One of our countries (“customers”) are considering to implement JD Edwards instead of our Dynamics NAV solution.
Does any of you have a document/report comparing Navision to Oracle JD Edwards, or have you sold NAV against JD Edwards before?
Hi Erik,
One argument you likely have is price. Here is a link to Oracle’s current pricing:
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/pricelists.html
Here is an article on an acqusition where they moved a JD Edwards instal to NAV:
http://www.eis.mu/index.php?langue=eng&rub=129
Also, lets face it…you are selling a Microsoft solution. There is a major advantage to this.
If you are interested in an argument why EDI is 10 times better on NAV (and less costly)…drop me a line. I can help you with an embedded NAV EDI solution that will blow them away.
Thank you. Yes normally pricing means a lot. But if the customer is convinced that NAV is simply not “big enough” for them (even when we have companies even bigger than them running NAV), then price is not that important. And selling a Microsoft solution is also not that big a selling point anymore either.
So I’m still looking for someone with a great report comparing NAV to JD Edwards!
If we ever need EDI then I’ll contact you, but it’s not exactly something I think we will be looking into the next 3-4 years. We are facility service organization, we don’t sell or distribute products (like we did in my old job, where EDI was very important).
Hi Erik,
It’s been awhile!
We lost a deal against Oracle / JD Edwards a couple of years ago based on the following criterias:
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Oracle direct sale discounted the software a lot, so it was cheaper than NAV
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Oracle’s slick sales reps. convinced the prospect that Micrsoft NAV had no business even being considered since it is only for smaller organizations
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JD Edwards had a lot of functionality that NAV didn’t have out of the box, without add-ons and custom enhancements
It sounds like some Oracle rep. or Oracle direct sales has be able to convience the client that Oracle, which is the software that the BIG guys use is the solution for them and that they should not consider Microsoft NAV since NAV is not playing in the fortune 500-1000 organization space. The way to turn this around is probably to ensure them that NAV is big enough by using referals, etc. If you have a good MS rep. or a couple of them that you trust it might be a good idea to get them to talk about MS and NAV with the client as well and have MS assurance them, etc. Basically sounds like you need to do some sucking up to get this one 
Hope all is well with you otherwise.
/Bruno
Hi Bruno, [:)]
Yes it’s been a while! Not seen you in here for ages either!
But thank you for your advices.
Hi Erick,
In https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/sales/competitiveinformation/bycompetitor/oraclecompete.htm?printpage=false you have Oracle Compete Whitepaper for Microsoft Dynamics. I don’t know I this document fits your needs.
I personally don’t know JD Edwards but my current company has a former JD Edwards consulting company before moving on to Dynamics NAV. I will write based on their dally comments.
JD Edwards it’s a product that is target to SAP Markets. Has many features but a short of difficult customization. In this way NAV win easily. It’s easier to maintain and customize. JD Edwards takes a long way to implement and customize.
The biggest NAV drawback it’s related to features out of box. Dynamics NAV has basic features and then customers can buy add-ons or customize to adjust to their needs. JD Edwards already many features that aren’t required 3t party products. But it depends business you are dealing. If your business requirements are specific then Dynamics NAV clearly because customization in JD Edward it almost a subject to forget.
Security (fields security, form for each user) probably it’s a long desired feature in NAV that JD already has.
If you have any difficult you can contact Microsoft Sales and they will provide someone to help you in this matter.
Thank you Nuno,
Another friend had already given me this. Some of them are actually ok, but they are really not quite fitting. A bit to old.
Bug do you (or your co-workers) know anything in regards to how JD Edwards project/service features are? We are as you know a facility service company and allmost all of our services are bound to a contract specifying which services should be rendered, either site specific (cleaning, catering etc. normally at fixed amounts) or route based (pest control, security, window cleaning etc.). I have seen this done in SAP, and they really don’t handle this area very beautiful out-of-the-box. But I don’t know anything about JD Edwards, so any help would be appriciated.
Just one more comment.
A current customer have chosen Dynamics NAV over Oracle because in previous company, Oracle ERP implementation was in a 2 year implementation and it didn’t had any signs that the project would end in a near future.
