConfigCompare) answers the question organisations ask first: "Did our configuration survive the update?" It does so by comparing settings in preselected configuration tables. Metadata analysis answers a broader question: "What structural changes did Microsoft introduce, and what might be affected?" It examines the entire application database schema to identify every structural change, enabling impact assessment across customisations, integrations, reporting, and business processes. ### Risk identification Metadata analysis identifies several categories of risk: - **Breaking changes**: removed fields or tables that will cause failures in custom code, Data Entities, or integrations. - **Field length reductions**: reduced field lengths do not silently truncate data; SQL Server would prevent the operation, or Microsoft handles the change through a pre-upgrade script. The required action is to query the affected table before upgrading production and resolve any values that exceed the new limit. - **Functional impact**: new defaults or configuration changes introduced by the update (for example, pricing parameters enabled by default) that may affect business processes. - **Dependent system impact**: changes to tables used by integrations, reporting systems, or ISV solutions. ### Report structure and formats Metadata analysis produces detailed tabular reports, typically HTML-based, that organise changes by: - **Table-level categories**: removed tables, new tables, tables with new fields, tables with modified fields, tables with removed fields, tables with changed labels, tables with changed data volumes. - **Module organisation**: Finance, Supply Chain Management, Retail, Projects, Human Resources, and other functional areas. - **Field-level detail**: for each change, the table name, field name, data type, field length, and human-readable labels. Reports are suitable for: - Technical review by developers and architects - Functional team assessment of business process impact - Testing planning and regression test scoping - Integration and reporting impact assessment - Stakeholder communication and upgrade risk assessment ### Typical metadata analysis questions Typical questions organisations ask of metadata analysis include: - What new tables were added in this update? - Which tables had fields removed, and could this break existing code or integrations? - What field length reductions occurred, and do we have data exceeding the new limits? - What new defaults or mandatory parameters were introduced? - Which tables used by our integrations were modified? - What changes affect reports that query modified tables? - Do changes require ISV or third-party solution updates? - What areas require regression testing due to structural changes? - Which changes have business process implications requiring user validation? ### Findings beyond published documentation Structural findings can be cross-referenced against Microsoft's published release documentation. Some changes map cleanly to announced features; others have no corresponding documentation at all. These undocumented changes (new fields, removed fields, and changed definitions that shipped without being described) are findings only deterministic schema comparison can surface. They are reported factually: what is observable in the schema, noted as having no published documentation, without speculation about intent. ## Microsoft One Version support Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management follows a continuous update model. Organisations need to understand what changed and whether those changes affect their configuration, customisations, integrations, ISVs, reporting, or testing approach. ConfigCompare supports this by capturing baselines before and after updates and comparing both configuration and metadata where appropriate. ## Upgrade gates ConfigCompare can support upgrade gates such as: - Pre-upgrade baseline capture. - Impact assessment. - Sandbox upgrade review. - Targeted regression planning. - UAT comparison. - Business sign-off. - Production update validation. - Hypercare monitoring. ## Business outcomes Outcomes typically sought from Upgrade Analysis include: - **Reduced upgrade risk**: understand structural changes before they cause problems. - **Faster upgrade planning**: identify impact areas early and accelerate test scoping. - **Reduced upgrade costs**: avoid post-upgrade surprises, field fixes, and remediation. - **Customisation impact assessment**: understand whether custom code needs updating. - **Integration impact assessment**: identify whether integrations are affected by schema changes. - **Reporting impact assessment**: determine whether reports need modification. - **Informed testing strategy**: focus regression testing on areas that actually changed. - **Stakeholder confidence**: demonstrate that the upgrade has been planned and validated. - **Compliance assurance**: document that changes have been reviewed and understood. ## ConfigUpgrade component The capabilities in this chapter are delivered by ConfigUpgrade, the platform component responsible for pre-upgrade and post-upgrade analysis (see Chapter 22: Licensing). --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 19: Legacy Dynamics AX and AX 2012 - Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services --- # ConfigMigrate ## Purpose ConfigMigrate provides controlled movement of ERP configuration between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management environments. ConfigMigrate supports repeatable and controlled configuration movement as part of Application Lifecycle Management and implementation activities, enabling organisations to promote configuration safely through the deployment lifecycle. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## Overview Configuration deployment is a core part of the application lifecycle. Configuration must move from development through test, UAT, and into production in a controlled, validated manner. ConfigMigrate enables this movement using supported mechanisms while maintaining consistency and control. ## What ConfigMigrate does ConfigMigrate is used to: - Generate Data Management Framework (DMF) packages from configuration - Move supported configuration between environments using DMF - Update configuration using OData-based scenarios - Support repeatable configuration movement patterns - Maintain consistency across environment promotions - Enable automated deployment workflows ## Supported configuration movement ConfigMigrate supports controlled movement of ERP configuration using: - **Data Management Framework (DMF)**: standard D365 package generation and import mechanism. - **Data Entities**: semantic representations of business data for reliable movement. - **OData updates**: direct API-based configuration updates for supported scenarios. A single configuration setting is rarely safe to move in isolation: settings often need to remain consistent with related settings that a narrowly scoped movement has no knowledge of. For small, well-understood changes, direct manual adjustment, supported by context-aware form navigation (described in this chapter), is often the appropriate mechanism. For larger changes, movement through Data Entities and DMF export files keeps related configuration together and consistent. ## Context-aware form navigation ConfigMigrate provides context-aware navigation to the actual configuration forms. When reviewing comparison results, users can right-click on any Difference and open the related form directly in either the source or target system (depending on which Snapshot was selected). This enables: - **Better understanding**: see the actual form and configuration context. - **Manual validation**: verify configuration before automated movement. - **Direct editing**: make manual adjustments when needed. - **Informed decisions**: compare side by side before automated migration. - **Quick remediation**: fix issues directly in the source system before promoting. Rather than relying solely on automated movement, this feature bridges ConfigCompare analysis with direct system access for informed configuration management. ## Configuration movement scenarios ConfigMigrate supports several configuration movement patterns: ### Gold configuration promotion Promote approved reference configurations from a GOLD environment to regional or operational deployments. ### Environment refresh Move baseline configuration to refreshed environments so that configuration remains consistent after an environment copy. ### Deployment automation Automate configuration movement as part of continuous integration / continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. ### Multi-environment rollouts Promote configuration consistently across multiple environments in a phased rollout. ### Test environment setup Populate test environments with approved configuration from GOLD baselines. ## Integration with Application Lifecycle Management ConfigMigrate supports the Application Lifecycle Management pillar. It enables controlled configuration promotion through the deployment pipeline: 1. Configuration is developed in the DEV environment. 