May 23–28 are the dates for Microsoft’s conference for building, deploying, securing, and managing connected solutions. Read more here: http://www.microsoft.com/seminar/teched2004/default.mspx According to the messages on MBS Tech 2003 in Minneapolis is the replacement for specific MBS Tech conferences. The MBS Tech 2003 was a bit of a dissapointment if you only came to listen about Navision or Axapta. Now with Microsoft Tech·Ed 2004 there are planned NO SESSION ABOUT NAVISION!!! They have a few about Axapta, Great Plains and Solomon. But nothing about Navision, nothing! Are Microsoft completely dumping Navision in the USA or?
Great…I guess I better start my VB training…I hate VB.
Yeah…I’ve got an email and phone call into several of my contacts with the old Navision group still employed at Microsoft. I’ll keep you all updated. BTW…it’s not just a US issue, there’s no mention in any of the Tech Ed going on in Europe, Far East, or Australia.
But at the other Tech Ed’s there is no mention about any MBS product!
Let me try: maybe a sort of incompatibility between MS and the “Open Source” philosophy of Navision… ? [;)] Maybe it’s just a coincidence: this morning at the radio I listened to an old Pink Floyd’s song: “Green is the colour”. Let’s wait and see…
Just checked today, March 4, and there are now 2 Navision topics listed in the breakout sessions. Maybe there will be more in the Future.
Oh guys, this is a no hard feelings about Navision. Even Axapta and Great Plains are a side-play. This is about server platforms and US market that is the most important for MS. US market is simple - you cannot have too many products for a texan farmer - you can have Ford but you cannot have Ford, CAT and Massey Fergusson in the same outlet. The reason why US events have focus on Great Plains is that this is the only MBS brand that has any presence whatsoever and they dump these brands anyway with a post green name like MS Money System or something. Green or MBF or blah.9.0 (I bet soon they try to unify it with the Office version numbers) is just a way of selling Longhorn and Yukon, starting from 2006. We just have to wait till then. Navision and Axapta are just a lubricant in moving platform money to the right direction. Even have looked at GPL stuff like compiere.org and what Sage is doing (just bought Accpac and is 2x larger), just to hedge against this degradation of focus and professionalism, what I see after Navision is under Bill. Sorry guys - not a farewell yet, but time for serious thought. If anyone would take the task of organizing the porting of the Navision compiler/interpreter to GPL/Open Source, only then Navision will be an Open Source project. Our wonderful database will be killed off anyway.
Let me know your feelings on how comfortable you all are in being Navision dealers, and what would you do if Microsoft did drop Navision,
Something came to my mind. Maybe it’s time that WE - the Navision community - are creating our own conference? I bet that we can find many sponsors world wide for such an event! And if we do create it, then I bet that Microsoft also wanna join us! But it would be hard work, even full time work for a period, so can we handle it and will we?
Erik, I am confident that we could put together a Navision conference with or without the assistance of Microsoft. I am aware that you would be keen to make it Navision specific but would it not make more sense to devote time to Axapta, Great Plains, MS CRM and RMS, that would ensure the attendance of MBS. If it were to be based in London over 2 or 3 days, I am sure it is something that we could organise quite quickly maybe inside the next 6 months. I would be happy to share some ideas with you about how to go about setting one up. Regards, Chris
A conference is a nice idea. But as we have to deal with very limited capacities, i would concentrate on the products that this forum is about. And this is mainly Navision and other MBS products. What topics can be handled would mainly depend on the volunteers we find for it. It’s that easy - if there is no commitment by a volunteer or a company to a special theme, then the theme is not on the agenda. 2 days seems to me a good timeframe for a conference - enough time, but not too long. Maybe we should think about a weekend - i would let decide a poll when it should take place - to reach the maximum of people. Then we would have to collect topics and - more important - find people to speak about the topics. For the conference i would not look for sponsors. The costs should be not too high and be covered by the visitors. That would keep it simple. If we are that far we can decide is there is enough interest to really have a conference and try to set up a organisation-group. Concerning the place … it should be in europe, as most navision-users are from there. It should be easy/cheap to reach and provide affordable accommodation. That’s why i would not choose London. The flights to London are pretty cheap, but Hotels and space for a conference is quite expensive. If we schedule the conference in Autumn or early Winter, there are lots of offers for example in places like Mallorca. This is not a joke - a lot of traings take place there because there is a lot of unused and cheap capacity there and it is easy to reach by plane. And if it does not work - maybe we should meet although - just to have couple off beers and meet the faces behind the names 
Eric, I like your work. The conference is a great idea.The locations that are suggested are a long way from Australia on a 20 hour one way flight. I agree that the information flow has slowed to a trickle since MBS took over. In Australia MBS are only discussing a V4.0 release event (no commitment yet). If you are able to get a Europe conference off the ground, would you consider an Asia-Pacific version with the same format and guest speakers. I seem to recall MBS buying Navision to get a foot in both the Europe and Asia-pacific market place so we must have some interest to them.
Eric, This is awesome!!! I’m not sure if I can contribute, but I’ll be sure to attend!!!
I don’t believe Microsoft is ‘dumping’ Navision. I just recently a session in Frankfurt to give input for version 5, to be released in 2005. There they still showed the roadmap for Navision and their plans for further development. Couldn’t it just be that this conference is a preparation for the new product line that eventually will replace Navision, Axapta, Great Plains and Solomon?
Geert Yes - there is a definite roadmap for Navision. And you’re right Project Green will eventually replace not just Navision but also Great Plains, Solomon etc. But that won’t happen for at least another 6-7 years. In fact, Green draws a lot from Navision though it is .NET based. Quite a few Navision product development team members are part of Project Green.
Now that there are Navision functions, how many of you will be attending Tech Ed next week?
Not me…far too few Navision sessions to make the time and cost worthwhile.