Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009's Web Services Likely to Attract Serious Partner and ISV Involvement

In the introduction of NAV 2009 at Convergence Copenhagen 2008, it was the role-tailored user interface that got most of the attention in demos by Microsoft corporate vice president Kirill Tatarinov and others.

But, according to Mike Ehrenberg, Microsoft's chief architect for Dynamics products, "The web service capabilities are one of the coolest things."

The big reason, explains Jan Silleman, a Microsoft general manager and chief overseer of Dynamics NAV, is it "provides a major opportunity for our partners."

And he says he's had feedback that "this is something of high interest to them. They have started building solutions."

As one example, the web services enable Outlook users in a company to access NAV 2009. The web services "can give ERP information for many more users than before, in an environment they know." As another example, web services enable warehouse managers to use PDAs to easily scan bar codes so as to record shipment arrivals and inventory movements.

Silleman says that while the web services "are not as compelling as the new user interface," he thinks they may ultimately prove to be as meaningful. "Our partners have to figure out what web services mean. We think (web services) will attract a new type of partner."

Partners "don't need to know anything about .Net," the software technology that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. Whereas the opportunity for developing web services in previous versions of NAV was "single threaded," he says, "We now have the framework out of the box. It's there, it's scalable, and it's robust."
He suggests that the creative opportunities for third-party development will expand as NAV 2009 evolves, "You'll see us coming together and sharing concepts and code."
The combination of a ...