2. ConfigMigrate promotes it to TEST. 3. ConfigCompare validates the promotion. 4. ConfigMigrate then promotes the validated configuration to UAT. 5. Approval for production follows successful UAT validation. 6. ConfigMigrate deploys the approved configuration to PROD. This controlled promotion reduces deployment risk and keeps configuration consistent through the pipeline. ## ConfigMigrate and ConfigCompare ConfigMigrate and ConfigCompare serve complementary purposes: - **ConfigMigrate**: enables movement of configuration between environments. - **ConfigCompare**: validates that movement was successful. A typical workflow: 1. ConfigMigrate promotes configuration from DEV to TEST. 2. ConfigCompare compares DEV and TEST to validate promotion success. 3. ConfigMigrate promotes validated configuration to UAT. 4. ConfigCompare validates UAT matches expectations. Together, they provide both the movement mechanism and the validation evidence. ## Business outcomes Typical outcomes from adopting ConfigMigrate include: - **Controlled promotion**: configuration moves through environments in a structured, auditable manner. - **Reduced deployment risk**: movement uses validated, repeatable patterns. - **Deployment automation**: configuration promotion is automated as part of CI/CD pipelines. - **Consistency**: configuration is promoted consistently across similar environments. - **Audit evidence**: records exist of what configuration moved, when, and how. - **Speed**: manual configuration movement tasks are automated. - **Repeatability**: the same proven movement patterns are used across projects. ## Relationship to the platform ConfigMigrate operates alongside the other platform components, each with a single clearly defined responsibility; the full component list is described in Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 11: ConfigTrack - Chapter 13: Application Lifecycle Management --- # Central Command Center ## Purpose Central Command Center provides central orchestration for Snapshots and Comparisons across multiple ConfigCompare installations or Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management instances. This chapter describes concepts and behaviour; step-by-step operating guidance sits outside this reference. ## API orchestration Central Command Center uses APIs to call for Snapshots and Comparisons across different instances of D365 F&SCM within an ecosystem. It coordinates activity. The comparison logic remains inside the ConfigCompare engine. ## Typical scenarios Central Command Center is relevant for: - Multiple production environments. - Multiple Microsoft tenants. - Regional deployments. - Global enterprise groups. - Acquired companies. - Partner-managed customer environments. - Managed service providers. - Cross-tenant governance. - Central governance teams. ## Governance value Central Command Center allows an organisation or partner to coordinate Configuration Governance at scale. Instead of managing every environment independently, central teams can request Snapshots, Comparisons, and governance evidence across a broader Dynamics ecosystem. ConfigCompare supports Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants. Cross-tenant operation is delivered through the Cross-Tenant capability. A central governance dashboard, presenting comparison results and governance status across the estate, is planned as part of Central Command Center (see Chapter 26: Roadmap). ## Business outcomes For organisations and partners, Central Command Center typically delivers: - **Consistent governance at scale**: the same governance model is applied across every instance rather than varying by environment or region. - **Reduced administration**: Snapshots and Comparisons are requested centrally instead of being managed installation by installation. - **Central evidence**: governance evidence across the estate is available to central governance, audit and management teams. - **Cross-tenant governance**: governance extends across Microsoft tenants, acquired companies and regional deployments. - **Partner-managed services**: partners and managed service providers can operate governance for many customer ecosystems from a central point (see Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services). ## Relationship to the platform Central Command Center coordinates the other platform components without replacing them, each with a single clearly defined responsibility; the full component list is described in Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform. --- ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services - Chapter 26: Roadmap --- # Legacy Dynamics AX and AX 2012 ## Purpose AXImprove has deep experience with Axapta and Dynamics AX, including AX 2012. The ConfigCompare Platform includes capabilities and specialist services for organisations that still operate AX 2012 or are preparing to migrate from AX 2012 to Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. These capabilities are delivered through ConfigLegacyAx, the platform component that provides legacy Dynamics AX and AX 2012 Snapshot and readiness capability. ## AX 2012 Snapshots ConfigLegacyAx captures AX 2012 Snapshots. These Snapshots can be used for upgrade readiness, environment review, and Comparison against D365 F&SCM Snapshots where relevant. ## AX 2012 to D365 comparison AX 2012 Snapshots captured by ConfigLegacyAx can be compared by ConfigCompare against Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management Snapshots for upgrade path analysis. This helps organisations understand Differences between their legacy AX configuration and their target D365 configuration. ## Upgrade readiness AXImprove supports upgrade readiness through: - AX 2012 configuration Snapshots. - AX 2012 to D365 comparison. - Metadata analysis. - Database optimisation. - Performance optimisation. - Readiness review. - Extension of viable AX 2012 operating life where migration is not immediate. ## Extending AX 2012 operating life Some organisations need to remain on AX 2012 longer than planned. While those organisations prepare for D365 migration, AXImprove provides AX 2012 Snapshot capture through ConfigLegacyAx and upgrade-path comparison through ConfigCompare, and offers readiness assessment as a service. ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 06: Snapshots - Chapter 07: Comparison Types - Chapter 16: Upgrades --- # Partner Managed Services ## Purpose ConfigCompare enables Microsoft Dynamics partners and managed service providers to build repeatable services around Configuration Governance. ## Partner opportunity Partners can use ConfigCompare to move beyond reactive support and provide proactive governance. Typical managed services include: - Drift-as-a-Service. - Release governance. - Upgrade assurance. - Support triage. - Configuration compliance. - Audit evidence preparation. - Golden template governance. - Hypercare monitoring. - Multi-company rollout governance. ## Drift-as-a-Service Drift-as-a-Service is a recurring service in which a partner monitors a customer's configuration continuously rather than reviewing it on a cycle. Scheduled Snapshots and Scheduled Comparisons run against each environment, and a Ruleset routes results at or above an agreed severity to the partner's notification group (Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts), so an unexpected change reaches the partner without the customer having to report a symptom first. The partner triages each result against what was expected, such as an approved release or agreed configuration work, and raises anything that cannot be accounted for with the customer directly, while the change is recent enough for whoever made it to explain it. Over time the service also provides analysis and commentary on accumulated Differences, with a recommended action for each: revert, approve retrospectively, or promote to other environments. ## Release governance Release governance uses Snapshots and comparisons to validate whether configuration has moved correctly through DEV, TEST, UAT, GOLD, and PROD. ## Upgrade assurance Upgrade assurance uses pre-upgrade and post-upgrade Snapshots, configuration comparison, and metadata comparison to reduce risk in Microsoft One Version updates or larger upgrade programmes. ## Upgrade commentary AXImprove publishes a curated upgrade commentary for D365 F&SCM releases openly on the AXImprove blog. Each commentary is produced by running upgrade analysis (Chapter 16: Upgrades) against a Contoso reference environment and cross-referencing the deterministic structural findings with Microsoft's published release documentation: what technically changed in the schema, mapped to what Microsoft functionally announced. Data initialisation classifications and findings with no published documentation are called out explicitly. The analysis is based on a Contoso environment; a customer's own environment will have a different profile. Partners can deliver the same style of curated commentary for customer-specific environments as part of upgrade assurance engagements. ## Support triage Support triage uses same-environment-over-time comparison and environment-to-environment comparison (Chapter 07: Comparison Types) to identify whether a support incident may be caused by Configuration Drift. ## Partner differentiation ConfigCompare gives partners a repeatable basis for governance services beyond implementation and support: the same Snapshots, Rulesets and monitoring operate identically across customers, so a service built once can be operated for many. ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 16: Upgrades - Chapter 18: Central Command Center - Chapter 22: Licensing --- # Utilities ## Purpose Utilities are additional tools shipped with the ConfigCompare Platform. They address specialised scenarios and are not always directly linked to Comparison. One utility is currently available; further utilities, including external deployment of security setup extraction with Power BI integration, are planned (see Chapter 26: Roadmap). ## Platform utilities ### Azure Insights for User Access Footprint Azure Insights provides visibility into how ERP security configuration maps to actual user access patterns. It identifies mismatches between security setup and observed user behaviour, enabling organisations to understand the access users are granted and the access they actually use. This supports evidence-based security review and optimisation of licence requirements by identifying users with access permissions they do not actively use. ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 14: Governance & Audit - Chapter 22: Licensing - Chapter 26: Roadmap --- # Licensing ## Purpose This chapter describes the commercial licensing model for the ConfigCompare Platform. It maps platform components and capabilities to commercial offerings, enabling organisations to select and adopt only the capabilities they require. ## Licensing philosophy The ConfigCompare Platform is designed around capability-based licensing. Organisations license only the capabilities they require, and each capability can be understood and evaluated independently of licensing. Capabilities are defined by the platform; commercial licensing determines which are enabled. ## Platform licensing structure The ConfigCompare Platform licensing model is built on: - **Base product licensing**: access to ConfigCompare core functionality. - **Capability licensing**: individual optional capabilities licensed independently. - **Component licensing**: access to specific platform components. - **Scaling licensing**: pricing models that scale with deployment scope. ## Core included functionality All commercial offerings include the core Configuration Governance functionality: - Deterministic Comparison. - Snapshot capture. - Configuration monitoring. - Audit evidence generation. - The Rulesets, AI Insights and Alerts Features. ## Optional capabilities Additional capabilities may be licensed independently: | Capability | What it provides | Delivered by (component) | | --- | --- | --- | | Governance | Production monitoring, Configuration Drift detection, change governance and critical configuration area monitoring | ConfigCompare, ConfigTrack, ConfigAudit | | Company Comparison | Comparison of configuration across companies (legal entities) | ConfigCompare | | Upgrade Analysis | Pre- and post-upgrade configuration and Microsoft application metadata analysis | ConfigUpgrade | | Cross-Tenant | Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants | Central Command Center | | Configuration Movement | Movement of supported configuration between environments | ConfigMigrate | | Utilities | Additional platform tools such as user access footprint analysis, not always directly linked to Comparison | Platform utilities (Chapter 21: Utilities) | Within the Governance capability, ConfigTrack delivers configuration change governance and ConfigAudit delivers event-level monitoring of critical configuration areas. Partner managed services are a services offering rather than a licensed capability; see Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services. ## Capability selection Organisations select capabilities based on their governance maturity and business requirements. Adoption commonly starts from one of the Four Pillars (Chapter 02: The Four Pillars): improving deployment confidence, monitoring production environments, reducing support investigation time, or preparing for Microsoft updates. Many organisations begin with one capability and expand over time. ## Licensing model details ### Subscription-based licensing All ConfigCompare Platform licences are subscription-based. Subscriptions include regular software updates, security patches, bug fixes, customer support, and access to new features released during the subscription period. ### Scaling options Licences scale based on: - **User count**: number of concurrent users. - **Environment count**: number of monitored environments. - **Deployment scope**: single implementation or enterprise deployment. Licensing details and pricing are available from AXImprove. ## Licensing and implementation ConfigCompare Platform licensing supports implementation scenarios: - **Single-company implementations**: single legal entity governance. - **Multi-company implementations**: governance across multiple legal entities. - **Multi-tenant environments**: cross-tenant orchestration. - **Enterprise deployments**: global governance across regions and tenants. ## Renewing and upgrading licences Licences renew annually. At renewal, organisations can maintain their current capability set, add or remove capabilities, and adjust scaling to match users and environments. ## Support and licensing AXImprove provides: - **Customer support**: technical support for licensed capabilities. - **Documentation**: the ConfigCompare Technical Reference. - **Training**: implementation and operational training. - **Product updates**: regular feature updates and improvements. ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 02: The Four Pillars - Chapter 04: ConfigCompare - Chapter 16: Upgrades - Chapter 17: ConfigMigrate - Chapter 18: Central Command Center - Chapter 21: Utilities --- # Frequently Asked Questions ## ConfigCompare Fundamentals ### What is ConfigCompare? ConfigCompare is a Configuration Governance Platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. It captures Snapshots and compares them deterministically to support governance, audit, testing, support, and upgrade analysis. ### Is ConfigCompare just a comparison tool? No. Comparison is the mechanism; Configuration Governance is the purpose. ConfigCompare includes Snapshots, Deterministic Comparison, Rulesets, alerts, AI Insights, Upgrade Analysis, change governance (ConfigTrack), audit tracking (ConfigAudit), and centralised orchestration capabilities. ### What are the four pillars of ConfigCompare? The four pillars are: 1. **Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)**: Managing configuration through the deployment pipeline (DEV → TEST → UAT → PROD) 2. **Governance & Audit**: Continuous visibility and control of configuration in live environments 3. **Testing & Support**: Accelerating issue investigation and root cause analysis 4. **Upgrades**: Supporting Microsoft One Version updates and metadata analysis --- ## Comparison & Snapshots ### Does ConfigCompare compare environments? Yes. ConfigCompare can compare configuration between environments such as DEV, TEST, UAT, GOLD, PROD, and SANDBOX. ### Does ConfigCompare compare companies? Yes. ConfigCompare can compare company to company, supporting rollout consistency and global template governance. ### Does ConfigCompare support N:1 company comparison? Yes. ConfigCompare can compare many companies against one approved template company. For example, all US regional companies can be compared against a single US template, or all manufacturing companies against a manufacturing template. ### Does ConfigCompare support historical comparison? Yes. ConfigCompare can compare Snapshots across time, such as PROD today compared with PROD yesterday, or PROD before a release compared to PROD after a release. ### Does