Microsoft Officially Launches Dynamics NAV 2009

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is going live beginning this Friday, andwill be shipping December 1.

The announcement was made at Convergence Copenhagen 2008 by Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions. He said the introduction is happening "on time" and that "many NAV customers will be incredibly happy to get the product."

He highlighted three main improvements in NAV 2009 versus earlier versions: 

1. The role-tailored user interface. He said there are 21 pre-configured roles, and that roles can be expanded further by partners installing the product. 

2. Business intelligence. Users "can access deep business analytics in the context of roles," Tatarinov said. 

3. Web services. "This will enable IT professinals to control costs," he said. 

As part of the introduction announcement, Tatarinov introduced two officials of a user company, playing the roles of purchasing manager and warehouse manager. They demonstrated the look and feel of their role-based pages--showing order arrival statistics, orders due to arrive, and actual deliveries. 

To follow the example through, a forklift truck actually drove up to the stage, in front of hundreds of audience members, and dropped off eight boxes, which the warehouse manager scanned with a mobile device.