Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Transition Upgrade Policy from NAV 2009

The new licensing for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 looks like a pretty good deal for new clients, but what does it mean for existing NAV users looking to upgrade from a previous version to NAV 2013?

For those who decided not to buy NAV 2013 when it was first released and went for the “safe” option of NAV 2009, the transition option is to trade in. This is the option that Microsoft has called the “Licence Credit Transition Upgrade” (LCT). LCT only applies to NAV customers who bought their first licence after 1st October 2012.

LCT offers 100% credit of the amount paid for the NAV 2009 licence against the purchase of the NAV 2013 licence; to be correct it’s 100% of the Protected List Price (PLP) but for the vast majority this means the amount paid. Where the value of the 2009 licence is less than the 2013, the customer must pay the difference. Where the value is less, the customer can use the difference to add to the licence but only as part of the transition process; i.e. use it or lose it.
From a licensing point of view, no customer will end up paying more for NAV 2013 than if they’d just bought it in the first place. Initial modelling on like-to-like configurations suggests that the customer will always need to pay a bit extra. However, there is the opportunity to explore whether the same number of concurrent users is required as there is no reason why the NAV 2013 licence should not be for fewer users and / or a mix of full user and the cheaper Limited User option if that fits the customer’s needs.

From a services point of view, upgrading from NAV 2009 to NAV 2013 is going to take effort (customers will need to discuss with their partners); good partners have known this for a while and so any customer who bought NAV 2009 instead of NAV 2013 really ought to have a solid business reason for implementing the previous version.

For LCT customers, BREP (Business Ready Enhancement Plan or maintenance as the rest of the world calls it!) is calculated on the value of the NAV 2013 licence. Any outstanding BREP will be credited against the new BREP. BREP credit cannot be used for anything other than BREP just as Licence credit cannot be used for anything other than NAV 2013 licensing.

For NAV users who first bought NAV before 1st October 2012 the transition option is to upgrade. This is the option that Microsoft has called the “Licence Migration Transition” (LMT). The simple explanation is that Microsoft will issue an equivalent NAV 2013 licence based on the functionality on the existing licence. BREP will continue at the value of the existing licence as this is all based on “Protected List Price” (PLP), LMT encourages existing users to upgrade to NAV 2013. LCT ensures that those buying now do not try to “play” the system to gain a better price, which is fair enough.

Can you “play” the system? Well it seems that existing customers who qualify under LMT could. For most NAV licences (except those on BRL Advanced Management with less than 50 users), it would make sense to purchase additional Concurrent User licences before transitioning to LMT. However, this is still spending money to save money so only makes sense where additional users where required in the first place.