ConfigCompare support same-environment-over-time comparison? Yes. ConfigCompare can compare an environment to itself at different points in time, supporting scenarios such as: * Tracking configuration changes during a Conference Room Pilot (CRP start to CRP end) * Validating final CRP configuration against golden baseline (CRP to GOLD) * Detecting Configuration Drift over time ### Does ConfigCompare capture Snapshots from Tables and Data Entities? Yes. ConfigCompare can capture and compare configuration from both D365 Tables and Data Entities, supporting a broad range of Configuration Governance scenarios. ### How many D365 tables does ConfigCompare cover? D365 F&SCM contains approximately 14,000 tables. ConfigCompare's human-curated starter catalogue currently includes approximately 1,930 configuration tables and 200 Data Entities, and can be extended for ISV solutions, bespoke development and customer-specific governance requirements. See Chapter 04: ConfigCompare. ### How can customers add ISV or bespoke tables? ConfigCompare provides a helper from every D365 F&SCM form that surfaces the tables used as data sources by the current form. Users can select relevant tables, assign module context, describe the purpose of the table, and save the result into the configuration tables parameter list. ### Does ConfigCompare support Scheduled Snapshots? Yes. ConfigCompare supports Scheduled Snapshots captured automatically on a defined schedule. ### Does ConfigCompare support Scheduled Comparisons? Yes. ConfigCompare supports Scheduled Comparisons of Snapshots at regular intervals. ### Can Snapshot capture and comparison run as one automated job? Yes. A Snapshot captured with Instant Comparison is automatically paired with the previous Snapshot from the same environment with the same description, compared, assessed by a nominated Ruleset, and, where results reach the severity threshold, notified to the nominated group. Nobody has to select comparison partners manually. See Chapter 06: Snapshots and Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts. ### Can ConfigCompare compare workflow or other binary configuration? Partially. Configuration stored as binary objects (BLOBs), such as approval workflow definitions, is compared by content signature: a change is detected deterministically, but the contents are not decoded, so detailed inspection currently requires reviewing the configuration in both systems manually. Structured decoding of known BLOB formats is on the roadmap (Chapter 26). ### Do custom or extension fields get tracked? Yes. Custom fields added by extension to a table already within the configuration scope are captured automatically. Only new tables and entities need to be registered, through the curated catalogue, manual entry, or the form helper. ### Can ConfigCompare compare by localisation or country-specific tax setup? No. There is no localisation dimension to compare by. Comparison operates by environment, company, table, and column. Localised differences, such as country-specific tax configuration, surface as ordinary Differences when the relevant legal entities are compared. --- ## Differences & Matches ### What is the difference between a Difference and a Match? * **Difference**: Configuration is different between compared environments, companies, or points in time * **Match**: Configuration is identical between compared environments, companies, or points in time Both are important. Some Differences are expected; some Matches represent problems. ### Why would I care about a Match instead of a Difference? Matches can be problematic when environments should differ but do not. The canonical example is production endpoints appearing in UAT: an environment isolation issue, typically after a Production database is restored to a downstream environment. Rulesets can flag undesired Matches with high severity to ensure they receive the same attention as critical Differences. See Chapter 03: Core Concepts and Chapter 08: Rulesets for further examples. ### Can ConfigCompare identify which Matches are problematic? Partially. ConfigCompare identifies every Match; Rulesets determine which Matches require attention based on organisational governance policies. --- ## Rulesets & Responsibility ### What are Rulesets? Rulesets control how comparison results are reported. They can: * Reduce noise by filtering out expected Differences * Classify importance on an eight-level assessment scale (from Emergency, the most severe, down to Insight and Ignore) * Assign Responsibility (the individual, team, or group accountable for reviewing a result) * Flag undesired Matches that should not exist ### Does ConfigCompare ship with default Rulesets? No, deliberately. Which Differences and Matches matter, how severe they are, and who should review them are organisation-specific judgements; a generic rule library would encode someone else's priorities. Rulesets are built progressively from real comparison results (see Chapter 08: Rulesets). ### How do I get started without being overwhelmed by results? Start iteratively rather than designing rules up front: capture a baseline, run a real comparison, triage the results, and set rules directly from real findings: promoting severities that deserve attention, assigning Responsibility, and setting expected or immaterial results to Ignore. Each review cycle makes routine comparisons quieter and more focused. See the adoption pattern in Chapter 08: Rulesets. ### Can Rulesets handle both Differences and Matches? Yes. Rulesets apply to both Differences and Matches, and can escalate problematic Matches with the same priority as critical Differences. ### What is Responsibility? Responsibility is a freetext field that identifies who should review and respond to a comparison result. Examples include: * Individual names (for example, a named finance lead) * Team names (for example, "Finance Team", "Supply Chain Governance") * Functional areas (for example, "Accounts Payable", "Inventory Management") * Business units (for example, "EMEA Finance", "APAC Operations") * Security groups (for example, "Security Architects", "Compliance Officers") ### How is Responsibility assigned? Responsibility is assigned through Rulesets based on criteria such as Module, Company, Table, Business Process, Role, or custom combinations. ### At what levels can Rulesets apply? Rulesets apply hierarchically at five levels: Global, Company, Table, Table and company, and Column. The most specific applicable rule wins (see Chapter 08: Rulesets). --- ## AI & Insights ### Does ConfigCompare use AI to compare environments? No. Comparison is fully deterministic; AI is not involved in comparison logic. ### What are AI Insights? AI Insights are plain-language summaries and explanations generated from Deterministic Comparison output. They can be generated for: * Overall comparison * Per company * Per table AI Insights help users understand the meaning and priority of comparison results without manually reviewing every Difference line by line. ### Does AI replace the comparison engine? No. The ConfigCompare engine remains the authoritative source of truth. AI Insights explain the deterministic output but never replace it. --- ## Monitoring & Alerts ### Does ConfigCompare support alerts? Yes. ConfigCompare supports alerts and notifications of comparison results based on Ruleset conditions. ### Can alerts be triggered on specific conditions? Yes. Alerts are configured on a comparison result whose assessment level meets a severity threshold. ### Do we need a dedicated person to run ConfigCompare? No. Scheduled Snapshot capture, Instant Comparison, a nominated Ruleset, and a severity threshold with a notification group combine into a single batch job. Humans are engaged only when results exceed the threshold; governance operates by exception, with no dedicated watcher. See the operating model in Chapter 10: Monitoring & Alerts. --- ## Upgrades & Metadata ### Does ConfigCompare support upgrade analysis? Yes. ConfigCompare supports two layers of upgrade analysis: 1. **Configuration Upgrade Analysis**: Compares pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration to identify changes to settings 2. **Metadata Upgrade Analysis**: Examines all tables in the application to identify structural changes introduced by Microsoft updates ### What is metadata comparison? Metadata comparison analyses structural changes in the D365 application rather than business configuration. It identifies: * Table additions and removals * Column (field) additions and removals * Data type changes * Field length changes * Label changes * Schema and structural changes ### Does ConfigCompare analyse all tables during metadata comparison? Yes. Metadata analysis examines every table (with persisted values) in the application