Skip to main content

Best of 2019: Top articles from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central & NAV experts

by Jason Gumpert
Editor, MSDynamicsWorld.com

Microsoft worked to set the long-term trajectory for Dynamics 365 Business Central in 2019 with important product and partner plan updates. Those decisions have set in motion a huge range of responses from the Dynamics ecosystem, ranging from customer roadmap planning to ISV product management to partner channel alliances to services delivery models.

Looking back at the articles written by subject matter experts for MSDW this year, the range of perspectives is striking for its breadth of topics: training, product features, partner policies, licensing, Azure technology, and more. Here are 10 of the most popular expert articles of the year, with our deep thanks to all of the authors for their contributions.

Five highlights of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central autumn 2019 release

The semi-annual release waves for Dynamics 365 products now require the product communities, from resellers to ISVs to customers, to maintain a state of cat-like readiness around testing, user adoption, and system administration.  

MSDW readers gravitated to insights on the newest features from trusted sources like Dynamics NAV and Business Central expert Hannes Holst. In this article, he selected five important features that were due in release wave 2 of 2019, which began in October. At the top of the list was the delivery of the base application as an AL extension:

All I can say is: Yes, finally! Integrating the programming language of NAV into Microsoft’s developer tools has been a rumor since Microsoft acquired Navision A/S in 2002. And now, this big and future-orientated step is set to go. Microsoft has phased in the introduction of the AL-language and extensions over a couple of years, allowing ISVs, partners, and the community a lot of time to adapt to the new technology. A lot of people made use of the opportunity. AppSource, Microsoft's store for Extensions and services, grows steadily. The blogosphere explodes with tips and tricks about AL. By contrast, some big ISVs are still struggling with the transition. For example, if an ISV won't offer its solution with Extensions until November 201, then their customers may not be able to do their upgrades this year.

How Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central licensing and pricing are evolving

About Jason Gumpert

As the editor of MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason oversees all editorial content on the site and at our events, as well as providing site management and strategy. He can be reached at jgumpert@msdynamicsworld.com.

Prior to co-founding MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason was a Principal Software Consultant at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), where he implemented solutions, trained customers, managed software development, and spent some time in the pre-sales engineering organization. He has also held consulting positions at CSC Consulting and Monitor Group.

More about Jason Gumpert