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Freelance Consultant

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Hi,

since a couple of years i work as freelance consultant, in the bc/nav area as well as business analyst and project manager.

If you are looking for support, want to implement bc, have issues with your bc or nav system or you are not satisfied with your current partner, feel free to contact me.

I provide consulting for Business Central and Navision. That contains business analysis, project management, license management, data migration, trainings, coding, reports.

Other services are business analysis and project management for every kind of software project as well as software evaluation.

As you may know i was an active member of the nav/bc community for many years, helped thousands to solve there issues. I do also have many years of project experience in various branches.

My company homepage: dfk-consult.at

So, you are welcome to contact me via

freelancermap, my homepage, mail

Dipl.Ing. Franz Kalchmair

ERP consultant, Business Analyst, Project Manager
Problem solver, Former MVP

Austria

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Pricing and Licensing

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Pricing and Licensing is now available on PartnerSource.

Visit the following page for more information (PartnerSource access required):https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/pricing-ordering/licensing-policies/Dyn365PricingandLicensing

There are also pricing and licensing training videos available.

For the “Existing Customer Guidance for Renewal” follow: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/global/pricing-ordering/pricing-ordering-news/Existing_Customer_Guidance_Renewal

 

 

Check License state of Objects

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In Nav forums it’s quite often asked, how to check, if a object is within the current loaded license. There are some solutions for Nav 2009. I did not find a satisfying solution for newer Nav versions. So i’ve developed a “License Permission” Page, which lists Objects and their Permissions. Object IDs, which are not in the current loaded license, means there is no read or execute permission for that Object ID, are displayed red. When running the page the list of all nav objects in the database is loaded.

The buttons in the page:

Reload Base Objects: List all current database Object IDs
Swap Read Filter: Switch between 3 Read Permission Filter settings ” “, Yes|Inherited, No Filter
Swap Execute Filter: same as button above for Execute Permission
Custom Objects Filter: List objects between Object ID 50.000 and 99.999.

The object range buttons:

View Table Range: List all table Object IDs according the filter you set.
View Page Range: List all page Object IDs according the filter you set.
View Report Range: List all report Object IDs according the filter you set.
View CU Range: List all codeunit Object IDs according the filter you set.

You can download the page source code here.

The license information is saved in table “License Permission”. With a page on base of that table the windows client freezes, because the data load is really huge, especially, when filtering. So i developed that kind of solution.

cheers

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

How to vote on Microsoft.Connect

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Weeks ago i’ve voted for a new dynamics nav feature. It was not easy  to do that. Other people had also problems with that. So for those, who also like to suggest new features or ask for hotfixes, there is a guide:

  • Goto http://connect.microsoft.com/.
  • Sign in with your Live account or create one: Top right corner, drop down list, select `Microsoft Account`. To sign in you need special product permissions. If you get a “Access denied” message, you have to less permissions. Then please contact your nav partner or microsoft support.
  • After logging in, search through the product directory for Dynamics NAV and join the NAV Group. That’s needed for further options.
  • Select then Microsoft Dynamics from the drop down in the top right.
  • There you click “Search existing” and search for “Notifications”, then select the bug/feature from the list.
  • Now you can vote . If you want, you can write a feedback e.g. “That’s an annoying bug, the customers call me every day, …”.

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.