to identify every structural change introduced by an update. ### Does upgrade analysis compare data as well as structure? Yes, in two layers. Metadata analysis compares the structure of all persisted application tables; a standard configuration comparison covers the data in the configuration tables. Data is not compared across all application tables at upgrade time. For configuration tables receiving new fields, the data layer shows whether the upgrade wrote values into existing records: inert, active, effective default, or meaning change (see Chapter 16: Upgrades). ### Where can I see an example upgrade analysis? AXImprove publishes curated upgrade commentaries for D365 F&SCM releases on the AXImprove blog, produced from a Contoso reference environment and cross-referenced against Microsoft's published release documentation. ### Does ConfigCompare support Microsoft One Version updates? Yes. ConfigCompare can support Microsoft One Version update validation through: * Pre-upgrade baseline Snapshots * Post-upgrade Snapshot comparisons * Configuration comparison * Metadata comparison * Impact analysis ### What is ConfigUpgrade? ConfigUpgrade is the platform component that provides pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration and metadata analysis. It identifies structural changes introduced by Microsoft updates and assesses impact on customisations, integrations, reporting, and business processes. ConfigUpgrade delivers the Upgrade Analysis capability. ### Does ConfigCompare support AX 2012? Yes. ConfigCompare can support AX 2012 Snapshots and AX 2012 to D365 F&SCM upgrade path analysis. ### Can AX 2012 Snapshots be compared with D365 Snapshots? Yes. AX 2012 Snapshots can be compared against D365 F&SCM Snapshots for upgrade path analysis. --- ## ConfigTrack ### What is ConfigTrack? ConfigTrack provides structured governance and change management for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management configuration changes. It enables organisations to define, manage, and track configuration changes through customised event workflows with built-in risk assessment, role-based approvals, and regulatory compliance support. ### What can ConfigTrack do? ConfigTrack enables organisations to: * Record configuration changes as structured events with context, rationale, and business impact * Assess risk based on complexity, user impact, process impact, and likelihood * Assign responsibilities using RACI matrices to define clear accountability * Manage approvals through escalation workflows that account for risk and urgency * Track task progress from creation through completion and closure * Manage tasks across multiple environments (DEV → TST → UAT → PROD) * Maintain audit trails for SOX, J-SOX and internal control requirements * Integrate with ConfigCompare to validate configuration changes against baselines ### Does ConfigTrack support multi-environment deployments? Yes. ConfigTrack can manage tasks across the entire deployment pipeline. For example, a single configuration change event can include: 1. DEV: Implement new configuration 2. TST: Promote and validate 3. UAT: User acceptance testing 4. UAT: Business signoff 5. PROD: Deploy configuration This ensures structured progression of changes through environments with clear task dependencies. ### How does ConfigTrack relate to ConfigCompare? ConfigCompare provides deterministic evidence of what changed and how it differs. ConfigTrack provides the governance and approval workflow context for why it changed and whether it was appropriate. Together they cover both the evidence and the governance workflow. --- ## ConfigAudit ### What is ConfigAudit? ConfigAudit provides event-level audit and change tracking for critical configuration areas in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. It captures create, update and delete events on designated Data Entities (Read operations are not captured), maintaining a granular audit trail without bloating the ERP transactional database. ### What is the difference between ConfigCompare and ConfigAudit? ConfigCompare captures point-in-time Snapshots and answers the question "What exists and how does it differ?". ConfigAudit captures a continuous stream of event-level changes in critical configuration areas and answers the question "What changed within critical configuration areas, and when?". See Chapter 12: ConfigAudit. ### Can ConfigAudit catch changes that ConfigCompare misses? Yes. ConfigAudit captures transient changes: modifications that are made and then reverted before the next ConfigCompare Snapshot. ConfigCompare would show no change; ConfigAudit shows the complete change history. ### Does ConfigAudit detect fraud? Partially. ConfigAudit captures the complete change history that exposes fraudulent changes, including changes reverted before the next Snapshot; detection and judgement rest with reviewers and the organisation's controls. A typical scenario involves: * An employee deliberately changing a vendor bank account to their own account * Processing a payment to the fraudulent account * Reverting the change to hide the fraud ConfigCompare would show no Difference (the account reverted to its original state). ConfigAudit captures the complete change history, exposing the fraud. ### Can ConfigAudit catch operational errors? Yes. ConfigAudit captures accidental configuration changes and their corrections, enabling organisations to: * Identify which transactions were affected by an error * Provide evidence that the incident occurred and was corrected * Implement preventive controls ### Where is ConfigAudit data stored? ConfigAudit maintains dual storage: * **Azure tables**: Hold the complete audit history for long-term retention * **D365 local tables**: Hold only the most recent 3 days for fast queries and offline access All data flows to Azure tables in real time. D365 tables are purged after 3 days, keeping the transactional database lean. ### What are materialised read models? Materialised read models are denormalised copies of audit data, each optimised for a specific query perspective (for example by date, by user, or by record) so each audience queries a shape suited to its needs. See Chapter 12: ConfigAudit. ### Can ConfigCompare or ConfigAudit track non-configuration data such as master data? Yes. Scope is defined by the tables and Data Entities the customer designates, and master-data-style areas such as customers or vendors can be included. Two considerations govern how wide to go: cost grows with the size and change rate of what is tracked, and a tracked area is only worth tracking if someone will actually review its changes. Data no one would review is transactional or document data and should not be in scope. See Chapter 04: ConfigCompare and Chapter 12: ConfigAudit. --- ## Governance & Compliance ### Does ConfigCompare support SOX or J-SOX? Yes. ConfigCompare can support SOX, J-SOX, and internal control processes by providing: * Evidence of configuration Snapshots * Deterministic Comparison results * Monitored changes over time * Audit trails of who changed what and when ConfigTrack adds governance workflow evidence showing who approved changes and when. ConfigAudit provides event-level audit trails for critical configuration areas. ### Does ConfigCompare support audit evidence? Yes. ConfigCompare supports audit activities by: * Preserving Snapshots as evidence * Producing Deterministic Comparison results * Tracking changes over time * Supporting internal and external audit procedures --- ## Integration & Deployment ### What is required for base ConfigCompare setup? Base setup requires: * Installing and licensing ConfigCompare through a deployable package using the standard D365 F&SCM deployment method * Defining the environment name * Defining modules and tables through the curated catalogue, manual entry, the form helper, or a combination of these methods * Configuring at least one Azure Storage Account This base setup is separate from deeper governance design such as Rulesets, Responsibility assignment, ConfigTrack workflows, alerts, and operational reporting. ### Does ConfigCompare require Azure Storage? Yes. ConfigCompare requires at least one Azure Storage Account to store and organise ConfigCompare artefacts. Organisations can use a single Azure Storage Account or multiple Azure Storage Accounts depending on how they want to separate, file, retain, and manage configuration evidence across environments, tenants, customers, or governance scenarios. All ConfigCompare artefacts (Snapshots, Comparisons and audit history) are stored in Azure Storage owned and controlled by the customer. AXImprove holds no customer data; data ownership remains with the customer at all times. ### Does ConfigCompare export to Excel? No. Comparison results are