5 Things Partners Learned About Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 at Directions EMEA

The organizers of Directions EMEA 2015 selected Mannheim as the setting of this year's event for a good reason: the city is renowned for innovations like the earliest automobile, the first bicycle, and the first diesel engines. The theme of innovation informed this year's Microsoft Dynamics NAV-focused partner event and underscored its growth to 1360 attendees from 45 countries.

The event featured a range of announcements and revelations about NAV 2016 and the future of the product. Here are the highlights of the event from a partner perspective:

1. In, On, and With Office 356, Azure and CRM

Paul White, Microsoft General Manager ERP Product Marketing, opened the conference with a keynote speech on one of the highlights of the conference; NAV 2016. He stressed the philosophy of NAV as being ‘in', ‘on, and ‘with' - ‘in' Office 365, ‘on' Azure cloud and ‘with' Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

2. NAV on any device

Marko Perisic, General Manager of Dynamics R&D, emphasized ease of use and offering a solution that will run on any device - PC, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, etc. With over 60 improvements being made in the web client interface, a user can utilise all of NAV 2016's rich functionality from any location.

3. e-Everything Solution

NAV 2016's impressive mobile phone integration was demonstrated by taking a picture of an invoice and by using NAV's OCR capability the invoice core detail was seamlessly entered into NAV without rekeying data. The web services based OCR functionality shows how Microsoft has developed NAV to become an e-Everything solution. NAV 2016 also has a new (and, many already say, an improved) connector for Dynamics CRM, to integrate marketing and sales opportunities with financial, supply chain, and order ...