Yes we also hear quite a few of those stories here! Both with SAP and Oracle!
I will be at the office and the end of next week.
I will try o ask them about this subjet. If I have any answer I will post it back here. Do you have more specific questions ?
I would try to raise the issue of product road map.
JD Edwards is in practice a discontinued product.
Oracle plans to replace its entire suite with some kind of a next generation “Fusion” application. This means investing today in JD Edwards might not be a good long term technology investment
I will send to you an e-mail with the info.
Hi Nuno,
Yes thank you. Your information has been very helpful!
Erik - I’m cross posting this from the LinkedIn group where you also asked this question. You mentioned that a big part of the reason they like JDE is scalability. I try to frame this argument in terms of thinking about “scalability you can use”. From a business standpoint they have to come to two conclusions to go JDE.
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That at their current size and they have outgrown or are about to outgrow NAV (in terms of transactional capabilities, functionality, flexibility, etc).
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That the added scalability of JDE (let’s acknowledge that it scales higher) is so essential that it is worth taking on the added complexity. cost, and risk that comes along with it.
Chances are that existing benchmarks, case studies, references, etc can stop them from buying into #1. But I get that JDE includes some functionality that may not be included in NAV. I get that Oracle sells the stuff to larger companies, so it has a measure of scalability that goes beyond NAV.
Similarly, my SUV lacks the scalability and some of the capabilities of a semi-truck, or a freight train. I’m ok with that. When I need a little bit more cargo room I can add a trailer or one of those cool cargo racks that attach on the back end. The fact is the SUV meets my needs today and will continue to do os in the future. Beyond that it gives me more flexibility. Compared to the truck or train I can quickly change directions and even turn on a dime when I need to. Oh, and the logistics behind supporting my truck are a lot less complicated and expensive than those behind the semi or train. I like the train analogy for Oracle. In terms of the routes it can take the train has every bit the flexibility of an Oracle app. And once it picks up a head of steam if the implementation falls even slightly off the tracks it can cause a hell of a mess.
Regards,
Jason
www.partnercompete.com
And zrimalt…
The question you raise about product roadmap is a good one. Yes Oracle is building a new “merged” product called Fusion. What that means to existing products is a little bit unclear. Originally Oracle was very clear that they acquired products like JDE would go into maintenance mode and be sold just to existing customers. Based on the customer backlash they came back with “applications unlimited”, which is their promise to support existing lines into the future.
I’m not sure I completely buy that. At the very least you’ll have and have had resources shifted away from JDE to build the new thing. But at some point JDE ends and you face a migration to the new product.
The problem for many JDE customers will be not just one of an application change, but also a database change. You may recall that just before being acquired by PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards had been significantly strengthening its IBM relationship, to the point that they had reached an agreement to embed IBM’s WebShere into their products. In addition, many implementations are on the DB2 database. This was one of the most IBM centric ERP providers out there. At its core it is an IBM “blue stack” application. Fusion is going to be a red stack application. It will support and Oracle infrastructure and at this point it is a near certainty that it will not run on IBM. Imagine the costs this adds for a company on JDE. Not only are you swapping out your ERP system for Fusion at some point in the future, you are also likely replacing your infrastrucure.
It seems to me that when considering JDE a company should include in its TCO/ROI analysis the costs associated with moving to and Oracle platform in the near future. It’s not a pretty picture.
Regards,
Jason
www.partnercompete.com
Hi Jason,
Thank you for your comments. As to the database issue, then this is actually one of their primary reasons why they are considering it. They are currently running their legacy ERP system on a Oracle database. So changing to JDE would save them a lot on the database licensing front.
HI Erik,
We are competing against JDE at the moment, so I was looking at those info.
Can you tell me what happened in the end? You got the contract?
If yes or not 
, can you tell us why?
I think the roadmap argument is the most impacting.
regards,
Hi 
Jason Carter,
I have just started working on navision…and i am just a trainee nw, but hats off too ur SUV example.
Short simple and precise…