designed to be reviewed in the product's drillable result grids rather than exported; multi-page static exports are not a practical way to consume configuration comparisons. ConfigCompare can export to Data Management Framework packages for supported Data Entity scenarios. ### Do comparisons have to run in Production? No. Snapshot capture runs in each environment, but comparisons can run in a nominated control environment (UAT, GOLD, or a purpose-built governance environment). Snapshots reach the control environment through a shared Azure Storage Account and Synchronize with Azure Store, or through remote Snapshot API calls. See the deployment topology in Chapter 06: Snapshots. ### Does ConfigCompare support Data Management Framework packages? Yes. ConfigCompare can export to DMF packages for supported Data Entity scenarios. ### Is ConfigCompare a deployment tool? No. ConfigCompare is a Configuration Governance Platform. It can export supported DMF packages, but deployment is not its purpose. ### Does ConfigCompare compare transactional data? No. ConfigCompare compares configuration, not transactional data; transactional records such as journals, orders, and transactions are out of scope by design. Master-data-style areas can be included deliberately; see "Can ConfigCompare or ConfigAudit track non-configuration data such as master data?" above. --- ## Enterprise & Scale ### What scale has ConfigCompare been benchmarked against? In a Contoso-scale reference environment with 30 legal entities, ConfigCompare captured 201,000 configuration records, with Snapshot capture and comparison operations each completing in approximately 30 seconds. Actual timings depend on selected scope, environment performance, and workload. The same environment holds an average of 46,148 multi-option settings for each legal entity, which indicates the volume of configurable decisions a comparison covers. See Chapter 06: Snapshots. ### What is Central Command Center? Central Command Center orchestrates Snapshots and comparisons across multiple ConfigCompare installations or D365 F&SCM instances using APIs. It coordinates activity without performing comparison logic; the ConfigCompare engine performs the actual comparisons. ### Does Central Command Center perform comparison logic? No. Central Command Center orchestrates requests. The ConfigCompare engine performs the comparison logic in each instance. ### Can ConfigCompare work across multiple tenants? Yes. ConfigCompare supports Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants. Cross-tenant operation is delivered through the Cross-Tenant capability. Cross-Tenant is a licensed capability (Chapter 22: Licensing). --- ## Users & Adoption ### Does ConfigCompare require a full governance rollout before it becomes useful? No. A full Configuration Governance rollout may include detailed Rulesets, Responsibility assignment, ConfigTrack workflows, approvals, alerts, and operational reporting. Those deeper controls can be introduced progressively. After installing the deployable package and applying the licence, customers can load the curated configuration catalogue and begin capturing meaningful configuration evidence in around 15 minutes. This timing is based on the curated catalogue and a standard deployment; actual effort depends on the selected scope and the environment. ### What drives ROI for ConfigCompare? ROI is typically realised by replacing manual investigation and spreadsheet-based validation with repeatable Snapshot capture and Deterministic Comparison. Common ROI drivers include: * Reduced manual comparison effort * Faster release and deployment validation * Earlier detection of Configuration Drift * Shorter support investigations * Reduced risk of expensive production remediation * Less effort preparing audit evidence * Better routing of results to the right functional, technical, support, or audit owners ### Who uses ConfigCompare? Typical users include: * Functional consultants * Solution architects * Technical architects * ERP administrators * Support teams * Internal audit teams * Compliance teams * Microsoft Dynamics partners * Managed service providers * CIOs --- # Glossary ## A ### AI Insight A plain-language explanation of Deterministic Comparison results, generated on request by ConfigAI. AI Insights can be produced for an overall comparison, per company, or per table; Deterministic Comparison remains the source of truth. ### Alert A notification generated when configured governance conditions are met. Alerts draw attention to comparison results or monitored changes requiring review. ### Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) One of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. ALM focuses on managing configuration as it progresses through the software delivery lifecycle (development, test, UAT, production). Typical scenarios include deployment validation, environment refresh verification, and release validation. ### Approval Workflow A sequence of approval steps required before a configuration change can proceed. Approval workflows account for risk level, urgency, and governance policy. ### Assessment The severity classification a Ruleset assigns to a comparison result, on an eight-level scale from Emergency (most severe) through Escalations, Exception, Deviation, Concern, Notice, and Insight to Ignore. Ignore suppresses a result from assessment output. ### AXImprove AXImprove Ltd, established 2010, is an Independent Software Vendor and Microsoft Dynamics specialist focused on ConfigCompare, Configuration Governance, Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, Dynamics AX, architecture, performance optimisation, and analytics. ### Azure Storage Account An Azure storage resource used by ConfigCompare to store and organise platform artefacts such as Snapshot and comparison evidence. Base ConfigCompare setup requires at least one Azure Storage Account, with additional accounts optional depending on filing, retention, tenant, customer, or environment separation requirements. ### Azure Store synchronisation The mechanism that updates a nominated environment with the list of Snapshots captured across environments and held in a shared Azure Storage Account, making Snapshots from a whole estate available for comparison in one place. Synchronize with Azure Store can run as a batch job. ### Azure tables Cloud-based storage tables used by ConfigAudit. Azure tables hold the complete audit history without time limits, supporting long-term retention and external analysis. ## B ### Binary (BLOB) configuration Configuration stored as a binary object rather than as individual fields; approval workflow definitions are a common example. Binary configuration is compared by content signature: a change is detected deterministically, but the contents are not decoded. ## C ### Central Command Center A platform component that orchestrates Snapshots and comparisons across multiple ConfigCompare installations or D365 F&SCM instances using APIs. Central Command Center delivers the Cross-Tenant capability. ### Change Task Work that must happen as part of a configuration change event. A single event may spawn multiple tasks across different environments or assigned to different teams. ### Company A legal entity within an ERP system. ConfigCompare can compare configuration between companies to validate consistency across organisations operating similar business processes. ### Company Comparison A capability providing comparison of configuration across companies (legal entities), including N:1 comparison against approved template companies. ### Comparison result values The result vocabulary of Deterministic Comparison: * **Same AB**: present in both Snapshots and identical (a Match). * **Diff AB**: present in both Snapshots but different (a Difference). * **Only A**: present only in Snapshot A. * **Only B**: present only in Snapshot B. * **Not present**: absent from both Snapshots. ### ConfigAI A platform component providing AI-assisted explanation of Deterministic Comparison results. ConfigAI generates AI Insights on request; it performs no comparison logic. ### ConfigAudit A platform component that captures create, update and delete events on designated Data Entities, maintaining a granular, event-level audit trail of changes to critical configuration areas without bloating the ERP transactional database. Read operations are not captured. ### ConfigCompare A Configuration Governance Platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management that captures Snapshots and compares them deterministically to support governance, audit, testing, support, and upgrade analysis. ### ConfigLegacyAx A platform component providing legacy Dynamics AX and AX 2012 Snapshot and readiness capability, supporting AX 2012 to D365 F&SCM