The future of NAV

Business Central/NAV General Discussions
1

There have been many lines written on NAV and its future. It would seem that Microsoft have at last pulled their rabbit from the hat with NAV 2013, which has been released to market with rave reviews. It would certainly seem to be a fabulous time to be a NAV Sales Person!

NAV has always been a great solution for the SME market and it to date has offered the Partners an excellent business where NAV can be tailored to clients’ specific business needs. The Partners in turn have built up teams of highly qualified consultants and developers to provide this bespoke solution.

Dynamics NAV is also now the dominant solution in this space and more often than not competition on new business is between the Partners!

With this excellent product developed over the last 15 years, it would seem slightly bonkers to change the target market to the smallest of companies and disregard the current solution and the traction gained to date. Naturally Microsoft is only concerned with license revenue, rather than the process. One wonders if they have heard of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Nav Jobs at Conspicuous

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Dynamics Careers at Conspicuous

2

Hi Rob,

Love to help you, but what is your question?

3

Hi Eric,

More a statement on the current view point of Microsoft, an opinion looking to stimulate thoughts on the future of Dynamics NAV.

Rob

4

Looks like a post to solicit people to look at your job postings to me. Are you a recruiter Rob?

5

Hi Daniel,

Recruiter - Yes - But this post is much more about encouraging discussion about the future of NAV and where Microsoft is taking it - and nothing to do with careers…

Dynamics Careers at Conspicuous

6

Yes Rob is a recruiter (didn’t you see the big box under his pic saying RECRUITER)? Rob has been a part of the Dynamics Community (but on the recruiter side) for many years. One of the few UK recruiters who always had by full respect. And he has also been among the first to register under the new Recruiter program, under which he has to apply to a rather strict set of rules regarding posting etc.

But recruiters are also human! [;)] And the same way as Dynamics is your “bread and butter” then it is also his.

So I actually welcome this attempt to start a debate about the future of NAV. Even if it comes with a few links to his own homepage.

And what is the future of NAV?

Personally I am very optimistic - the release of NAV 2013 is one of the best releases ever. So on a technical level I happy. The new product really has a future!

Ever since Microsoft took over Navision A/S with Navision and Axapta, then partners have been competing over same customers in the mid-high range. Especially 50+ user solutions. Before when Navision and Damgaard (the company behind Axapta) were two companies, the competition were even harder. There were no obvious reasons why a company should select NAV or AX, unless you were in a special industry better handled by one of the products.

The last few years Microsoft communication has clearly said Axapta is for the Enterprise, NAV is for the SME. But it has still been difficult to have a clear rule when it was NAV and when it should be AX.

With the latest changes in the pricing it’s become easier. There are no longer big discounts if you by NAV with a lot of users, thus making AX more appealing to larger customers. And at the same time making NAV more appealing to smaller customers.

So what does this mean?

I think that we are going to see a change in the NAV market. Focus is on rapid implementations and hosted cloud installations. Having the right setup will allow you to sell, setup and go-live within days, compared to months today. The focus is on selling licenses as you wrote above.

In terms of resources (which I think is Rob’s real concern) then I think we will see a fall in the number of developers required, but a raise in consultants. I think we will see “more standard” and “less programming”.

But the future is bright for the partners who knows how to change their business.

7

Hi Eric (& all) -

Yes I completely agree that the future is bright.

Without a doubt Microsoft has been pushing very much harder the AX product and at times to the detriment of NAV “Why are you considering NAV when you should be looking at AX” has been a Microsoft slogan if ever involved in the sales process.

I see AX having a very bright future and in my opinion the shortage of “quality” consultants and developers is a very real issue. ;Coupled with this at times Microsoft backs the wrong horse and we are seeing that they are helping the sales process and aiding Partners that have little experience in delivering sucessful solutions - There are far too many botch jobs in AX and my concern is the reputation of the product is being put at risk –

The solutions in AX:

Microsft to reduce the cost of training and for ERP Professionals and Developers to gain the certifications independentally

Microsoft to put to market tested solutions that are rather less full of bugs!

Microsoft to concentrate on the product and let the partners concentrate on the sell and delivery

NAV is a whole different ball game…My concern here is that it is a wonderful product and I can see a rapid implementation solution within it, but really there is a core product that is aimed at the SME market as a bespoked solutions and with NAV 2013, this is now even better. – There is really no need for NAV to change the market and compete with Sage Line50!

Many thanks Rob