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OfficeOps is a nationwide provider of business software and consulting services, delivering exceptional enterprise value through effective technology implementation. OfficeOps applies its industry knowledge and best practices philosophy to provide ERP, B2B eCommerce and technology solutions throughout the United States. As a Microsoft Certified Partner, OfficeOps helps its clients effectively harness the latest in Microsoft business software technologies, delivering increased efficiency and augmenting their competitive advantages.

I recently talked to Microsoft partner ChargeLogic about their own in-house implementation using Microsoft Dynamics RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. I found the story inspiring and wanted to share it with you here.

ChargeLogic recently spun off from their parent company and needed their own ERP system. As solution experts, the decision to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV was obvious because they knew the product inside and out. Yet, according to Jon Cooper, President at ChargeLogic, they still faced one big challenge: lack of time.

“With our already busy schedules, combined with all the work involved in starting a new company, finding time to actually sit down and work on our own internal systems was a challenge,” Cooper says. “We wanted implementation to be quick and painless.”

How to make implementation quick and painless

This is where RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV came into the picture. It is an integrated tool and a native part of Microsoft Dynamics NAV that helps speed up the implementation process and facilitates better control of the whole process.

It includes Project Overview, Questionnaires, Master Data Import and Configuration Packages. Using the basic configuration package for the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 made implementation straightforward for Cooper and ChargeLogic right from the start.

“When I installed NAV 2013 on our new server and logged in, it brought up the RapidStart Role Center, which was enormously helpful. Not having used RapidStart before, I started filling out the G/L Questionnaires. I quickly finished and moved through the Sales, Purchasing, and Inventory Questionnaires. I was able to leave most of the settings at their default values and only changed a few values along the way.”

Not a single bit of data had to be re-entered

Another aspect of RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV that made things easier was the data import aspect.

“Once I had finished answering all the questions, I moved on to the Configuration Worksheets. All of our data from the old company was in a NAV 3.60 database, so I simply filtered on the data that was applicable to our new company and copied and pasted it from NAV 3.60 into Excel. I created worksheets for my Item and my Customer masters. I also pulled Customer and Item ledger entries into a worksheet.”

Cooper exported the Customer and Item masters and journals as templates, made some slight adjustments to the fields in NAV 2013, and created an updated template. He then simply copied and pasted the data from their old system into the templates and imported it into Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. RapidStart identified some validation errors, which were quickly corrected and reprocessed.

“My Customers, Items, and their respective histories were in my new NAV 2013 system, and I didn’t have to data-enter a thing,” Cooper says.

Much less demanding than expected

Cooper admits that he had anticipated that the implementation would take ten to fifteen days and he would need to make use of three people in that time.

“With RapidStart, I performed the entire implementation myself in less than two days. I’m a developer, and I know NAV very well, but this was my first implementation. I was very impressed with how easily RapidStart Services got me going and walked me through the implementation process,” Cooper says.

ChargeLogic is an Independent Software Vendor providing the PCI-Compliant solutions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. ChargeLogic’s suite of products include ChargeLogic Payments, the PCI-compliant payment processing solution for NAV, ChargeLogic Connect, the cloud-based service for easy e-commerce integration with NAV and secure payment management, and ChargeLogic Shipping, the most intelligent, integrated shipping solution with NAV. ChargeLogic is Certified for Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD) and is a Validated Payment Application as certified by the PCI Security Standards Council. ChargeLogic sells, distributes, and supports their software through a partner channel comprised of Microsoft Enterprise Resource Planning partners with a high degree of technology competence and expertise. As a Microsoft partner, ChargeLogic uses this knowledge to build the highest quality solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Jannik Bausager

Director – Microsoft Dynamics NAV product marketing

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As many of you may know, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 includes a new application feature called Assembly Management. It is described as a set of features designed for companies that supply products to their customers by combining components in simple processes, such as assembly, light manufacturing, and kitting.

At this point it may be tempting to ask yourself and your sales consultant: with this definition, isn’t Assembly Management in essence the same as Manufacturing? That’s a fair question that will be raised in many sales and implementation situations.

The quick answer is yes, it certainly is, insofar as it belongs to the same category of business processes that represent the conversion of a set of products into a different or new product: Manufacturing typically concerns itself with converting (changing the physical nature of) raw materials into finished goods, kitting puts together end-products into a sellable unit, and assembly is often a hybrid of the two.