upgrade path analysis. ### ConfigMigrate A platform component providing controlled movement of supported ERP configuration between environments. ConfigMigrate delivers the Configuration Movement capability. ### ConfigSnap A platform component responsible for capturing point-in-time representations of ERP configuration that can later be compared, archived, and analysed. ### ConfigTrack A platform component that provides structured governance and change management for configuration changes. ConfigTrack enables organisations to define, manage, and track configuration changes through customised event workflows with risk assessment, role-based approvals, and audit trails. ### ConfigUpgrade A platform component that provides pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration and metadata analysis, identifying structural changes introduced by Microsoft updates and assessing impact on customisations, integrations, reporting, and business processes. ConfigUpgrade delivers the Upgrade Analysis capability. ### Configuration Catalogue A curated list of D365 F&SCM tables and Data Entities selected for configuration capture and comparison. ConfigCompare's starter catalogue currently includes approximately 1,930 configuration tables and 200 Data Entities, out of approximately 14,000 D365 F&SCM tables, and can be extended for ISV solutions, bespoke development, and customer-specific governance requirements. ### Configuration Comparison Analysis of ERP configuration captured within Snapshots. Configuration Comparison supports the Application Lifecycle Management, Governance & Audit, Testing & Support and Upgrades pillars. ### Configuration Drift Uncontrolled or undocumented divergence of configuration from an expected, approved, or baseline state. Configuration Drift commonly arises through planned changes, unplanned changes, manual intervention, software deployments, environment refreshes, Microsoft One Version updates, and operational support activities. ### Configuration Event A structured record of a planned or observed configuration change, including context, rationale, risk assessment, approvals, and business impact. Events provide the primary organisational unit for change management in ConfigTrack. ### Configuration Governance The process of understanding, validating, monitoring, and controlling ERP configuration throughout the application lifecycle. Configuration Governance ensures that configuration changes are visible, explainable, appropriately governed, and aligned with organisational policies. ### Configuration Movement A capability providing movement of supported configuration between environments, delivered by ConfigMigrate. ### Control Environment A nominated environment (UAT, GOLD, or a purpose-built governance environment) where comparisons run across Snapshots gathered from a whole estate. Comparisons do not need to run in Production or in the environment where a Snapshot was captured. ### Cross-Tenant A capability providing Configuration Governance across multiple Dynamics 365 instances and Microsoft tenants, delivered by Central Command Center. ### CRUD Create, Read, Update, Delete. The four basic operations that can be performed on data. ConfigAudit captures create, update and delete events on designated Data Entities; Read operations are not captured. ## D ### D365 Abbreviation for Microsoft Dynamics 365. In this context, refers to Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. ### D365 F&O A former name for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (D365 F&SCM). This reference uses Finance & Supply Chain Management throughout. ### Data Entity A standardised, semantic representation of business data in Dynamics 365. Data Entities represent logical business concepts and are the standard integration layer. ConfigCompare supports both Tables and Data Entities for configuration capture. ### Data initialisation The upgrade-time classification of configuration tables that receive new fields, showing whether the upgrade wrote values into existing records: Inert, Active, Effective default, or Meaning change. See Chapter 16: Upgrades. ### Data Management Framework (DMF) The standard Dynamics 365 F&SCM framework for importing and exporting data through Data Entities. ConfigCompare can export to DMF packages for supported Data Entity scenarios. ### Deterministic Comparison A comparison method that, given the same two Snapshots, always produces the same result. Deterministic Comparison provides repeatable, evidence-based analysis that can be trusted throughout implementation, support, governance, and audit activities. ### Difference A detected variation in configuration between two Snapshots. Differences are factual evidence but do not, by themselves, indicate whether something is wrong. ## E ### Enterprise Orchestration Coordination of governance activities across multiple ConfigCompare installations, environments, regions, or Microsoft tenants. ### Environment A deployed instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. Common environments include DEV (development), TEST, UAT (user acceptance testing), GOLD (reference/golden), PROD (production), and SANDBOX. ## F ### Fraud Detection ConfigAudit's capture of the complete change history that exposes intentional misconduct, such as a vendor bank account changed, used for a payment, and reverted before the next Snapshot. ConfigAudit records the evidence; detection and judgement rest with reviewers and controls. ### F&SCM Finance & Supply Chain Management. Abbreviation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. ## G ### Golden Template (GOLD) An approved reference configuration used as a baseline for comparison. Golden templates ensure consistency across regions, business units, or implementations. ### Governance & Audit One of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. Governance & Audit focuses on maintaining confidence in live ERP environments by providing visibility into configuration changes, detecting drift, and supporting compliance requirements. ### Governance (capability) A capability providing production monitoring, Configuration Drift detection, change governance, and monitoring of critical configuration areas. It is delivered by ConfigCompare, ConfigTrack, and ConfigAudit. ## H ### Hypercare The intensive support period immediately after go-live or a major release, during which monitoring is typically increased. ## I ### Instant Comparison A Snapshot capture option that automatically pairs the new Snapshot with the previous Snapshot from the same environment with the same description and compares the two, applying a nominated Ruleset and severity threshold in the same operation. ## J ### J-SOX Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley. A Japanese regulatory framework requiring internal controls over financial reporting. ## M ### Match A Match is configuration that is identical between the two Snapshots being compared. Matches are as important as Differences in governance: some Matches represent correct alignment, while others (such as production endpoints in UAT) indicate configuration that should differ. ### Materialised Read Model One of multiple denormalised copies of audit data, each optimised for a specific query perspective (for example by date, by Data Entity, by user, or by column). Materialised read models eliminate the need for custom queries and aggregations. ### MCP (Model Context Protocol) An orchestration and access layer being added to the platform for AI-assisted scenarios. MCP routes and sequences requests against the platform's APIs; it adds no comparison logic, and Deterministic Comparison remains the source of truth. ### Metadata Application structure data such as tables, columns, data types, field lengths, labels, schema, relationships, and indexes. ### Metadata Comparison Comparison of application structure (metadata) rather than business configuration. Metadata comparison examines every persisted table in the application to identify structural changes introduced by Microsoft updates. ### Monitor A configured governance process that observes selected areas of ERP configuration over time, typically combining Scheduled Snapshots, Scheduled Comparisons, Rulesets, Alerts, and Notifications. ### Monitoring & Alerts Continuous governance through Scheduled Comparisons, alerts triggered by comparison results, and notifications sent to responsible parties. ## N ### N:1 Comparison A comparison pattern where many companies are compared against one approved reference company or template. N:1 comparison supports organisations with many legal entities that are expected to conform to a common configuration standard. ## O ### OData Update A Feature providing direct API-based configuration updates in supported scenarios. ### One Version Microsoft's