Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team Examines Customer Needs, NAV 7 Plans

At today's Convergence 2010 General Session for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, product managers Dan Brown and Jan Sillemann looked at the current state of the product and the future path for NAV improvements.

"It all comes down to business productivity," Sillemann told the audience.

Dynamics NAV currently has 76,000 customers, according to the speakers.  There are 3,700 certified partners and over 2,000 add-on solutions.  They highlighted high profile customers including BMW, Adidas, Volkswagon, and the New Orleans Saints. 

NAV users want low-risk vertical solutions, they told the audience.  They also want increased productivity in their ERP tool.  The Microsoft officials put a strong emphasis on the role centers, highlighting the range of controls in role centers that focus on bringing a familiar Office or Internet Explorer UI to the ERP too.

Looking ahead at NAV ‘7', the speakers identified several areas where they think they can provide additional improvements.

• First on the list is providing compelling functionality like bank reconciliation, improved planning usability, and costing improvements.
• They want to make users more productive by using the SharePoint client, improving user experience, and adding more visualization and KPIs.
• Other new and improved features including e-commerce services, native Windows 7 compatibility, more options for application virtualization, and Dynamics CRM integration including CRM Online.

Much like the look ahead for Dynamics GP, the NAV team sees a 24 to 36-month release cycle for new versions moving forward.