dynamics nav

Differences between Dynamics NAV and AX

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An often asked question is: What are the differences between Dynamics Nav and AX?

In addition: There is a 3. ERP system provided by Microsoft, Dynamics GP, but this ERP system is only used in the US.

Dynamics Nav and AX are both used around the globe.Both were originally developed by danish companies, Navision and Damgaard (Axapta). The companies merged 2000 and were sold to Microsoft 2002. Microsoft rebranded both ERP systems: Axapta became Dynamics AX, Navision became Dynamics NAV. Both systems are quite successful.

From the historical view AX was mainly used for big companies and/or companies with many branches (sectors). NAV was meant for small and mid sized companies. Nowadays it does not matter, which ERP system you buy, if you do not have one. Both systems use sql server as database. Since vs. 2013 NAV can also be used in big companies with large amount of data, the data connector between Nav and Sql Server works fine since that version. NAV is in many ways easier to use and easier to install. One of the reasons, why NAV is more successful. The finance module is in NAV also better than that one of AX. AX is the choice, if you have many different branches in your company. Both systems can be customized, both can be extended with additional modules. For AX there is a quite long list of localised versions, that one of NAV is quite short. So maybe your country is not on the official list. But i’ve posted a list of localizations developed by nav partners. This list can also be helpful for you to find a capable partner.

A big point is the license model of Microsoft according both ERP systems. Depending on your needs the NAV license could be more expensive than that one of AX (perpetual license). For licensing best contact a partner for license/asset management, e.g. QBS.

Both systems are available in the cloud (azure), Nav earlier than AX. For both systems there are mobile solutions.

Critics about NAV may contain:

  • It’s slow: The windows client (RTC) is not very fast, the base tech (WPF) is too complex, so the rendering of the pages/windows lasts …. the client pcs should have a good graphics device. The number of (open) pages can be very big, because the handling was solved not very good, not very usable, means to navigate can be a challenge. Nav was fast till Nav 2009 Classic Client. There the client used simple windows forms (all was grey and white). The navigation was also better.
  • Reporting is slow and expensive: Customizing/adding classic reports was much easier than now using the sql reports. It’s right, the sql reports (rdlc) are no good tech, slow and the customization lasts about 3 times comparing to an old classic report. The new word reporting did not change the situation.

In general the best is to talk to NAV and AX partners in your region about the special needs of your company. Maybe a partner has a good branch solution and branch knowhow. Also check the terms and costs for customization and maintenance.

Additional postings:

cheers

Setting up precisions

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In Dynamics Nav amount and currency precisions are set on a central point, in the General Ledger Setup. These settings apply for the LCY (Local currency). Foreign currencies are configured in page Currency Card (on base of table Currency).

Fields “Amount Decimal Places”, “Amount Rounding Precision”, “Unit-Amount Decimal Places” and “Unit-Amount Rounding Precision” are maybe missing in this page. In the standard page they are not shown. In that case adde them to the page in the development environment.

In the currency card you can configure foreign currencies. Here you find the same fields to set the precision as in the general ledger setup. This is also the place to set/update the exchange rates.

For details about the fields in G/L Setup follow
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh168649(v=nav.70).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh169567(v=nav.70).aspx

For details about the fields in the Currency Card follow
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh169173(v=nav.70).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh170490(v=nav.70).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh168784(v=nav.70).aspx

Additional it’s possible to activate automatic invoice rounding:
To make sure that sales and purchase invoices are rounded automatically, you must activate the invoice rounding function. In the Search box, enter Sales & Receivables Setup or Purchases & Payables Setup, open the page, on the General FastTab, select the Invoice Rounding check box. You can activate invoice rounding separately for sales and purchase invoices.

cheers

 

Reached 10.000 blog views

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Hi,

some days ago i recognized, that my blog on wordpress.com reached more than 10.000 views!

Additional i reached more than 58.000 views on the mirrored blog of the Dynamics Nav Community blog site and over 2.500 views on the mirrored blog of dynamicsuser.net!

Thanks to all have viewed my postings for your interest! I will continue writing posts.

cheers
jonathan

 

 

Localisations for NAV

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Localizations for specific countries are quite often an issue. Microsoft provides only a couple of localizations: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, India*, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia*, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States.

* The supported countries can differ between the Nav versions.

The complete lists you’ll find here.

For countries, where there is no localization, best start with Dynamics Nav W1 version. This is the base version of Dynamics Nav, contains no localization at all. So it can be used in every country, but needs a couple of customizations according to national laws, e.g. changes in the accounting/finance area, new and customized reports a.s.o. Additional you’ll may need a new language layer. For that look for a Nav partner located in your region, start with Pinpoint.

