Monday, January 12, 2015
Higher speed and productivity are what customers expect from the new version of Dynamics NAV. However, can new features introduced in Dynamics NAV 2015 also help you support your goals for higher productivity?
In this article, I will review the key enhancements of Dynamics NAV 2015 and how it converts to higher speed and productivity in our daily operations. So how does the new NAV 2015 help users match the fast, modern business tempo?
1. Enhanced User Experience & Enriched Information on KPIs
Personalized Home Pages & Sophisticated Color Coding
Personalized home pages in Dynamics NAV 2015 allows users to select which data is most important to view, including displaying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at a glance. With faster access to information, personalized for each user’s role, that means employees can make more informed decisions and take action at a much faster rate.
Other user features that help employees stay organized and efficient are sophisticated color coding and real-time, live data to help users prioritize actions better.
In Dynamics NAV 2015 each designated employee role can have the most relevant information presented in document piles with indicators, which allow employees to see current situation and take actions as needed. In the visual example supplied below, you can see information about open sales orders, overdue payments, orders that were shipped but not invoiced and other key data.
Each pile of documents can have special color on top of a pile where the user can see if special attention is required or if it should be business as usual. In the example, notice the green color on top of the “Open Sales Orders” pile. Easily select the color category to dive into a section to view the pertinent information behind these “Open Sales Orders”.
Graphical Views of Accounting Numbers
What else is included in NAV 2015 to help you understand your business? Usually companies analyze financial information using Account Schedules by creating Profit / Loss Statements, Balance Sheets and other accounting reports. Most companies use these at least few times a month, but this information is critical for accurate decision making, especially when compare week-by-week or month-by-month. So as you’d suspect, most businesses would benefit from seeing this data more often to spot trends and to detect financial issues earlier.
Though this feature was introduced in NAV 2013 already, it would be a mistake not to mention it in the context of new reporting capabilities in the latest versions of Dynamics NAV. You can display numbers from Account Schedules graphically and in real-time. You may display different reports for different needs, as well as analyze different periods or different departments as required. These kinds of analyses will save you time and will ensure you do not miss important facts, should something fall out of line. All this information can be shown on the same role center and same screen.
Creating Documents Reports with Word
In Dynamics NAV 2015 invoice design and production through new interoperability with Microsoft Word was radically simplified. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, Microsoft Word can be used as a layout editing option for document reports. A single report can now have many layouts. Power users can now create customized, branded invoice templates on their own in Microsoft Word without having to engage a technical consultant. Click here to learn how you can simply convert reports to a Word layout.
2. Multiple Interfaces – Accessibility from Multiple Devices
As described in a section above, new views into financial reports and sales analysis reports provide an instant overview into the status of your company quickly. But, many managers travel and are away from the office, having little time to review this company data from a proper work station. With Dynamics NAV 2015, busy managers can access your business data anytime, anywhere and from multiple devices, including tablets.
In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, you can choose from three different viewing clients – Windows, Web Client and Tablet Client. Each client provides the same information with the ability to drill down to further information in the same way. So even if you are sitting in a public place, you can access information using your Web Client or Tablet Client, allowing you to analyze data and perform your daily work. Even more, if you have an Office 365 account, you can share your findings with your colleagues by sending a report by e-mail right from your browser.
The Tablet Client in Dynamics NAV 2015 is touch-optimized and supported on newer tablet devices with Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS operation systems.
3. Tighter Office 365 Integration
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 provides faster and more seamless collaboration with peers through interoperability with Office 365. Now employees can analyze, share and collaborate with peers all through a single platform.
With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, continued deployment in the cloud, utilizing Microsoft Azure, and with Office 365, actively lowers costs, increases flexibility and boosts employee productivity. Further, NAV 2015 enhancements with Office 365 include: simplified email messaging via SMTP and single sign-on to Dynamics NAV using your Office 365 account.
4. RapidStart Implementation & Upgrade
With the release of Dynamics NAV 2015, Microsoft introduced RapidStart upgrade tools to help partners lower the time and costs required to upgrade customers’ solutions to the current version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This makes merge and data migration faster and simpler, especially when upgrading from NAV 2013 R2.
The RapidStart Upgrade Tool specifically helps Microsoft Dynamics Partners:
- Simplify the upgrade environment.
- Increase the data upgrade performance.
- Reduce the amount of code needed to be written.
- Minimize the number of manual actions.
The RapidStart Upgrade Tool is one of the elements that fulfills Microsoft promise making the upgrade from version to version for Dynamics NAV customers and their partners easier. However the tool doesn’t solve upgrade challenges if you/your customers are using earlier versions than Dynamics NAV 2009, Forms to Pages and Dataports to XMLports transformation, merge of complex objects, and other where you will need sophisticated third-party upgrade tools to speed up in upgrade.
5. And much more…
The new Microsoft Dynamics NAV versions provide much more. Cost Accounting and Cash management functionality adds additional value to your business management as you will be able to analyze it when you need it by using the same Microsoft Dynamics NAV application.
As well your integrations with other applications with Dynamics NAV by using Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Services, which is usually much faster and more secure than other solutions.
In addition, in the Dynamics NAV 2015 version you can sort by any column in a list view or customize any page view including cards, like Item cards. So you can make your personal NAV view, which is accessible through all devices.
In this article, I only touched most interesting and valuable features in Dynamics NAV 2015 that should driver your interest to upgrade. Dynamics NAV performance increase is another important motivator to motivate the move to the latest versions. To learn more read a post Powerful Performance Improvements in Dynamics NAV by David Worthington, Dynamics NAV performance expert, how Dynamics NAV performance was increased from version to version.
Are you ready for an upgrade? Request free upgrade to Dynamics NAV 2015 assessment. Please note, as 1ClickFactory works through Microsoft Partners only, in case of request from Microsoft Dynamics NAV customer, the service will be delivered through their Microsoft Dynamics partner.