Microsoft Dynamics NAV

The core product in our offering is the Microsoft Dynamics NAV business solution. If you are considering the purchase of a business solution or if you would simply like to gather some additional information about this popular product, we are certain you will find the following text both useful and interesting. If you read through it you will find the answers to the following questions:

·         What exactly is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

·         How can Microsoft Dynamics NAV help you to improve your business?

·         Who is Microsoft Dynamics NAV intended for?

·         Why is Microsoft Dynamics NAV a better choice than other available solutions?

·         What do users say about Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Feel free to contact us about any additional information regarding the specific functionality or solution features. We'll gladly give you a presentation of the solution "in action" and answer any questions you might have. If you request it we will prepare the initial estimate and quotation for the implementation of the solution within at most 5 business days after the presentation , based on the initial assesment of your business needs.

What exactly is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions - Navision) is Microsoft's business solution intended for small and medium-sized businesses. To be more specific, its technical capabilities make it most suitable for those enterprises and organizations whose business requirements demand full simultaneous access to the business solution by a single user up to (roughly) one hundred users.

Its functional capabilities put Microsoft Dynamics NAV into the category of ERP systems (from Enterprise Resource Planning).

What sets ERP systems apart from the widely used accounting solutions that are focused on limited recording of business events primarily for accounting purposes, is their ability to integrate the planning, management and execution of all business activities in the enterprise all the way from the strategic to the operational level.

Besides providing the immediate insight into business activities in real-time, ERP systems penetrate the business processes in such manner that they become an indespensible tool for efficient execution and management of business activities.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV integrates the business information and enables integrated business management accross the following business areas:

·         financial management and accounting,

·         sales and marketing,

·         purchasing,

·         inventory and warehouse management,

·         manufacturing and capacity planning,

·         resource planning and job management,

·         service management,

·         human resources.

Particularly important feature of the solution is that its standard functionality covers the majority of business needs in a wide range of industries, which enables its rapid and successful implementation in any enterprise.

In light of this it can be stated that the duration and complexity of the solution implementation depend mostly on the organizational and business process tidiness of the enterprise, and the clear definition or statement of key business requirements on behalf of the customer.

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How does Microsoft Dynamics NAV enable you to improve your business?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV will help you to increase competitiveness and efficiency of your enterprise through:

·         efficient planning and business management,

·         eased operational activities and decision making based on implemented business rules and constantly available information,

·         decreased quantity and increased quality of internal communication throughout the enterprise,

·         automation of time consuming activities,

·         reduction or even elimination of the negative impact of physical remoteness on connected business activities,

·         improved communication with your business partners.

Plan and manage your business efficiently

Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers powerful tools for creating detailed business plans that can help you plan your business regardless of the industry your company is in.

The created business plans are directly reflected in your business operations after their conversion into various types of orders through a set of automated functionalities in the business solution.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV also provides you with an array of analysis tools that allow you to easily compare the planned and actual values at all levels of business information and time scale for which you have prepared your business plans.

The planning and analysis tools in Microsoft Dynamics NAV are integrated with Microsoft Excel, the widely accepted and commonly used spreadsheet application, which extends the reach and the benefits of your business solution to a number of indirect users.

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Simplify operational activities and decision making

The requirements that must be met to allow for high quality planning, analysis and control of business activities often impose complexity on operations, especially if the necessary reporting information must be manually entered and frequently controlled during the execution of operational activities.

These requirements may lead to a drop in work efficiency and reduced ability of a company to respond to changing market demands. In that situation errors which can significantly decrease the quality of business reporting may creep into the business data.

The following features in Microsoft Dynamics NAV ensure the simplicity of operational activities and the quality of business reporting at the same time:

·         single input of all data into the business solution,

·         automated transfer of analysis related business data into operational documents,

·         automated document creation from their business process predecessors and other related documents,

·         standard templates for repetitive input of business data,

·         configurable built-in business rules for securing the integrity of recorded data,

·         automated user notification of important business process events,

·         operational integration of all application areas in the business solution,

·         simultaneous recording of every business event in all relevant areas of the business solution.

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Reduce quantity and increase quality of internal communication

Direct costs of internal communication have been greatly reduced by introduction of electronic communication solutions.

On the other hand, indirect costs of lost productivity due to frequent interruptions, e.g. to respond to e-mail messages, IM messages or phone calls, were not reduced. Quite the contrary.