Following a list of Nav Partners, who have developed additional localizations. This list will be periodically updated:

Europe:

  • Slovenian Nav Partner Business Solutions d.o.o., also known for their great Permission & Role Wizard for Nav 2009, has developed Nav 2013 localizations for following countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo. Included are additional functionalities and tools. They provide the localizations in 3 packages: basic, extended, integrated. Maybe they also have developed localizations for the newer Nav versions. If you need it, contact them directly.
  • Adacta group: localization for Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
  • Effekt: located in Athens, developed greek localization at least for Nav 2013.
  • IT.integro: localization for Poland. thx to daniele rebussi for the hint.
  • Awara IT Solutions: localization for Russia, especially for the accounting/finance area.
  • Multisoft: localization for Hungary.
  • Alna: localization for Lithuania. Alna is active in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
  • EDPA: localization for Latvia
  • CDL.System: Czech localization
  • Autocont CZ a.s.: localizations for Czech Republic and Slovakia
  • Wbi: localization for Slovakia
  • Intelligent Systems: localization for Bulgaria
  • Team-Vision: localization for Bulgaria
  • Infotekas: localization for Turkey. Nav versions 2013 R2, 2015, 2016 in development.
  • Softstore / Link Consulting: localization for Portugal

Americas:

  • Cadia Consulting, located in Sao Paolo, developed a brazilian localization.
  • Master Consulting Group: localizations for LATAM, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. They are also developing localizations for Chile and Panama.
  • Voxa: localization for Argentina
  • Grvppe: localization for Brazil

Asia:

  • PT SME Solution, located in Jakarta, Indonesia, developed an indonesian localization at least for Nav 2013.
  • PBC and Tectura Korea: localization for China.
  • PBC also developed a localization for Japan.
  • Ibizcs: localizations for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and China. Provided Nav versions: Nav 2009, 2013, 2015.
  • Naviworld: localizations for Vietnam and Thailand.
  • Arvato Systems developed a localisation for China

For Nav Partners, who want to develop a localization, they can start with the Microsoft Dynamics Localization Portal – Microsoft Dynamics NAV. They will be assisted by Microsoft (documentations, country specific legal stuff, …).

cheers

 

Compare Dynamics Nav Versions

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Sometimes it’s needed to compare the features of different Nav versions, especially in scenarios, where there is a decision: Upgrade or not?

For that MS has debveleoped a very helpful site: The MS Dynamics Nav Feature Comparision Tool.

You can find it here.

You get relevant information not only about the main feature topics. You get also detailed info about modules and features, also about Licensing. Especially interesting is the View “Compare all”. This is the overview, which can be an important decision helper for questions:

  • Which nav version fits best for my company
  • Should i upgrade the current nav version? To which version?
  • Which features do i get with a special Nav version as against Dynamics AX, SAP or an other ERP System.

Case Studies for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

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hi,

i found a very interesting site on microsoft.com about case studies, where dynamics products are used. Quite detailed information about the project, the business need, country, industry, used dynamics products, results & benefits, etc.

For more follow this.

Additional Customer Case Studies from around the world you will find at the “Microsoft Dynamics NAV Customer and Partner Evidence Materials”. This materials contain video postings, so that you will get a better impression of the project, the resolved issues and the results. For that goto here.

cheers

Table Permissions for Limited Users

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With Nav 2013 a new License Model was introduced. Especially the new Limited User License is a bit hard to understand. First of all: full read access is permitted. But … write access is very strong limited. It’s said, that within a write transaction 3 tables are allowed to access, But … it’s not described, how to do that. That is not easy to handle, especially for developers. 😦  But ok. It would be interesting, how the Microsoft Developers themselves handle that limitation.
What does that mean at the end? When writing your own code, always check your list of used tables. A maximum of only 3 tables, you use, might not be listed in “Appendix A”, within your code snippet!
At least there are a couple of tables, that can be used anyway. Following is the original text out from the “Dynamics ERP Perpetual License Guide”.

Limited User licenses for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 provide users full read, but limited write capabilities to all of the licensed solution functionality through any and all modes of access including the Windows Client. The Limited User license is designed to give customers a lower-cost alternative for extending ERP to users who only need to perform the following tasks:

  • “Read access” to data contained in the ERP solution through any client accessing the application via the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Application Programming Interface (API) including but not limited to the User Interface Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
  • “Write access” via the Timesheet functionality
  • “Write access” through any client accessing the ERP solution via the Microsoft Dynamics NAV API to a maximum of 3 table objects in any range number with the following exceptions:
    • limited users are not allowed to write to any of the following tables: General Ledger (table 17), Permission Set (table 2000000004), Permission (table 2000000005) or Access Control (table 2000000053) and
    • any table described in Appendix A as “Limited User Included Tables” do not count towards the 3 table objects

APPENDIX A – Limited User Included Tables
The following tables do not count towards the maximum of 3 permitted for Limited Users in Microsoft
Dynamics NAV. Last updated 20 November 2012 (11 tables added)

