Dynamics NAV Release Split

Incremental enhancements could make Dynamics NAV 5.0 a straightforward and attractive upgrade for existing customers of the product, one of Microsoft’s four enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications for small and midsize companies. However, customers and partners interested in a new architecture, user interface, and programming interface originally slated for the release will have to wait. Microsoft has quietly deferred those changes to a second NAV release (NAV 5.1) planned for the last quarter of 2007.

What Is Dynamics NAV?

Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision), acquired in July 2002, is an accounting and business management package for midsize businesses. It is perhaps the most popular in Microsoft’s stable of ERP products, which include Dynamics AX, GP, and SL. As of early 2007, the product has more than 50,000 customers, many of which are manufacturing or distribution companies.

The product has a broad array of applications and features that support a variety of business areas. For example, NAV’s financial management area contains features for managing a company’s fixed assets and its general ledger. As is true of Microsoft’s other ERP applications, NAV is available only through select resellers (it is sold by nearly 3,000 partners) and most of its features are packaged in one of two bundles (Business Essentials and Advanced Management), which are supplemented by a smaller list of features that can be added to the bundles a la carte.