Employees may sometimes feel as if they were doing their jobs in a place where the "noise" makes it hard to hear your own thoughts. Inability to efficiently prioritize tasks regularly inflicts drops in work productivity.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows all users of the solution to find data necessary for the sucessful execution of their work activities inside the business solution, which greatly reduces the frequency of direct communication with coworkers.

Due to the fact that all business information can be found within the business solution, the communicating parties now have simultaneous identical view of business data, e.g. a certain document or report, and an identical path for finding additional information.

If you choose Microsoft Dynamics NAV you'll make sure that your employees see your business "through the same eyes" and talk about it "in the same language".

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Automate time consuming activities

Business activities that contribute most to business efficiency, like preparation of data necessary for planning and management of operational activities, often tend to consume the most time.

Procedures like collection of material requirements, preparation of production or purchasing plans, preparation of a new price list, calculation of standard cost or price for a new product, scheduling vendor payments against the available funds etc., may take hours and sometimes even days. We are certain that you recognize the risk such response times may bring to your business.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers solutions that help you save time when performing any of the previously mentioned activities. From finance, across sales and purchasing, to inventory and production planning, the system provides you with tools that reduce the operational burdens.

 

Other tools, which use the data gathered from operational activities and applicable business rules to provide advice on possible actions in solving a particular business problem, are also placed at your disposal.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV you'll begin measuring the time required for making good business decisions, and the time for implementing those decisions in your business operations, in minutes and seconds. Why keep barely managing to create a crucial business plan? Why not use that time to create ten different plans and then carefully select the best?

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Bring the connected business activities closer

If you're not the only employee of your company, some of your coworkers are likely to be working at some remote location from your place of work. The distance between these locations might be just a few feet to the neighboring desk, a few hudred feet to some other office, a few hundred yards to the warehouse or production plant, or even few hundred miles if you or your coworker happen to be sales representatives or go on a business trip. Even if you actually are the only employee, it's possible that you use services of an external accountant and thus need to communicate and cooperate with a remote person.

The best way to ensure the highest quality of your business information is to bring your business solution to the spot where business activity or event actually takes place. Of course, when taking that approach it is vital that you ensure that the solution's interface is adjusted for the specific business activity and that there is no compromise of security. To help you achieve all that Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers you the following technologies and features:

·         built-in authorization system which makes it possible to define precise permissions for each user of the business solution for viewing or modifying data and for performing transactions,

·         powerful and adaptable user interface that can be quickly and simply adjusted to the requirements of a specific business activity,

·         Employee Portal solution that allows you to expose selected parts of your business solution on your company's internet or intranet facing website, through the use of Windows Sharepoint Services technology (WSS are a component of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 platform and are licensed at no additional charge),

·         ADCS (Automatic Data Capture System) interface for connecting the business solution to various equipment for automatic data collection (or capture).

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Improve the communication with your business partners

The successful collection and use of information on current and potential customers, vendors or other business partners is necessary for the success of your business.

The relationship management functionality (CRM) in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV business solution allows you to collect and organize all information about your business contacts, prepare marketing strategies and teams, assign tasks, record opportunities, track all interactions and compare effects your marketing campaigns have on your sales results.

A particularly useful feature of the solution is the built-in functionality allowing you to automatically transfer and synchronize contact, task and calendar data between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Outlook, and automatically record contact interactions when printing documents or sending and receiving e-mails.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to bring the quality of your customer service to a higher level. A set of tools provided in the solution helps you minimize the response time to your customers's queries. For example, the solution allows you to create a sales quote without creating a customer record, while providing direct insight into available inventory quantities, expected purchase receipts, applicable prices and discounts, possible item substitutions etc.

Another functionality that should be emphasized is the order promising which allows you to automatically calculate the earliest possible item availability date directly from the open sales order, based upon the existing puchasing or production plans.

If there are certain events in the business process that you just don't want to miss, Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides you with the business notifications functionality. This functionality is intended for automated notification of all parties interested in a certain business event at the very moment that event occurrs. You don't need to be using the business solution, be allowed to access it, or even be the employee of the company to get the notification. All it takes is that you have an e-mail address.

On top of all that Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides you with technologies for directly connecting your business solution with those of your business partners. The intercompany postings functionality will connect your Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution with the same solution of your business partner, while the Commerce Gateway functionality allows you to connect your business solution to any other solution capable of utilizing Microsoft BizTalk technology. And all that with no requirement for user intervention during the exchange of data.

