UI, Reporting Update for Dynamics NAV

SP1 for Dynamics NAV 2009 delivers significant user interface (UI), reporting, and developer features, as well as updates to job cost accounting, supply planning, and other business processes. Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) is Microsoft’s most widely deployed enterprise resource planning (ERP) product for midsize firms. SP1’s UI improvements in particular could lure more firms into deploying the product’s new Office-like client and supporting infrastructure. However, SP1 includes enough changes that firms will have to test it more like a new product version than a service pack.

First Service Pack for Major Release

Dynamics NAV provides ERP for firms with up to 1,000 employees. The product has a particular emphasis on manufacturing, distribution, and professional services and is sold in about 40 countries. With more than 1.3 million users, Dynamics NAV is Microsoft’s most widely used ERP product by number of seats.

SP1, released in Sept. 2009, is the first significant update to Dynamics NAV 2009, which shipped in Dec. 2008. Dynamics NAV 2009 delivered a major UI and architecture overhaul to improve the product’s usability, security, and stability. It includes a new client (which Microsoft refers to as RoleTailored) with an Office-like UI that presents workers with data, reports, alerts, and tasks geared to their roles in an organization. The client forms part of a new three-tier architecture. (See the illustration “Dynamics NAV 2009 Architecture“.)