History

The Navision Company was founded in 1984 in Denmark. In 2000, Navision Software 
A/S merged with fellow Danish firm Damgaard A/S to form NavisionDamgard A/S.
Later the name was changed to Navision A/S.
On 11 July 2002 Microsoft bought Navision A/S to go with its previous acquisition of
Great Plains. The new division in Microsoft was named Microsoft Business Solutions
and also included Microsoft CRM.
In September 2005 Microsoft rebranded the product and re-released it as Microsoft
Dynamics NAV.

Also known as

Navision has gone through several name changes as the original Navision Company
or Microsoft has tried to decide on how it should be marketed. The names
"Navision Financials", "Navision Attain", "Microsoft Business Solutions Navision Edition",
 and the current (2007) "Microsoft Dynamics NAV" have all been used to refer to this
product.

The future

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, with new role-based GUI, is currently expected to be
released around December 2008. Microsoft originally planned to develop an entirely
new ERP system (Project green), but has decided to continue development of all
ERP systems (Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL).

All four ERP systems will be launched with the same new role based user
interface, SQL based reporting and analysis, Share Point based portal, Pocket PC
based mobile clients and clients for Microsoft Office.

Versions

Current version 5 with published support packs. Versions still in use range from
version 2 to 4.

Accreditations

As accredited by ICAEW (GB version 4) - please see ICAEW software accreditation
site and details of accreditation here.

Licensing

NAV is licensed by Business Ready License comes in two versions: Business Essentials (BE)
 and Advance Management (AM).
The product gives administrators the option of using either a native database server or
Microsoft SQL Server, as the DBMS. Native database performance degrades rapidly with increases in size.

Who would use Nav?

Nav is a scalable ERP solution with options to purchase and use some or all of the available modules / functions. This would allow an organisation to use the base ledgers (general, sales, purchase and fixed asset ledgers) or use Nav as the complete business operating system through using the manufacturing module, for example.
 
So Nav can be used by businesses with a turnover ranging from £1m to £2bn!

Competitor finance applications (examples only)

Comparable and also owned by Microsoft – Great Plains (GP), Solomon (SL)
Comparable but not owned by Microsoft – JD Edwards, SAP Business 1
Larger scale – SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft
Smaller scale – Microsoft Accounting 2008 (Professional and Express), Sage, QuickBooks.

One point to note: the finance application market is showing signs of all applications meeting in the middle ground. The larger scale applications are being redesigned to fit the middle ground and the functionality of the smaller applications is very comparable to those in the middle ground. The only difference will be scalability and how many users need access

Licence sales and support

Nav licensing is sold through Solution Centres, a network of global businesses known in Microsoft circles as the indirect selling chain.
So Nav cannot be purchased direct from Microsoft and cannot be purchased on line. All initial enquiries through the Microsoft web site are managed through referrals process via the indirect selling chain. So the business requesting more information is allocated a Solution Centre. This Solution Centre may provide a full range of Nav services or just enable licence acquisition.
There are a number of these Solution Centres across the UK. Licence prices are fixed by Microsoft and there will be an annual maintenance charge

So why use FPC?

Frankly we are cheaper than the Solution Centres (deliberately so!) and offer much better value added service.
We offer a more flexible resource and can react quicker to enquiries and support calls.
We do not get referrals from Microsoft and are NOT a Solution Centre.
Better value on day rates.
First line support with fast response times.