Now, as the standard application suite for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 includes both Manufacturing and Assembly, how are we to know the subtle difference between the two and to decide which module fits the business and project budget best? Here is some guidance.

Let’s start from reminding ourselves that Microsoft Dynamics NAV Manufacturing is a rich functionality that covers a broad selection of discrete production processes and industrial demands. It is meant for manufacturers that operate with multi-stage production processes, with specialized activities at each work operation, long production lead times that result in WIP, versions of BOMs, and have a need for capacity load optimization and control.

Theoretically, of course, with the right setup and user training, Manufacturing feature set could also support lighter production and assembly processes. However, the fact is that due to its scope, complexity, maintainability, price, and sometimes, lack of partners’ expertise in the area, customers, especially in the small and mid-size segment, have been walking away from the Manufacturing solution. It is simply not suitable or cost-efficient for them. At those customers, an assembly task often means picking a set of items and packing them into one box that is sold as a kit, making the “production process” a part of regular warehouse operations. For other businesses, the work and labor involved in producing a final assembly is relatively short and consists of very few simple operations that do not warrant the setup and control of work centers, routings, or capacity load calculations.

Those light manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers are looking for a simple manufacturing solution that allows them to manage the conversion process through one-entry-point interface, with minimal setup effort, using employees without university degrees in production engineering, and for an affordable price. And they are the target audience for the new Assembly Management functionality. The assembly granule is included in the Starter license package, comes with minimum setup requirements, supports companies that run both assemble-to-order and assemble-to-stock processes, and is fully integrated with the entire Microsoft Dynamics NAV supply chain suite.

This is also good news for existing customers with assembly and kitting needs, who in the past had little choice but to get the basic Sales BOM journal (as part of Starter license package) and then buy consulting and customization hours from their partner to bring the solution to the desired functional level. Admittedly, this approach did not represent an ideal situation. Partners would in effect have to first build a basic horizontal foundation for the assembly/kit process (as simple as it may be, it is still a manufacturing process) before taking it further into a vertical (if time and budget permitted). Many partners acknowledged that solutions built this way are poorly integrated and remain at the core level rather than support vertical industry needs.

So, with Assembly Management joining the total supply chain offering, new and existing customers will now have more options to consider when deciding what “manufacturing” functionality they need and how much to pay for it. What we have also understood is that at its heart, the new Assembly Management has the same conversion process as a true manufacturing module – it just has a lesser scope, simpler interface, fewer setup options and maintenance requirements, and is cheaper. With this in mind and especially with regard to the latter, should we now not expect that the same license alternatives will also be considered by the manufacturers, who will be tempted to shy away from the core Manufacturing functionality?

Tempted, yes, but upon closer examination and with partner guidance, customers engaged in full-blown manufacturing activities will come to see that Assembly Management may not be the right solution for them. The least desirable situation to find yourself in would be to choose the assembly module and then start paying your partner to beef up the Assembly Management feature, for example, to allow BOM versioning, or to enable work-in-process management, or to support multi-stage production processes. By design, the Assembly Management feature safeguards its conceptual boundaries and protects it from being turned into a full-scope manufacturing.

This is not to suggest that manufacturers shall not be interested in Assembly Management. It is easy to imagine an operational setting where a company will rely on manufacturing modules to support their production activities and then use the assembly feature, to-stock or to-order, when selling the produced products in sets or kits to its customers. Moreover, an item’s production BOM may include a sub-assembly with assembly BOM, an efficient way to ready several components for a work center as one set.

For more information contact OfficeOps at 760.930.6046 x210

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Introducing RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

If the phrase “IT implementation project” makes your palms sweat and your heart beat faster, this blog entry should be good news. It’s about a new service that we developed as a direct result of customer feedback. We listened when customers told us that a simpler and faster deployment would mean a lot to them. And we know how important it is for you to be able to stay focused on your business.

That’s why we built special functionality that improves the implementation process — right in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution. Functionality that makes the entire process smooth. RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV accelerates deployment time, improves the quality of the implementation, gives you better control of the whole process and reduces the cost. Here’s why.

RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV actively involves you in a way that makes the entire implementation process transparent. So not only is the implementation fast, but equally important, it is of the highest quality,

Simplifies Configuration and Data Migration

The new services include four main types of tools that simplify data migration and configuration and ensure that the quality of the data stays intact:

1. Questionnaires – These forms make it easy to set up your company in the system with specific company data, like contact and bank information, for example. You simply answer a few straightforward questions about your company, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV is set up according to your needs.
2. The Configuration Worksheet – This worksheet helps partners and customers bring structure to the process. It serves as a kind of implementation control center providing immediate access to all the essential setup tables.
3. Data Migration Tools – RapidStart Services also simplifies the process of migrating existing data. You gain control because you actively participate using the familiar Microsoft Excel program. It makes it easy for you to select and clean up your data before it is imported, thus ensuring better data quality.
4. A standardized Configuration Package – The package includes general setup data, such as currency codes, Chart of Accounts, payment terms, and countries. And if the standard data packages aren´t enough, you can always import additional data packages or extend existing ones after the initial setup.

A Good Overview and Better Control

The RapidStart Services Role Center gives you a good overview of the setup status. And in more advanced deployments, it allows you to assign a certain set of questions to a specific person. That way you can follow up if questions are not answered in time.

Now, you’re probably wondering if this streamlined service is only available on-premise. Well we’re happy to offer RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV as a native part of the product. So, it’s supported in both on-premise and in the cloud, for greater flexibility.

Does RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV sound interesting?

Do you want to take advantage of the reduced cost of deployment and accelerated deployment time? Then, contact OfficeOps and ask to learn more about how you can get your solution up and running in no time and with better control over the process.

OfficeOps: 760.930.6046 x210

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Centerline has announced version 1.50 which will add a new report type for non-technical users to create sophisticated reports which can draw data from multiple queries while using Microsoft’s latest 2012 Report Viewer and Report Definition Language 2010 specifications.

For more information contact OfficeOps:  Peter Vartabedian – 760 930.6046 x210

OfficeOps is a nationwide provider of business software and consulting services, delivering exceptional enterprise value through effective technology implementation. OfficeOps applies its industry knowledge and best practices philosophy to provide ERP, B2B eCommerce and technology solutions throughout the United States. As a Microsoft Certified Partner, OfficeOps helps its clients effectively harness the latest in Microsoft business software technologies, delivering increased efficiency and augmenting their competitive advantages.

Reports join different views of data in one place. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, reports are delivered in RDLC 2008 format, supported by Visual Studio 2010. The RDLC 2008 format and Visual Studio 2010 offers Microsoft Dynamics NAV reports much more richness, so that the reports can be compelling, more readable, and more easily understood.

Since RDLC 2005, which was used by Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, you can get a better overview of the presented data, such as by grouping data through coloring, or by visualizing data through charting, for example. The format also makes it possible to interact dynamically with reports on screen so that you have a better experience searching for data. For example, you can link from one report to another report, and you can even link to a page. In this release, we have used these features in some of our reports.

The following sections provide a quick overview of the main changes to reports and where you can find examples of how they are used in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.

Charts in Reports

Charts can be used so that customers get the most out of their data. At a minimum, charts should be readable, be understandable, and identify actionable tasks. They should help users find items of interest or outliers in business data based on objectives or measures.

RDLC 2008 supports different types of charts. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, reports use the following chart types:

• Bar chart
• Pie chart
• Column

Charts are used in the following reports in the W1 version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013:

• Report 111: Customer Top 10 List
• Report 915: Assemble to Order – Sales
• Report 5872: BOM Cost Share Distribution

Grouping Data with Color

You can use shades of colors to group data visually. This improves the readability of the report by emphasizing similar kinds of data. This type of coloring can improve reports that contain lists, such as the Customer Detailed Aging report, where
we have applied a color to group the lines for each customer. Coloring is implemented in several reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, such as:

• Report 106: Customer Detailed Aging
• Report 105: Customer – Summary Aging
• Report 915: Assemble to Order – Sales

Drill-Through Reports and Hyperlinks

When a report gives you the ability to drill through to the underlying data, you are more likely to find the right data. You can create a report that enables a user to go from the high-level overview to a detailed view with a single click. You can also provide hyperlinks that open another report or a page. Situations where it is useful to drill down into specific information include navigation from a customer to the customer’s phone number or from a total amount to the underlying transactions.

