Microsoft Announces that Dynamics NAV 7 to Drop Classic Reports, NAV 2009 R2 to Add Free Add-Ons

Microsoft Dynamics NAV officials announced today that Dynamics NAV "7", the next major release of the product, will no longer support classic reports.  The announcement was made at Directions EMEA, a conference for Dynamics NAV professionals in Berlin.

As Microsoft MVP Rene Gayer explained on his blog, "There will be NO SUPPORT for CLASSIC REPORTS in NAV 7 any longer. You will be able to import the classic report and transform it to RDLC (if it is possible) but you will not be able to run classic reports any longer in NAV 7."

Previous reports have warned of limitations in the classic client with future versions of Dynamics NAV. For example, the classic client and the role tailored client are not supposed to work at the same time in the new version. 

Microsoft also announced partnerships with Jet Reports and Equisys to provide new versions of the ISVs' software as add-ins for NAV 2009 R2. The announcement appear to be intended as a way  to quickly boost the NAV feature set, since the new add-ins have been described to Dynamics partners as "new functionality for new and existing Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers". 

Both solutions will be available for free for customers on an active Business Ready Enhancement Plan.  The solutions are expected to be available through CustomerSource and PartnerSource.

The new Jet Reports Express is being released as a cooperative project between Jet Reports and Microsoft.  It is a lighter version compared to the existing Jet Reports Essentials and Jet Enterprise.  ...