Business Central Spring Announcements

Directions EMEA is the big European event held in the Autumn in line with the latest Dynamics 365 releases, including the official launch of Business Central last year. In previous years, Directions North America was held a month or so before which would be the time where Microsoft would make announcements on the upcoming release. This year, in line with having two releases per year, Directions North America is a spring event held in Las Vegas, where they have announced a lot of exciting news.

Upgrading Licenses from NAV to Business Central

The big news for companies using Microsoft Dynamics NAV is that when they upgrade to Dynamics 365 Business Central on premise they will automatically get 3 named users for every concurrent user. Previously, it had been 2:1 for companies who purchased their license prior to October 2018. Now it is any company that has NAV perpetual license bought prior to May 1^st will be eligible for the 3:1 offer. If you have already upgraded you will receive the additional licenses

The document detailing the transition ratio states:

“Based on partner feedback the Dynamics NAV Full user to Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises Full user ratio of 1:2 is increasing to 1:3 (effective May 15, 2019).

Each Dynamics NAV Full user licensed before May 1, 2019, will receive 3 Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises Essentials or 3 Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises Premium users.

Each Dynamics NAV Limited Concurrent User CAL licensed before May 1, 2019, will receive 3 Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises Team Members users”

October Release Notes coming soon

With the now 6 monthly releases for Business Central, Microsoft are now providing advanced notification of the upcoming functionality in advance of the release. We have been advised that the next set of functionality will be announced in June for the October release. Sign up to receive all of the latest news on Business Central.

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Dynamics 365 – 27 to 2

A key message at Directions North America is the increased importance of the Dynamics 365 product group within Microsoft. It is noted that the CEO (currently Satya Nadella), has a slide deck regarding Microsoft priorities. 10-15 years ago, Dynamics was on slide 27, whereas today it is slide 2. This might not seem that exciting, but what it means is that the full force of Microsoft is behind the product, and the future capability for those who use Dynamics 365 is VERY exciting.

Intelligent cloud

Microsoft are pushing the cloud as the future – indeed there are many benefits to the modern technologies that cloud based systems allows. However, the marketplace is not always ready to make the leap to a fully online platform. For example, manufacturing companies with weak internet connectivity cannot afford to risk manufacturing throughput on their web connection. In recognition of the need to grow into the cloud, rather than take large leaps, Microsoft are improving the capabilities of the Intelligent Cloud solution.

The Intelligent Cloud gives the opportunity for businesses to connect their on-premise solution. This allows on-premise implementations to utilise all of the benefits of having a cloud solution, such as AI, working from anywhere and integration with the other cloud platform tools.

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If you require any further information, please contact us to talk to our team. We also send useful information as part of the Dynamics Dispatch, one or two times per month. If you would like to be included, please sign up for the newsletter.

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Jesse Lawrence

Jesse is our marketing manager, keeping an eye on the latest news in the market as well as having worked on the GDPR legislation.