For example, in the Inventory Valuation report, you can choose the item number for an inventory item, and this opens the Inventory Valuation – Cost Specification report for that item.

Hyperlinks are implemented in the following reports:

• Report 106: Customer Detailed Aging
• Report 1001: Inventory Valuation

Interactive Sorting

It’s easier to get the view that you want if you can change the order of rows of data, based on the sort order of the specified column. We have enabled sorting on-the-fly in some reports, so that you can easily visualize the right priorities. In most cases, the sorting has been enabled on name, number, and amount fields. The sorting that is applied during preview of the report is what will also be used during printing.

Sorting is enabled in the following reports:

• Report 111 Customer Top 10 List
• Report 106 Customer Detailed Aging
• Report 105 Customer – Summary Aging
• Report 5872 BOM Cost Share Distribution

You can find technical information on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd338753(v=nav.70).aspx.

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 ships with a fully integrated Timeline Visualization tool. It provides the user with a visual projection of future supply and enables the user to make modifications on the fly. The Timeline helps you understand and optimize your inventory profile with its visual projection of future supply, demand, and planning data.

Who Will Benefit from the Timeline?

Well, the initial idea with the Timeline was to create a tool that would bring clarity to specific supply and demand situations. It was intended to help the planner analyze the planning output and quickly make adjustments. However, we quickly realized that this was a great tool for other types of users, including sales people, purchasers, and so forth.

Okay, So What Does It Do?

Basically, the Timeline Visualization displays a visual projection of the future inventory level for a specific item or SKU, based on supply from Purchase, Prod. Output, and other areas, and demand from Sale, Prod. Components, Forecast, and so forth. On top of this, you can choose to include planning suggestions – giving you a chance to see and modify the plan prior to executing on it. All of this takes place outside the Requisition Worksheet, so you can play with the quantities and dates until you are satisfied and then save the changes to the worksheet.

Timeline Usage Examples

• Production Planner
  • Analyzes the planning setup and cost of inventory.
  • Understands the planning suggestions.
  • Modifies and optimizes the supply plan for special situations.
• Order Processor
  • Uses the fast overview of what can be sold and when.
  • Checks normal order size and frequency prior to giving a discount.
• Purchasing Agent
  • Manually creates planning suggestions based on inventory level.
• Warehouse Manager
  • Monitors the expected warehouse load for a specific item.

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The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 release includes a set of new supply planning options, aimed at the following goals:

• Optimize supply handling cost by minimizing order changes.
• Provide a more precise setup for optimizing the inventory profile.
• Reduce the time spent on processing and changing the planning result.

So, now you might start to wonder: Is this relevant to me? A fair question, which will probably also be raised in many upgrade, sales, and implementation situations.

The short answer: If you are working with either the Requisition or Planning Worksheet, then this change is relevant.

So What Changed?

On the Item card and SKU card on the Planning FastTab, the Reorder Cycle field has been removed and split into four new fields, making it possible to have different values for:

1. Lot Accumulation Period: Demands that are due within the reorder cycle are grouped together to make a joint supply order, used by Lot-for-Lot.
2. Rescheduling Period: Used to determine if the action message should reschedule an existing order or cancel it and create a new order, used by Lot-for-Lot.
3. Time Bucket: Period used by the reorder point to define how often inventory level is checked.
4. Dampener Period: In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, the dampener period applies to an item and can never be higher than the value in the item’s Reorder Cycle field.

On the quantity side, you will also find a few new fields:

• Dampener Quantity: Specifies a dampener quantity to block insignificant change suggestions for an existing supply if the quantity by which the supply would change is lower than the dampener quantity.
• Overflow Level: Specifies a quantity by which you allow projected inventory to exceed the reorder point before the system suggest decreasing existing supply orders. In most scenarios this field should be left blank.

Note: The reorder point is now triggered when inventory level is equal to or below. In earlier versions, it used to be only below.

This was done to align with manufacturing standards and to address the situation when the safety stock quantity and reorder point had the same value.

During upgrade from earlier versions with low repoint values, you may need to update the Reorder Point to reflect this change. For example, if you have a Reorder Point of five pieces (with a rounding factor of one) in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, this would trigger a supply when inventory dropped below five pieces, to four pieces. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, the Reorder Point would have to be four to get the same planning result.

