Microsoft Reaffirms Future of Dynamics NAV, Charts Path to 200K Customers

Microsoft set an aggressive growth target for Dynamics NAV back in 2014 to take the user base from 100,000 customers to 200,000 in just five years.

"The good news is we're making real progress, said Paul White, Microsoft general manager at NAV Directions 2016 on Sunday. "Through 2015 and 2016 your partner community has turned in fantastic performances." But, he conceded, "the trajectory isn't good enough. We are not currently on track to achieve ‘escape velocity'".

But Microsoft has a plan, White told the more than 700 assembled attendees, mostly Dynamics NAV VARs, ISVs, and other professionals. Microsoft believes its Dynamics 365 offerings, in combination with its existing on-premise and partner-hosted ERP and CRM offerings and key Microsoft cloud services like Office 365, Power BI, and Cortana Intelligence Suite, will give the company far better coverage of its total available market opportunity.

"GP, SL, and NAV all go forward," White said. "This is an ‘and' strategy. We only get our take of the market share if we do both on-premise and cloud."

While no products are disappearing, changes are coming to Microsoft's business application mix, White advised. Microsoft will be looking to attract more of today's Office 365 resellers, hosting service providers, and even accounting firms (via BPO services, which it has already started supporting in North America) into the mix with Dynamics NAV. But there will remain a central role for today's NAV VARs and ISVs given their deep industry and product expertise, he said. New players adding NAV to their mix could benefit from partnering with some of the traditional NAV partners.

White also promised that Microsoft has much more to offer NAV ISVs. He noted four changes Microsoft is already rolling out that will change and improve the ...