NAV has been your loyal steed for many years and has served you well. So, what is happening with NAV? Let us break it down for you:
The NAV scoop
Put simply: Microsoft no longer sells Dynamics NAV to new customers (as of April 1, 2019), which makes Dynamics NAV 2018 the last version under the NAV brand. But fear not, they will continue to support existing products for a while still (October 2027 to be precise).
That being said, they will no longer be releasing any updates, which means although supported, your NAV solution will gradually become outdated and less secure. So, whilst you are not required to make the move to Business Central, we recommend it if you would like to keep your software current with all the latest functionalities.
(Not) just another upgrade
At their core, both legacy Dynamics NAV and the next generation Dynamics 365 Business Central have the same application code base, which means that making the switch would be as easy as just another software upgrade for existing customers.
In fact, when you transition to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can take all your business software integrations and customizations with you. We advise using this as an opportunity for virtual decluttering – evaluate your custom features and decide which ones are essential to your business before converting them to extensions. In addition to taking the digital load off your software, this will save you some money!
The real difference between NAV and Business Central comes in the form of the cloud. Migrating to a cloud ERP solution comes with several benefits, including real time information exchange, reduced hardware costs and easy access anytime, from anywhere, as well as seamless upgrades and hassle-free integration building through web APIs.
Plus, Microsoft updates their Dynamics 365 cloud platform every month, so you are guaranteed to receive regular automatic upgrades and have a software equipped with all the latest functionalities. (Microsoft will also release cumulative updates for their Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises application twice per year, in April and October, if you don’t fancy switching to the cloud just yet.)
What’s more, if you make the switch to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud, you wouldn’t have to pay a penny extra for cloud hosting, as it’s included with the software license along with Microsoft’s management services.
Sky-high cloud security
It would be an understatement to say that the Microsoft cloud is secure. Investment of over a billion dollars every year into Dynamics Azure makes sure that security and governance are top priority.
This, combined with the collective brain power of over 3,500 security experts and continuous cloud software updates, is their fool proof recipe for data protection. Which, you guessed it, also means that Dynamics 365 Business Central is fully compliant with GDPR.