Table Table NameTableTable Name
43Purch. Comment Line5123Inter. Log Entry Comment Line
44Sales Comment Line5125Purch. Comment Line Archive
51User Time Register5126Sales Comment Line Archive
97Comment Line5150Integration Page
309No. Series Line5151Integration Record
336Tracking Specification5199Attendee
337Reservation Entry5648FA Allocation Dimension
355Dimension Ledger Entry5766Warehouse Activity Header
356Journal Line Dimension5772Registered Whse. Activity Hdr.
357Document Dimension5773Registered Whse. Activity Line
358Production Document Dimension5814Inventory Period
359Posted Document Dimension6550Whse. Item Tracking Line
361G/L Budget Dimension7135Item Budget Dimension
389Service Contract Dimension7310Warehouse Journal Batch
405Change Log Entry7311Warehouse Journal Line
455Approval Line Comment7312Warehouse Entry
480Dimension Set Entry7313Warehouse Register
481Dimension Set Tree Node7318Posted Whse. Receipt Header
952Time Sheet Detail7319Posted Whse. Receipt Line
953Time Sheet Comment Line7320Warehouse Shipment Header
5050Contact7321Warehouse Shipment Line
5051Contact Alt. Address7322Posted Whse. Shipment Header
5052Contact Alt. Addr. Date Range7323Posted Whse. Shipment Line
5054Contact Business Relation7324Whse. Put-away Request
5061Rlshp. Mgt. Comment Line7325Whse. Pick Request
5062Attachment7326Whse. Worksheet Line
5065Interaction Log Entry7331Whse. Internal Put-away Header
5072Campaign Entry7332Whse. Internal Put-away Line
5075Logged Segment7354Bin
5078Segment History2000000067User Default Style Sheet
5080To-do2000000068Record Link
5106Document Dimension Archive2000000073User Personalization
5107Sales Header Archive2000000075User Metadata
5108Sales Line Archive2000000080Page Data Personalization
5109Purchase Header Archive2000000111Session Event
5110Purchase Line Archive

Source: Page 6 and Appendix A in Dynamics ERP Perpetual Licensing Guide.

The spread of Dynamics NAV

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Google Trends is a helpful tool to find out, how many people are interested in a certain version of dynamics nav (former navision). So i played a bit with that tool.

This chart shows the google trend for the search terms nav 2009, nav 2013, nav 2013 r2 and nav 2015 for the date range 01/2008 – 11/2014. Nice to see the peaks of nav 2009 and nav 2013 logically near the release dates. Also you can see that nav 2009 has a stable value since about 2012. for nav 2013 r2 there is no peak, but it seems there will be one for nav 2015.

A more detailed view showing date range 06/2012-11/2014.

And only year 2014. you can see a stable downswing for nav 2013, a stable trend line for nav 2009 (conservative clients: are currently satisfied with nav 2009 (sp1 or r2), but maybe interested in an upgrade to nav 2015). also it seems that nav 2013 r2 has no great future, but be aware, that search results for nav 2013 also contain results for nav 2013 r2 and vice versa. so it’s hard to say, which of the results only point to nav 2013 or only to nav 2013 r2. otherwise there is a good chance for nav 2015.

A question: What are the reasons for many companies to stay with older software like nav 2009 or nav 5? Money, Useability, Performance, Fear about Upgrading (especially because of a hugh amount of customizations – in many cases).
What about Usability? Till Nav 2009 the main GUI tool were the windows forms. Ugly gray and white, but quick and easy to use. What about the newer technology, the pages? Yeah, this is WPF technology. WPF is a .Net GUI Framework with many, many features. You have ribbons (toolbars) with BIG, nice looking buttons. The sizing and placing of the controls (mainly textboxes) is done automatically, when resizing the page. No change done by developers is needed for that feature. You have fast tabs and factboxes. The pages can be customized by the user. You get a menu bar at the left side of the so called role center (the start page). But, WPF is slow, really slow. So the nav windows client (RTC), which displays the pages, is also slow. So many users, who know and like the old (windows) forms and their speed, trying the newer rtc client, are terrified about the rtc client. People, for whom nav is new, there is no big problem. But in many cases, sooner or later, many of the nav clients do the upgrade, nevertheless.

A little word about older nav versions. There are many implementations of Nav 5.0, Nav 4.0 and Nav 3.7. Unfortunately there are not enough search results to get a google trend chart. But for sure all of them are clients, which want an upgrade in the future, some day …

if you are interested to use google trends for yourself, here is the link:
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-US #q=nav%202009%2C%20nav%202013%2C%20nav%202013%20r2%2C%20nav%202015 &date=1%2F2008%2083m &cmpt=q

and the link to embed in your page/blog:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US &tz &q=nav+2009,+nav+2013,+nav+2013+r2,+nav+2015 &date=1/2008+83m &cmpt=q &content=1 &cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0 &export=5 &w=500 &h=330″></script>

This my first posting in my nav blog.

Cheers & regards
Jonathan Archer