New possibilities in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 (NAV 7)

Microsoft is working hard on the development of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 (NAV 7), the newest version of the worldwide successful ERP solution. For many years NAV has been the basis of Dysel’s Equipment Life Cycle solution. We keep a close eye on the latest developments and we would like to inform you about the most important changes in NAV.


One of the most important developments is the renewed role-tailored client (RTC). This looks quite a lot like Office 2010 with the ribbon on top of your screen as we know from, for example, Word and Excel. This creates a familiar and user friendly interface, something which is given high priority in all of Microsoft’s products. NAV 2013 offers users the look and feel of Office 2010, an environment that employees all over the world are familiar with. This means it will take employees significantly less time and effort to learn how to work with NAV 2013, which will save organizations enormous training costs. Individuals can adjust the RTC in NAV 2013 to their personal preferences which creates a setting with only the screens and dashboards you need to see.

NAV 2013 will only be available on the SQL server, and not on the native server anymore. The SQL server can be used perfectly by either five or up to 500 users. In the SQL server, NAV data is converted for direct use in Word and Excel. With the SQL server as a standard, some interesting features are added and upgraded. Jet Reports Express will become part of the Business Enhancement Plan. This allows access to NAV data within Excel to create powerful reports. The SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Excel have been improved to better identify patterns, trends, and associations in business data.PowerPivot for Excel 2010 provides users with a thorough insight in all aspects of their organization, it solves all Business Intelligence issues and facilitates fast decision making.

Also new in NAV 2013 is the NAV SharePoint Framework, also known as NAV Portal Framework (NPF). This provides users access to almost any Dynamics NAV screen using SharePoint. Maybe less interesting for heavy users, but this SharePoint integration will definitely be embraced by the occasional users. SharePoint integration makes it easier for users without extensive knowledge of NAV to enter or check data.

In short, Microsoft Dynamics NAV has got some great opportunities in store. Users will benefit from an improved integration with SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies. NAV 2013 is an enrichment to the available set of ERP software packages. Besides the possibilities of running NAV on your own server and hosting, NAV will also be available as SaaS (Software as a Service) and in a multitenant model (multiple companies). Users of NAV 2013 will experience improvements in user friendliness and efficiency. And we at Dysel are able to further develop our successful Equipment Life Cycle (ELC) solution. The new possibilities in NAV 2013 will be used in the development of ELC in the most optimal  way.