Microsoft officially launched Dynamics NAV 2016 earlier this month. Microsoft Gold Partner, TVision Technology has already been showcasing this, the latest version of Microsoft’s leading ERP solution, to very positive responses. Building on previous versions, the big news for NAV 2016 is the firm move to true Software as a Service (SaaS), a market that has until now been dominated by the likes of NetSuite and SalesForce.
Dynamics NAV 2016’s official launch coincided with the opening keynote at Directions EMEA 2015, the independent Dynamics NAV conference and must-attend event for all NAV professionals. Microsoft’s General Manager for EMEA, Paul White, was one of over 100 Microsoft attendees supporting the event, keen to reinforce the message: Microsoft is absolutely committed to Dynamics NAV.
Year on year, Dynamics NAV outperforms its stablemates and so it is not surprising that Microsoft is committed to NAV.
For the same reasons that Microsoft continues its commitment to Office, NAV is winning over users with its simplicity of use (with an underlying complexity to manage) and alignment with mobile strategy.
“Previous versions of NAV have been optimised to run on Windows Azure and with Office 365 and this has been a popular deployment option,” Nicki Stewart, TVision Technology. “Deployment in the Cloud, whilst making use of Infrastructure as a Service, has not necessarily meant a true SaaS experience as upgrades still needed to be planned.”
The alignment to SaaS and Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella’s vision: “Our passion is to enable people to thrive in a mobile-first and cloud-first world”, stresses that mobile is not just about devices, it is about empowering users to achieve. Dynamics NAV supports the vision both in the experience for users, and practically; it was revealed that Microsoft’s Managed Services Portal has been built in NAV 2016.
“The Americans have a vivid metaphor about ‘eating your own dog food’ as if using your own product was unpalatable,” Nicki Stewart, TVision Technology. “The response we have already seen is that NAV 2016 is more like eating gourmet, Michelin-starred cuisine.”
Each release of Dynamics NAV enjoys five years’ mainstream support and a further five years’ extended. In theory you could install NAV (on premise or on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform) and not upgrade for ten years. However, the new features in NAV 2016, particularly the managed service option and the Universal App for Windows 10 (enabling the solution to be run on any device), mean that NAV 2016 moves the solution closer to Software as a Service (SaaS) where cumulative updates rather than major upgrades will be the norm.
“The ease to manage NAV as a service and implement updates is the most impressive feature of the new release,” Nicki Stewart. “The phone app gives ‘wow’ factor; the real return on investment is using a platform that is regularly updated to drive business efficiency.”