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Another word or two on accountants ...

If you've ever looked at a certain ledger entry and wondered "What on Earth is this?", and especially if this question came not from your thoughts but rather from the mouth of an auditor or a tax inspector suspiciously peeking above your shoulder, then Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the solution that will finally free you of your nightmares.

This integrated solution allows you to start from any posted entry in general ledger, receivables, payables, inventory or any other posted transaction or document, and find all related postings in the system with a single "click of a mouse". Leave the "misteryous" amounts and "strange" entries where they belong. In the past.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV delivers an array of tools making the accountant's work less difficult. The solution includes the following funtionalities (we mention only some of them):

·         automated posting of all transactions to general ledger according to the defined business rules,

·         standard and reccuring journals with support for allocation and aportionment of unposted and previously posted amounts,

·         functionality for automated suggestion of payments based on available funds and vendor priority,

·         management of customer credit limits and balances,

·         automated interest calculation on overdue customer payments and automated reminder and finance charge preparation,

·         application of open customer and vendor ledger entries with automated calculation and posting of exchange rate gains and losses, unrealized VAT etc.,

·         automated preparation and posting of income statement closing journal,

·         functionality for automated calculation of exchange rate gains and losses,

·         automated calculation of fixed asset depreciation according to one of 5 standard depreciation methods or custom user defined method,

·         automated calculation and posting of VAT settlement,

·         automated inventory value adjustments according to the selected inventory valuation method,

·         automated general ledger consolidation,

·         automated calculation and posting of project WIP and recognized value,

·         adaptable financial reports,

·         support for tracking unlimited number of companies in a single database.

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But that ain't all!

If all of previously mentioned features still aren't enough, check out what other features Microsoft Dynamis NAV offers you, features that we've gotten so used to that we sometimes forget to mention them:

·         adaptable user interface allowing every user to configure the onscreen content and paths to most frequently used functionalities to best fit their needs,

·         built-in on-line help system in local language,

·         company notes functionality allowing extension of built-in help by company specific business rules and user instructions,

·         system for tracking and logging all changes to business data containing the information on user that performed the change,

·         on-line "on the fly" switch of the active application language, ideally suitable for international business environments,

·         printing of documents in different languages,

·         additional reporting currency allowing you to record all transactions and prepare business reports in a chosen additional foreign currency,

·         simple tools for exporting and importing data in text or XML format,

·         simple copying of all data to Microsoft Excel,

·         XBRL support for exchange of business reporting data,

·         tools for solution customization and technologies for connecting the solution to external applications (ODBC and C/FRONT API function library).

Impressive, don't you think? And if we forgot to mention anything, you can take it as a bonus.

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Who is Microsoft Dynamics NAV intended for?

You're still not certain that Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a suitable solution for you and your company? Read on.

One size fits all

Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution is intended for small and medium enterprises. Now you probably wonder if your company belongs to small, medium or possibly large enterprises? The best way to help you answer this question is to say that Microsoft Dynamics NAV may be sucessfuly used if your company has just a single or a few hundred employees. This possibility comes from the fact that the solution delivers a wide and powerful functionality, but allows the users to use only what they require.

For example, Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to precisely manage your warehouses, set up bins and shelves where you store only the specific items, plan the issue and put-away of items automatically, optimize storage space and automate item manipulation, and track all item movements, or information about lot and serial numbers. To support manufacturing process you can set up machine and work centers and instruct the system to optimally schedule production orders according to detailed production plans. In such environments you can spread the tasks and activities across a large number of users.

You can, but you don't have to. If that's good enough for you, you can simply punch in the sales order, post the shipment and invoice in a single transaction, and then walk down to the warehouse, take "the box" from the shelf and send it to your customer. In that order? Yes, because with Microsoft Dynamics NAV you can simply ensure that you have the needed (and accurate) inventory in any given moment.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers you the possibility to plan, execute and control your business as it best suites you, regardless of the number of employees in your company or the complexity of your business processes.

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If you've always wanted "a hammer"

You've probably heard the saying that to a man holding a hammer everything seems like a nail. We won't try to convince you to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV to render your documents, send all your e-mail, or design aircraft blueprints, but we are quite certain that this solution will allow you to manage and improve your business, regardless of what your company does.

