Microsoft Dynamics NAV roadmap takes on big data, simple upgrades for the mid-market

In his opening keynote at Convergence 2014, Kirill Tatarinov, Executive Vice-President of Microsoft Business Solutions proclaimed that 85% of businesses lacked the capability to harness the power of Big Data to achieve their business dreams. He promised big innovations from Microsoft to enable their customers to tap the full potential of the insights locked in their critical business systems.

In the Dynamics NAV General Session that followed, Jesper Lachance-Ræbild announced to a packed room that NAV 2015, also known as "Crete" and scheduled for release in early 2015, would feature extensive business intelligence capabilities for mid-sized businesses.

Dynamics NAV continues to be the dark horse of the Microsoft Dynamics lineup with over 100,000 companies worldwide running the mid-market ERP platform. While the marketing hype may not come close to AX or CRM, Lachance Ræbild was clear about where NAV fits in the Dynamics lineup. "Mid-size companies need enterprise capabilities that are quick to deploy, easy to implement, have powerful features, and low total cost of ownership,..."

To highlight NAV's positioning, Lachance Ræbild introduced Greg Ross, the ERP manager and Heidi Weschler, corporate controller for California-based Sunkist, possibly one of the most recognizable names in citrus production. A co-op representing over 3,000 growers, with 160 employees, Ross and Weschler told the audience about implementing NAV 2009 originally as a replacement for an expensive and over-complicated Tier 1 ERP system and their recent, successful upgrade to NAV 2013. According to Ross, NAV took about one-third of the time to implement compared to its Tier-1 predecessor, and was a big-hit among employees who found it just "looks like Microsoft" referring to the familiar, Outlook-style user experience and easy-to-use navigation. Weschler said that NAV is a "finance-person's dream" ...