From fear to opportunity: How Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 makes upgrades strategic again

When it comes to ERP systems, "upgrade" can sometimes be a four-letter word. They have a reputation for being expensive, time-consuming, and creating little value. Historically, ERP upgrades were seen as a mandatory exercise driven mostly out of fear: Fear of product vendors discontinuing support; fear that skills needed to support older versions were becoming hard to access; fear that remaining on the current version might result in unexpected, difficult-to-solve problems.

Times have changed and customers are looking to create value with ERP upgrades. It's a big investment, not just to upgrade the software itself, but to upgrade core business processes and workforce skills to use newer versions. Expectations of tangible ROI are becoming the norm, and so they should be.

In a new series of articles this spring, we want to examine the evolution of Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrade projects and how NAV 2013 R2 has the potential to change the discussion from one of fear and apprehension to one of opportunity and optimism. Let's start by looking at some of the most common questions we face with our clients. These topics will provide the basis for more detailed discussions to come.

Q: How does upgrading to NAV 2013 R2 generate tangible ROI?

We are starting to see some interesting things that might not have been factors in past upgrades. For example, compliance and risk management are coming up more often. In one situation, our clients' auditor had identified their NAV 2009 implementation as a material risk and they recommende an upgrade as a mitigating strategy. NAV 2009 support ends this year and in this case the client had ported all kinds of old code from prior versions into the current systems without cleaning it up properly.

The most common situation is ...