Aqueducts Consulting founder Joe Christensen plans to launch a Dynamics 365 data framework designed to carry business rules across four connected areas of ERP delivery. He’s calling it 7 Stories, and it’s set for release Sept. 1.
The new brand’s flagship 7 Stories offering, Data Story, links data migration, reporting, regression testing and master data management for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations projects. Christensen said he intends for the framework to preserve the business knowledge gathered during discovery as information moves between teams and project stages.
ERP implementations often divide those responsibilities among different specialists. Migration teams, for example, learn how legacy data should be mapped and transformed, while reporting teams later need to interpret the same data. Testing teams validate processes, while master data teams maintain standards after go-live.
Christensen argues that each handoff creates an opportunity for context to be lost, and 7 Stories fixes that problem.
Dynamics 365 data framework connects four pillars
Rules captured during migration should not have to be rediscovered by reporting or testing teams, Christensen argues. The same definitions should continue into post-go-live data governance.
His company describes Data Story as an AI-ready offering built around Dynamics 365 F&O and Microsoft Fabric. However, Christensen says his larger goal is to retain the intentions behind the data, including information distributed across employees, consultants and discovery records.
“With AI, you have the ability to persist all the stuff that Cindy, Dave, Ashok, and Bill said in the discovery calls,” Christensen told PartnerTalks host Rick McCutcheon.
AI projects still depend on well-structured information, clear business processes and consistent definitions. PartnerTalks recently examined the same foundation in its coverage of Business Central AI readiness, where data structure and governance emerged as early implementation priorities.
7 Stories builds on Aqueducts reporting work
Christensen founded Aqueducts Consulting after moving from literary studies into databases, reporting and Dynamics AX. He said he came to view business processes as narratives, with data carrying a company’s operating story through its systems.
Aqueducts has worked with Dynamics ERP data since 2012. In 2023, the firm packaged recurring reporting designs, queries and architecture into Conduit BI, a rapid-start reporting product for Dynamics 365 F&O. According to Aqueducts, Conduit BI includes prebuilt reports, data models and supporting infrastructure.
Christensen’s experience with F&O data could provide an advantage as general AI development firms enter the Microsoft channel. Christensen said the current AI cycle gives his team a limited window to refine the model and determine how deeply the technology can affect ERP delivery.
“Your data and systems should be telling the same story that your company tells,” Christensen said.
