Microsoft Dynamics NAV Differentiators

You will find that many systems cover the basics fairly well but there are differences between them that can be crucial. Our analysis was conducted a few years ago for a seminar presented at the Financial Technology Show. We will endavour to provide an update to our analysis in the near future.

Target Market

Small, medium-sized and some large companies with $10 - $500 Million in revenues

Customization

NAV is known for its customization capabilities. There are many third party solutions that are available that have been written using NAV customization tools.

Rock solid performance

Customers consistently give high marks to NAV's reliability and speed.

Dimensional reporting

By attaching dimensions to transactions, it is possible to analyze business performance across multiple dimensions.

Financial reporting

Financial reporting is based on transactions and not monthly buckets. Financial reports can easily and quickly be generated for any date range. Financial report writer also used for analysis of item ledgers – what sold, what purchased… with control over rows and columns with drilldown.

Navigation

NAV provides superior tools to easily drill down for detailed information.

Resellers

We have consistently heard positive comments on the resellers from NAV clients. NAV requires that resellers attend extensive training.

Databases

NAV was developed using the C/Side database. NAV has offered their system with Microsoft SQL Server since 1999 and today about 35% of new NAV systems are sold with the Microsoft SQL Server database. Normally we recommend industry standard technology such as Microsoft SQL Server. However, with NAV, the empirical evidence is that C/Side is fast and bullet-proof.

Granular pricing

You don't need to purchase what you don't use. You purchase features rather than a module that contains features that you may not use.

Supply Chain

NAV includes warehouse management, production, and returns management.

Inter-company transactions

Automatic balancing between legal entities. A PO created in 1 company creates a draft sales order in the other company ready to be approved

Microsoft Business Notification

Be aware of business-critical events anywhere and prevent problems before they might occur. For example, receive notifications to tell you if there is a delay in shipping or production, or when the inventory on crucial items sinks beyond a certain level

5 pre-loaded verticals

For faster implementation for Wholesale, Furniture, Machinery, CPG (consumer packaged goods), High Tech - Should reduce implementation time significantly

Manufacturing

Includes visibility into work-in-process and support for order-by-order planning workflow (light MRP), manual planning, graphical production schedule, Gantt charts and production reporting.

Anaytics

Business Analytics with predefined or customized OLAP cubes. Pre-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Financial Management, Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management