The Business Case for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Upgrades: A Partner Details the Costs, Benefits

There's a big difference between "working fine" and working optimally. Still, a good many Microsoft Dynamics NAV users stick by their out-of-support pre-2013 installs because they don't break down. And with yearly updates, perhaps keeping up with Dynamics NAV releases has simply become a burden they would rather avoid.

The fact that older versions of Dynamics NAV don't fall over is a testimony to how solid the product is. Still, Dynamics NAV 2013 and earlier releases simply lack the capabilities and future opportunities of NAV 2016.

Simplanova, the Lithuania-based provider of Dynamics NAV services, has recently taken on the challenge of building the upgrade business case for NAV partners. The company working solely with Microsoft Dynamics partners (both ISVs and VARs) and specializes in Dynamics NAV upgrades. They have created a proprietary ROI Calculator that is used by Microsoft partners in approaching customers with cost/benefit analyses, as well as automated tools for use before, during and after an upgrade.

We asked the Simplanova team to further flesh out the business case for upgrades.

What features of NAV 2016 does Simplanova consider business critical?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is a huge release with a large number of improvements to the platform and on the application side. We think that the new Workflow functionality on the application-side, and the eventing functionality that powers it, are the biggest improvements. They change the strategy of both NAV user behavior and future development direction.

What have you found to be the cost/resource difference between upgrading from the prior version versus the second prior version?

It depends on how much the customizations are covering standard ...