continuous update model for Dynamics 365. One Version updates are released regularly, requiring organisations to understand configuration and metadata changes. ## P ### Partner Managed Services Recurring governance services that partners operate on ConfigCompare for their customers; a services offering rather than a licensed capability. See Chapter 20: Partner Managed Services. ## R ### RACI Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. A matrix defining roles in configuration change governance. ConfigTrack uses RACI matrices to define clear accountability in change management. ### Remote Snapshot A Snapshot captured in another environment through an API call, without returning the underlying data to the caller. Remote Snapshots allow Snapshots from all environments to become available for comparison together, typically in a control environment. ### Responsibility A freetext field identifying the individual, team, or group accountable for reviewing or responding to a comparison result or change event. Responsibility is assigned through Rulesets and ensures results reach the right stakeholders. ### Risk Assessment Evaluation of configuration change risk across multiple dimensions: complexity, user impact, process impact, and likelihood of issues. ConfigTrack assesses risk to determine approval requirements and escalation rules. ### Ruleset A policy layer that controls how comparison results are reported, classified, assigned to responsible parties, suppressed, or escalated. Rulesets determine which Differences and Matches require attention based on organisational governance policies. ## S ### Scheduled Comparison A Feature that compares Snapshots automatically on a defined schedule. ### Scheduled Snapshot A Feature that captures Snapshots automatically on a defined schedule. ### Snapshot A point-in-time capture of ERP configuration or metadata from a specific environment, company, or point in time. Snapshots are immutable once captured and form the factual basis for Deterministic Comparison. ### Snapshot Blind Spot Configuration changes that occur between Snapshots and are then reverted. ConfigCompare would show no Difference (configuration reverted to original state), but ConfigAudit captures the complete change history. ### SOX Sarbanes-Oxley. A regulatory framework for internal controls over financial reporting, requiring organisations to maintain evidence of configuration controls. ## T ### Table A physical database structure in Dynamics 365 containing configuration or operational data. Tables are the only first-class representation of configuration data in D365 F&SCM: views, Data Entities, and forms are curations of subsets of the data held in tables. ConfigCompare supports comparison of configuration stored in both Tables and Data Entities. ### Testing & Support One of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. Testing & Support focuses on understanding configuration Differences that affect testing, issue investigation, and operational support. Typical scenarios include failed UAT, regression testing, root cause analysis, and support triage. ### Transient Change A configuration change that is made and then reverted before the next Snapshot. ConfigCompare cannot detect transient changes; ConfigAudit captures the complete change history. ## U ### UAT User Acceptance Testing. An environment where business users validate that the system meets requirements before production deployment. ### Upgrade Analysis The capability that supports the Upgrades pillar. Upgrade Analysis provides pre-upgrade and post-upgrade configuration and metadata comparison for Microsoft One Version updates, releases of internal development, new releases of ISV solutions, and ERP modernisation projects. ### Upgrades One of the four pillars of ConfigCompare. The Upgrades pillar covers changes to the application itself, including Microsoft One Version updates, releases of internal development, new releases of ISV solutions, and ERP modernisation projects. It is supported by the Upgrade Analysis capability. ### Utilities Additional tools shipped with the ConfigCompare Platform that address specialised scenarios and are not always directly linked to Comparison, for example user access footprint analysis. See Chapter 21: Utilities. --- # Canonical Resources ## AXImprove Website: https://aximprove.com/ ## ConfigCompare Product page: https://configcompare.com/ Microsoft Marketplace: https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/saas/aximproveltd.configcompare?tab=overview ## Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management Service page: https://aximprove.com/microsoft-dynamics-365-finance-operations/ ## Power BI Power BI page: https://aximprove.com/products/power-bi/ ## Blog Blog: https://aximprove.com/blog/ ## LinkedIn LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/aximprove --- # Roadmap ## Purpose This chapter describes planned capabilities and platform extensions currently in development or under consideration for the ConfigCompare Platform. Roadmap items indicate direction; they are not commitments to deliver by any date. ## Planned platform extensions ### Business Central Snapshots and Comparisons Extends the ConfigCompare Platform to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Snapshot and comparison capabilities will enable Configuration Governance for Business Central implementations alongside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management deployments. Whether this is delivered through the existing ConfigSnap and ConfigCompare components or a new component is not yet settled. ### Dataverse and Power Platform Snapshots Brings Snapshot capture and Configuration Governance to Microsoft Dataverse and Power Platform applications. Initial capability focuses on Snapshot capture for Dataverse configuration; a component name for Dataverse support is not yet settled. Comparison for Dataverse will follow Snapshot capture; Business Central comparison is planned in parallel. ### External Comparison Client Provides comparison for customers and partners external to ConfigCompare installations, extending the Comparison responsibility of the ConfigCompare component to external deployments. The External Comparison Client enables comparison of ERP configuration Snapshots without requiring direct access to core ConfigCompare infrastructure. ### External Snapshot Client Enables Snapshot capture for customers and partners external to ConfigCompare installations, extending the Snapshot capture responsibility of the ConfigSnap component to external deployments. The External Snapshot Client calls deterministic APIs provided by ConfigCompare across supported products (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, Business Central, Dataverse) to capture and standardise point-in-time configuration Snapshots. ## Planned feature enhancements ### Structured BLOB Comparison Adds pre-processing that unpacks binary configuration (BLOBs) of known formats, such as approval workflow definitions, so that their contents become comparable. Binary configuration is currently compared by content signature: a change is detected deterministically, but the contents are not decoded (see Chapter 05: Comparison Engine). Structured BLOB comparison will make the contents of supported binary formats visible in comparison results. ### Central Command Center Governance Dashboard Introduces a central dashboard to Central Command Center, presenting comparison results and governance status across the estate. The dashboard is a consumption surface for existing deterministic output. As with all Central Command Center capabilities, it orchestrates and presents; the comparison logic remains inside the ConfigCompare engine (see Chapter 18: Central Command Center). ### MCP support Adds Model Context Protocol (MCP) support as an orchestration and access layer for AI-assisted scenarios. MCP routes and sequences requests against the platform's APIs. It adds no comparison logic; Deterministic Comparison remains the source of truth (see Chapter 09: AI Insights). ## Planned utilities ### Security setup extraction and Power BI integration Provides external deployment of security configuration extraction for use in Power BI visualisations. Organisations can deploy a package external to ConfigCompare to extract environment-specific security setup information and visualise mismatches between the access users are granted and the access they actually use in their ERP environment. This supports evidence-based security review and licence optimisation initiatives. ## Related topics - Chapter 01: The ConfigCompare Platform - Chapter 03: Core Concepts - Chapter 05: Comparison Engine - Chapter 09: AI Insights - Chapter 18: Central Command Center - Chapter 21: Utilities - Chapter 22: Licensing