From October 12 to 14, the largest Microsoft Dynamics NAV event in Europe took place in Prague: Directions EMEA. With 1754 participants from 588 different companies, Directions EMEA 2016 was a record-breaking Dynamics NAV event.
Of course, what triggers most visitors to visit Directions EMEA is an insight into the new features in Dynamics NAV. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 definitely includes a number of new features that many users will appreciate. I have briefly summarized what is new in NAV 2017:
Bringing two worlds together
Microsoft comes with an enhanced Office 365 experience and "embedded" Power BI in NAV 2017. NAV 2017 integrates with your calendar and email and allows you to manually sync your NAV contacts with your Office 365 contacts. Embedded Power BI refers to calling Power BI from within NAV 2017. Power BI charts are embedded in the NAV client and the charts can be displayed in, for example, your Role Centers.
Improving the 'core' application and platform
Making setup and configuration easier was one of the focal points for Microsoft in the new release NAV 2017. The arrival of Assisted Setup is the main improvement to accomplish this. Numerous modules have also been improved, including Finance, Jobs and CRM. And the overall user experience, which was already top-notch in previous NAV releases, has been further improved.
Creating new opportunities
New features include Cortana Intelligence, PowerApps and Flow. But the improvements in Extensions is what is attracting particular attention. Extensions was already available in NAV 2016, but the capabilities have increased significantly. With extension packages, you can install, upgrade and remove functionality in on-premise deployments or for a number of tenants in a multi-tenant implementation. Customers can easily add or remove functionality to their solution, which is also much easier to include in an upgrade.
My conclusion: The success of Dynamics NAV in the SMB market is likely to continue unabated with NAV 2017. Powerful functionalities together with an excellent user experience makes NAV 2017 a great solution to support your business processes and facilitate growth of your organization.
Remko Gaastra is President of Dysel USA and responsible for Marketing. He discusses daily the challenges and risks that (potential) customers experience with software.
