Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design

By : Marije Brummel
Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design

By: Marije Brummel

Overview of this book

Dynamics NAV 2009 is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product from Microsoft that can be used for variety of business needs. It is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, Customer Relationship Management, supply chains, analytics, and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. This book is a focused tutorial on Microsoft Dynamics NAV application development, so you can develop complete applications and not just application outlines. It will show NAV developers how to create different kinds of applications. Different kinds of application are vital in different industries like fashion, automobile, retail, books (education), and other industries. It starts off by introducing the supply chain that you will be using throughout the book. You will implement the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP suite and learn how it is set up and customized for various industries. You will be able to customize Dynamics NAV to suit the different aspects of a business such as Financial Management, Relationship Management, Production, Jobs, Trade, Storage, Logistics, and so on. The book will take you through these Microsoft-designed application features and show you how to customize and extend them safely. Thus, you will be able to create a structure of your own in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
Preface
11
Thank you for buying Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design

Setup versus customization

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the line between implementing and developing is very thin. Where you would do a lot of setup in other ERP packages, you'll see that it often makes more sense in Dynamics NAV to make a change with the Development Tools.

The standard package is very complete in its functionality but does not support all industries. It is more a framework for Partners to work with. In this book, we will explain this framework and what philosophy it is built on. Understanding this philosophy is critical to knowing how to expand the functionality.

But, expanding the functionality means customizing the application. Do end-users in 2009 still want customized applications? Mostly they will say they don't want their software customized, but in the next breath, they will say that the software should change to match their way of doing business, and that they should not have to change their business to fit the software.

This is why Microsoft pushes their Partners to create horizontal and vertical solutions on top of the standard product and release these solutions as products with their own versions like it was part of the standard applications. This way of using the partner channel is a unique concept that has proven to be very successful and has made Microsoft Dynamics NAV useable in almost any industry.

Most companies, however, have such a unique way of working that they will always require more or less customized solutions. The total cost of ownership depends on the level of customizations and how these customizations are designed.

The key is knowing when to do setup and when to do a customization. Only a solid understanding of the application will help you determine which is correct.

After reading this book, you will know how to design your application best to have a good balance between cost of ownership and functionality.