At NAVUG Forum Town Hall, Audience Digs for Microsoft Commitment, NAV 7 Details

NAVUG members attended the Forum 2011 town hall meeting with plenty of questions for the panel of Microsoft representatives led by Microsoft Dynamics NAV product manager Todd Bergeson. Still guarded on the specifics of NAV 7, the panel members opened up on some of the more persistent gripes and did their best to lay out a positive perspective on NAV's staying power, its ability to compete in the marketplace, and the benefits NAV 7 will bring.

Here are some of the highlights:

Will Microsoft extend support beyond two versions of NAV?

Some customers have expressed concerns this week with the speed at which they need to get upgraded to at least NAV 2009 and the role-tailored client. Dynamics NAV product manager Todd Bergeson explained that under the ‘5 plus 5' support plan which started with NAV 5.0, more versions are likely to come under the support umbrella simultaneously in the future when the roadmap accounts for more frequent major releases starting in the next few years.

Microsoft's commitment to NAV as a leading ERP solution

Attendees asked several questions seeking assurances that Microsoft is committed to investing in NAV in terms of capital, marketing, and product planning. "I believe we are the leading ERP solution because no one has as many customers. If you look at the 75,000 businesses on NAV, we look and try to figure out when everyone else is going to catch up." said Bergeson. He also cited also pointed to the product's evolution from client server to 3-tier and now positioned to be the first of the Dynamics ERP product line to arrive on Azure.

The Azure-hosted version of NAV 7 ...