With the new layout on the Planning FastTab, the planning fields are now grouped based on when they are used. So if you use the Lot-for-Lot Reordering Policy, you should focus on the Lot-for-Lot Parameters and if you use Fixed Reorder Qty. or Maximum Qty. you should focus on the Reorder-Point Parameters.

When you are done with the setup and turn to Calculate Regenerative Planning from either the Requisition or Planning Worksheet you should pay attention to a new option to respect planning parameters:

When you select this option, the calculation will respect the planning parameters even when Microsoft Dynamics NAV has to make an exception order to avoid having the inventory level dropbelow the safety stock level. If you do not select this check box, the calculation will just create a suggestion to cover the safety stock level – regardless of most planning parameters, as in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.

Are you spending too much time analyzing and understanding the planning suggestions?

The new FactBoxes on the Requisition and Planning Worksheet make it easier to get a full overview, by displaying both item details for Replenishment, Planning, and Warehouse as well as details for the Untracked Planning Elements for each line in the worksheet. So make sure you display the FactBoxes relevant for you.

If you want more information on Supply Planning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, one place I suggest you turn is to the Readiness material on Microsoft Dynamics PartnerSource site. In general, you should also take a look at the product Help, in the box and on Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), which got quite an overhaul and now includes content from relevant whitepapers.

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With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 reaching its most important milestone, the Release-To-Manufacturing, the new licensing model takes over. As expected, Microsoft has paved the way for its newest release of its most popular Dynamics ERP product by changing the licensing model. There have been several major licensing model changes in the past, but this one is truly radical and it reflects Microsoft’s shifting strategies in positioning Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Simplification

Compared to earlier models, Perpetual Licensing is a lot simpler. Business Essentials and Advanced Management offerings have been discontinued and the Foundation Pack has been replaced with the Starter Pack. Every new customer must purchase the Starter Pack, which includes three full users, and is priced slightly more than twice the price of the old Business Essentials license. The Starter Pack allows users to access almost the same functionality as the Business Essential license did.

If the customer requires more advanced functionality, then they can purchase the Extended Pack, which is purchased only once regardless of the number of users. It allows all licensed users to access the full stack of Microsoft Dynamics NAV functionality at the flat price of two Starter Packs.

Whether or not the customer has purchased the Extended Pack, all new users are priced at the same price, and there is no waterfall pricing based on the number of users. The new user price is approximately half way between the old Business Essentials and Advanced Management user prices.

The Extended Pack is completely different from the Advanced Management offering. Whereas the Advanced Management simply allowed you to order additional granules, some at very high cost, the Extended Pack includes almost all of the granules. Apart from additional users, the only additions that you can purchase for your Perpetual License are the Application Builder and Solution Developer granules and application object packs. The prices for these granules haven’t changed. Queries, the new object type in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, are priced at the same level with reports, codeunits, pages, and XMLports.

User Types

One of the biggest changes involves the user types and the access levels provided. The Light User and Employee Self Service licenses have been discontinued, and are effectively replaced by the Limited User license. Whereas the Light User license was per named user and allowed users full read and write access to all Microsoft Dynamics NAV features, the Limited User is a concurrent license, and it allows read access to the whole solution, and write access to three tables of user’s choice and a predefined set of infrastructure tables. It does not allow users to write to the GL Entry table, effectively prohibiting users from posting financial transactions. Users can still post shipments, receipts, or any other transactions as long as they don’t integrate into finances.

The biggest difference between the Perpetual Licensing and the Business Essentials licensing models is that the Perpetual License doesn’t at all depend on the type of access to the solution. For example, you can purchase a Limited User and still use the RoleTailored client or the Web client, as long as you do not write to more than three tables. Also, if you write to more than three tables, you require a Full User license, even if you only use Web services to access Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

What do these changes mean for customers?

The new licensing model looks slightly confusing given Microsoft’s messaging around attracting small businesses and looking for ways to gain a larger footprint in the SME arena. With this licensing model, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

In part two of this article we’ll look at the implications of the new licensing on different types of existing NAV customers, from the smallest to the very large. These changes also set up Dynamics NAV for a new reality in how it competes in different market segments and where it will be most successful in the future.

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