To complete implementation - meet the add-ons family.
May 31, 2019

To complete implementation - meet the add-ons family.

Jenny Christensen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Dynamics NAV

NAV is used across the entire organization from purchasing, engineering, production, accounting, quality, shipping, customer and technical service, sales, and marketing. The implementation of NAV was intended to replace disparate systems that were not integrated to improve the integrity of data throughout the entire organization. The goal was to get all product and financial data into a single platform, so we had the assurance the same data could be accessed by users across the organization, doing away with old systems and spreadsheets.

Pros

  • Automate the creation of bills of materials for production. We can now generate a BoM from a sales order.
  • Organization of all data pertaining to thousands of parts, assemblies, and finished goods. Engineering and purchasing have a common portal.
  • We can create sales orders from quotations instead of re-entering them (this did require some bolt-on software). Less redundant work with fewer entry errors.
  • Accounting can provide reports based on specific criteria stored in NAV. We can pull better and more detailed intelligence.

Cons

  • It doesn't work out of the box. It requires consultants and experts to make it work. This makes it far more expensive to get up and running and maintain than originally anticipated.
  • Additional software purchases are needed for full functionality. For example, it doesn't offer a product configurator which was an expensive purchase that needed to be made separately.
  • It is difficult to get data into NAV from old systems. Now, for sales data prior to the implementation of NAV, we have to go back into the legacy system.
  • Better visibility of ROI throughout each period. Orders entered, shipped, and backlogs are very visible to authorized users upon login.
  • Purchasing and inventory turns have been better realized. Out of stock parts reduced.
  • A future customer portal will enhance the customer experience by pulling NAC data into a web-based UI. However, the portal is a separate expense.
  • Time savings realized by being able to generate views or reports versus asking IT or accounting to pull a custom report.
There was a third party that collected company ERP requirements from people representing all functional areas to narrow down the field of ERP offerings. The top two options presented were Epicor and NAV. Company management and IT preferred that the ERP system be hosted on a server on site versus a cloud-based deployment. Production and purchasing needs were better met by NAV. From a sales and marketing perspective, NAV offered seamless integrations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint.
NAV has all the basics but lacks depth. When evaluating NAV be sure it does everything you want it to do out of the box as customizing it is very expensive and difficult. Be sure it has all of the functionality you need up front and that your data set is clean and all the fields you need are included. Our company is a diverse, two division operation and a lot of manipulations were necessary to make it work for the two businesses that provide different products and services. It would likely be well suited for smaller wholesale or retail operations, but if you are a more than moderately complex manufacturer, there may be other options. It is driven by Microsoft which in itself adds complexity.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Feature Ratings

6.7
Accounts payable
8
Accounts receivable
8
Global Financial Support
5
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
8
Journals and Reconciliations
8
Configurable Accounting
5
Standardized Processes
5
7.0
Billing Management
7
Cash and Asset Management
9
Travel & Expense Management
4
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting
7
Period Close
8
4.7
Inventory tracking
8
Automatic reordering
1
Location management
5
6.4
Pricing
9
Order entry
6
Credit card processing
1
Cost of goods sold
8
Order Orchestration
8
Payroll Management ()
Not Rated
5.7
Dashboards
3
Standard reports
7
Custom reports
7
1.5
API for custom integration
1
Plug-ins
2
8.0
Role-based user permissions
8
Single sign-on capability
8
Grants Management ()
Not Rated
Not Rated
Budgeting and Forecasting
Not Rated
Project Costing
Not Rated
Cost Capture
Not Rated
Capital Project Management
Not Rated
Customer Contract Compliance
Not Rated
Project Revenue Recognition
Not Rated
Not Rated
Project Planning and Scheduling
Not Rated
Task Insight for Project Managers
Not Rated
Project Mobile Functionality
Not Rated
Definable Resource Pools
Not Rated
7.0
Bids Analyzed and Compared
Not Rated
Contract Authoring
Not Rated
Contract Repository
Not Rated
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated
7
Supplier Management
Not Rated
Risk Management ()
Not Rated
7.0
Transportation Planning and Optimization
Not Rated
Transportation Execution Management
Not Rated
Trade and Customs Management
Not Rated
Fulfillment Management
7
Warehouse Workforce Management
Not Rated
3.7
Production Process Design
Not Rated
Production Management
2
Configuration Management
1
Work Execution
Not Rated
Manufacturing Costs
8
5.7
Forecasting
8
Inventory Planning
7
Performance Monitoring
2
Product Lifecycle Management ()
Not Rated

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