If you look at NAV 2009 from the point of view of a firm using NAV to help run its business, you will see it as an integrated set of business applications software.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is generally characterized as an ERP System. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. An ERP system is a set of integrated application software components designed to track and coordinate a wide variety of business activities, especially those involving products, orders, production and finances. An ERP system will typically include the following:
Basic accounting functions (for example, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable)
Order processing and inventory (for example, sales orders, purchase orders, shipping, inventory, receiving)
Relationship management (for example, vendors, customers, prospects, employees, contractors, and so on)
Planning (for example MRP, sales forecasting, production forecasting)
Other critical business areas (for example, manufacturing, warehouse management, fixed assets)
The integration of an ERP system is supported by a common database, by an "enter once, use everywhere" data philosophy, by a modular software design, and with data extraction and analysis tools. The following image is a view of an ERP system from the highest level:
The design of Microsoft Dynamics NAV addresses all the points in the above description and more. The NAV ERP system includes integrated modules covering the breadth of business functions for a wide range of business types. These modules share a common database and, where appropriate, share common data.
In the NAV system, there is a considerable overlap of components across application areas, with individual functions showing up in multiple different "modules". For example, in NAV, Inventory is identified as part of Financial management, but it is also, obviously, an integral part of Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and others.
The particular grouping of individual functions into modules that follows is based on Microsoft marketing materials. Some of these assignments are a bit arbitrary. What's important is for you to obtain a reasonable understanding of the overall set of application components that make up the NAV ERP system. In several of the following groupings, menu screenshots are included as examples. These are from the Role Tailored Client Departments menu screen.
Financial Management is the foundation of any ERP system. No matter what the business is, the money must be kept flowing, and the flow of money must be tracked. The tools which help to manage the capital resources of the business are included in NAV's Financial Management module. These include all or part of the following application functions:
NAV Manufacturing is general purpose enough to be appropriate for Make to Stock (MTS), Make to Order (MTO), and variations such as Assemble to Order, and so on. While off-the-shelf NAV is not particularly suitable for most process manufacturing and high-volume assembly line operations, there are third party add-on and add-in enhancements available for these. As with most of the NAV application functions, manufacturing can be installed in parts or as a whole, and can be used in a simplistic fashion or in a more sophisticated manner. NAV Manufacturing includes the following functions:
Product design (BOMs and Routings)—managing the structure of product components and the flow of manufacturing processes
Capacity and supply requirements planning—tracking the intangible and tangible manufacturing resources
Production scheduling (infinite and finite),execution, and tracking—tracking the planned use manufacturing resources, both on an unconstrained and constrained basis
Obviously, some of the functions categorized as part of NAV Supply Chain Management (for example sales, purchasing, and so on) are actively used in almost every NAV implementation. As a whole, these constitute the base components of a system appropriate for a distribution operation. The Supply Chain applications in NAV include parts of the following applications:
Sales order processing and pricing—supporting the heart of every business—entering, pricing, and processing sales orders
Purchasing (including Requisitions)—planning, entering, pricing, and processing purchase orders
Inventory management—managing inventories of goods and materials
Warehouse management including receiving and shipping—managing the receipt, storage, retrieval, and shipment of material and goods in warehouses
Although Microsoft marketing materials identify Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting as though it were a separate module within NAV, it's difficult to physically identify it as such. Most of the components that are used for BI and reporting purposes are (appropriately) scattered throughout various application areas. In the words of one Microsoft document, "Business Intelligence is a strategy, not a product." Functions within NAV that support a Business Intelligence strategy include the following:
Standard Reports—distributed ready-to-use by end users
Report wizards—tools to create simple reports or foundations for complex reports
Account schedules and analysis reports—a very specialized report writer for General Ledger data
Analysis by dimensions—a capability embedded in many of the other tools
Interfaces into Microsoft Office including Excel—communications of data either into NAV or out of NAV
SQL server reporting services compatible report viewer—provides the ability to present NAV data in a variety of textual and graphic formats, includes user interactive capabilities
Interface capabilities such as Automation Controllers and web services—technologies to support interfaces between NAV 2009 and external software products
NAV Business Analytics—an OLAP cube based data analysis tool option
NAV's Relationship Management (RM) functionality is definitely the "little brother" (or, if you prefer, "little sister") to the fully featured standalone Microsoft CRM system. The big advantage of RM is its tight integration with NAV customer and sales data.
Also falling under the heading of Customer Relationship module is the NAV Service Management (SM) functionality. While the RM component shows up in the menu as part of sales and marketing, the SM component is identified as an independent function in the menu structure.
(RM) Marketing campaigns—plan and manage promotions
(RM) Customer activity tracking—analyze Customer orders
(RM) To do lists—manage what's to be done and track what's been done
(SM) Service contracts—support service business operations
(SM) Labor and part consumption tracking—track the resources consumed by the service business
(SM) Planning and dispatching—managing service calls
NAV Human Resources (HR) is a small module, but relates to a critical component of the business, the people. Basic employee data can be stored and reported via the master table (in fact, one could use HR to manage data about individual contractors in addition to employees). A wide variety of individual employee attributes can be tracked by use of dimensions fields.
Employee tracking—maintain basic employee description data
Skills inventory—inventory of the capabilities of employees
Absence tracking—maintain basic attendance information
EEOC statistics—tracking government required employee attribute data
The NAV Project management module consists of the jobs functionality supported by the resources functionality. Projects can be short or long term. They can be external (that is billable) or internal. This module is often used by third parties as the base for vertical market add-ons (for example, for construction or job oriented manufacturing). This application area includes parts or all of the following functions:
Budgeting and cost tracking—managing project finances
Scheduling—planning project activities
Resource requirements and usage tracking—managing people and equipment
Project accounting—tracking the results