Jesse Lawrence
Every year we visit the key event for Dynamics NAV, Directions EMEA. This event is hosted in a different country every year, with this year's venue located in The Hague in Amsterdam on 29th-31st October. As a knowledge hub to our customers, industry and even other Dynamics Partners, we make sure that we are up to date with all of the latest news and releases from Microsoft.
For many, there is a lot of confusion and concern around Dynamics NAV and its future, even though the future is very positive.
The main reason for the fear and confusion around Dynamics NAV is its disappearance from the Microsoft website and recent marketing. The key thing to take from this is that the whole process is part of a branding exercise. The "new" product of Dynamics 365 Business Central is actually the next evolution of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently, the two brand names are running concurrently, with Business Central a SAAS model product, and Dynamics NAV sold in the traditional way. From the October release, the Dynamics NAV name will be dropped, with an on-premise and SAAS deployment of Business Central becoming available. Microsoft released:
"Business Central gets an on-premises deployment option that serves as a successor to Dynamics NAV. In other words, rather than a new version number for Dynamics NAV, customers can get Business Central on-premises. The experience for partners and customers on-premises is no different from the familiar Dynamics NAV upgrades, except for the change in name. This is a convergence point for Dynamics SMB products—going forward, they are all considered customers of Business Central, in the cloud or on-premises, even if they are running differently branded products such as Dynamics SL, Dynamics GP, and older versions of Dynamics NAV." Business Applications October 2018 Release Notes
Details on license changes and upgrading etc are all due to be released over the next couple of months, with public announcements likely at Directions in October.
All of this is very exciting for end users, as well as for partners, as it is a commitment from Microsoft on the future of the business software products. Other than the branding change, the new releases from Microsoft are focussed on building the technologies of the future, with some fantastic functionality.
Every year, we pick a few members of our team who will benefit the most out of the Directions event. This also provides different members of staff with a sense of the market and to meet various add-on solutions providers.
Tom is our Managing director, working closely with Microsoft and the Dynamics channel on the future of the products and where Microsoft is heading. He will be finding out about the landscape of Business Software, from the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) to the practical application of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
As our business partnership manager, Catherine helps companies in their journey to modern software systems. This includes everything from understanding the business processes, working on the company pain points working out how to solve the issues and the very important role of translating the Microsoft Licencing into English! With big changes in the Microsoft offering, and potentially changes in the licensing structure, Catherine will be getting all of the latest news so that she can provide accurate and up-to-date information.
Most of our customers know Tommy as a valuable member of our support team. However, he also heads up our testing team, as well as doing a lot of technical work such as database installs. With a general all-round knowledge of the products, as well as a good technical understanding, Tommy is looking forward to some of the more technical presentations, especially with regard to the back end of the systems.
We will be releasing information as we receive it on this blog, as well as releasing our popular newsletter shortly after the event. If you are not already subscribed, head over to our newsletter page to get all of the latest news.
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