Sucessfully implemented in more than 60.000 companies throughout the world Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) is present literally in all industries. The reason for this lies in the fact that NAV's basic functionality covers the majority of business needs in any company.

And if your company requires some special tools to manage some part of your business, you can choose one of many existing "vertical add-on" solutions developed by Microsoft partners, or ask your partner to develop a special custom functionality just for you, thus allowing your business to reach a higher level. The options are almost unlimited.

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For the young, and all feeling that way

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a solution for those organizations and individuals who are ready to embrace the challenges brought on by changes in the business environment, just like those introduced by implementing a new business solution.

To ensure the successful implementation, and later on the appropriate and efficient use of the solution, all of which are steps toward achieving the desired business improvements, it is necessary that the users of the solution adopt new knowledge. Equally important is the ability of the organization to accept changes that may be introduced into the existing ways of performing business activities and existing communication patterns.

Our previous experience also tells us that successful implementation and use of Microsoft Dynamics NAV greatly depend on the level of general computer skills that users have, and their familiarity with common office applications like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, etc. The solution's user interface resembles that of the mentioned applications, and the highest operational efficiency is usually attained when using the built-in solution functionalities that integrate with one or more of these applications.

The mentioned skills aren't required from all users, however, for the people that Microsoft Dynamics NAV can help the most e.g. planners, analysts, managers, and people most involved in entry and processing of operational documents, such skills are extremely useful.

Ask yourself if your organization requires certain changes, and if your employees require additional computer training before you decide to begin the implementation of any new business solution. If you fail to do that your business might, metaphorically speaking, instead of getting better suddenly sustain an allergic reaction.

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Why is Microsoft Dynamics NAV a better choice than other available solutions?

If you really came across another solution offering as many powerful tools for improving your business, and with a price tag remotely comparable to that of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we encourage you to consider some additional important issues when choosing the business solution.

On every purchase of the valuable items or equipment, software being no exception, you will ask the vendor about warranty. And today, in most cases you'll be getting one. But how can you be sure that this warranty is worth the paper it is written on?

Assurance of quality

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a product from the portfolio of the world's biggest software manufacturer (and the company with the greatest "market capitalization" in the world). It has been sucessfully implemented in more than 60.000 companies around the world and proven to be sucessful in small companies and international corporations alike.

The Microsoft Corporation literally employs an army of software architects and programmers that use the proven methodologies to design, develop and test new products, which is also the case with this business solution. It might be a bit harsh to say, but are you really prepared to trust your business to a solution backed up by just a few programmers? Are you certain they can truly wouch for its quality?

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Assurance of future

Microsoft continuously maintains the development plans for Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution some years in advance, and it's the same for all other products, from opearting system platforms to office applications. If you choose Microsoft Dynamics NAV you may rest assured that you have chosen the solution that will be in sync with the capabilities and advancements in computer environment you work in, and that will always introduce new technical solutions faster than the competition.

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Assurance of support

When you choose Microsoft Dynamics NAV you also choose the partner that will help you implement the solution. When you choose the partner you may choose the one that offered the best commercial terms, the one that left the most professional impression, the one that left a less "rigid" impression, the one that seemed more honest, the one with references...

But what if you made the wrong choice? What if you aren't satisfied with the service? What if something happens to the company you have placed your trust with? Do not worry. Simply switch partners. By choosing Microsoft Dynamics NAV you can be certain that the support for your business solution is guaranteed. Such support as you desire.

On the other hand, if you choose the system for which you can get support only from the people that made it (and sold it!) you can't count on such choice. You might say that you're "married" to your business partner, for better and for worse. Unfortunately that means that when you change the partner you're not happy with, you'll have to change your business solution, too. Are you sure that such solutions are really cheaper?

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What do users say about Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Since we are selling the Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution, we are aware that you might have some reservations regarding our claim that this very same solution will improve your business.

But don't take our word for it. Instead, you can visit the Microsoft's web pages dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution and look up the case studies of implementation projects (http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/default.mspx), in which the business people that have chosen this solution speak about the benefits it brought to their business, and the experiences they gathered during and after the implementation project. If you contact them, some of them might even be willing to meet you and talk to you about the issues that still concern you.

In the same place you may also find a wealth of additional information, brochures, whitepapers and even some demos of the solution that will help you reach your business decision.

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