Productivity Strikes Cord With NAVUG Forum Attendees New and Old

Users in attendance at the opening general session of NAVUG Forum 2011 brought a wide range of questions, depending on the depth of their experience with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, but all had to do with productivity.

Lisa Kraft, a controller with NanoString Technologies in Seattle, Wash., has been using NAV for a few years, and spent most of that time "getting things functional," as she put it. The first-time attendee now finds herself at the point where she can begin to maximize the potential of the software.

"For me to find out that, just by pressing a button, I can download account schedules - I think I'll be able to shorten my month-end close by one to two days," Kraft said, adding that she'd be looking for more such time-saving accounting solutions, and was especially interested in modeling capabilities to replace Excel spreadsheets.

New user Brad Brown, developer for Wescor in Logan, Utah, is searching for a programming module to help him do his own customizing. "We use NAV for everything, and we're trying to convince our parent company in France to invest more money in it," Brown said.

Jim Honey of Troyer Foods in Goshen, Ind., recently purchased the product and hasn't yet taken it live. He is eager to talk to existing users about their experiences, and is particularly curious about the potential that the software's virtualization capability holds for his company.

"The big advantage for us is that we're starting with (Microsoft Dynamics NAV) 2009, and we're also SQL performance-optimizing our server for NAV," Honey said.

In evoking R2, he touched on a point of buzz at the forum - the current transition to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009's most ...