Dynamics 365 Business Central's Success Story A Journey back
in Time to 1984

The Confusion of Terms

The young colleague from purchasing department talks about “Business Central”, the colleagues in sales department say “Dynamics NAV” and you only ever hear “Navision” from your long-established accounting colleague… In your day-to-day work, you are constantly confronted with different version names for Microsoft’s ERP solution. It’s easy to get confused as to which name is the current version - a it’s “confusion of names”. In order to keep an overview, you should definitely take a look at the historical development behind it.

1984 - an ERP System with Danish Roots was born

The success story of Business Central began almost 40 years ago in 1984 - not in the USA or the UK, but in Denmark.

The three young IT professionals Jesper Balser, Peter Bang and Torben Wind were studying at the Technical University of Denmark (now known as DTU) and initially planned to develop an ironing machine for shirts. However, they then decided to dedicate themselves to the IT business and founded the software company PC&C A/S.

In 1984, they developed the PC Plus program, which was the very first predecessor of today’s Business Central from Microsoft - it already consisted of basic components such as warehouse management, accounts payable, accounts receivable and financial accounting. However, it was only designed for one user.

Three years later, PC&C A/S launched the follow-up version NAVIGATOR, before the company changed its name to Navision Software A/S in 1996 and in close cooperation with Microsoft launched Navision Financials under Windows 95. This could now be classified as an ERP system with all its functions.

2002 - with the Acquisition of Navision, Microsoft has added an ERP system for SMEs to its Portfolio

After working with Navision Software A/S for a number of years, the software giant acquired Navision in 2002, making it part of Microsoft Business Solutions and giving it the name “Microsoft Navision”, thus expanding its portfolio with an ERP system for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Navision has the programming language C/AL  and runs in the development environment C/Side. Microsoft continuously developed the software to further optimize collaboration between employees, customers and partners.

2005 - Microsoft Navision became Microsoft Dynamics NAV - with many new Features for Finance, SCM and BI

In 2005 another new name occured: Navision became Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

From then on, new versions of Dynamics NAV were always named according to the year in which they were released. Over the years, more and more new functions and features were added, for example in the fields of Finance, Production, Supply Chain Management and Business Intelligence. Here are a few examples of how additional functions could make the system more user-friendly:

• Greater clarity through improved graphic display, including:
  • Predefined role centers, which ensure that all users receive exactly the data and functions they need for their respective positions - similar to the personal start page of the user
    More user-friendly display, in which the real company structure is replicated
    Responsive design that adapts to the requirements of smartphones or tablets, for example
    Graphical production plan for a better overview of production processes, interfaces, etc.
• Simplified use through additional or automated processes and integration of applications, including
  • Optimized document management, e.g. with automatic data capture and integration of Microsoft Office
  • More efficient payment transactions, as you can use online payment services such as PayPal
  • Integration with the CRM system Microsoft Dynamics CRM
  • Email dispatch via Dynamics NAV saves work steps
  • Posting preview, which allows you to check postings and avoid careless mistakes
  • OData web services for encrypted transfer of data from compatible systems

After 13 years of Microsoft’s ERP solution running under this name, Dynamics NAV 2018 was finally the last version of Dynamics NAV to be released by Microsoft.

2018 - Dynamics NAV became Dynamics 365 Business Central - with Cloud Hosting and a more modern User Interface

In 2018, Dynamics NAV became part of the Dynamics 365 universe from Microsoft. From then on, the solution was called “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central” - you probably also often hear the short version “Business Central”, or even shorter: “BC” (pronounced 😊).

On-premises or SaaS?

“What’s new in Business Central?”

The biggest development is probably the fact that Business Central now has a SaaS model in addition to the On-premises version. SaaS stands for “Software-as-a-Service”. The service is licensed via a subscription. You host the data in the Azure cloud from Microsoft. It is provided to you via a web client and is not located on a local server on site in the company, which saves you having to buy your own hardware. There is less administrative work for internal IT and the service is continuously updated via automatic updates.

Microsoft’s cloud-first strategy provides additional incentives for users to opt for the cloud.

Apps instead of PTE

Business Central can be extended very easily with the help of AppSource apps. Their implementation is fast, good and inexpensive - reminding of shopping at Ikea. Unlike PTE apps (individual customizations), these are published in Microsoft’s AppSource - users can easily purchase them there.

Integration of Power BI, Power Apps and Power Automate

Business Central is not only capable of ERP - but also BI, for example. The system has a business intelligence function being integrated as standard. This allows you to prepare and evaluate data and perform simple calculations. Examples include the integrated function for cash flow analysis and planning.

You can also use Power Apps and Power Automate which are further components of the Microsoft Power Platform in Business Central. This is made possible by Microsoft’s platform approach.

Solution Scope can be customized

Dynamics NAV and Business Central differ in terms of scope of solution: when you purchase a Dynamics NAV license, you buy features for all relevant business areas, while with Business Central you only pay for the features you actually want to use.

2021 - what’s next for the “Leader among Leaders” in the ERP Segment?

Incidentally, the IT research company Nucleus Research recently ranked Business Central as the leading software solution on the ERP market - this puts Microsoft with its current version Dynamics 365 Business Central 2021 Release Wave 2 (Version 19.0) ahead of its competitor SAP, among others.

You may now be asking yourself: if Business Central as the market leader offers so many advantages, is the software now simply replacing Dynamics NAV and you as a user are forced to switch?

No! While Dynamics NAV simply serves as an ERP software, Dynamics 365 BC offers users ERP and CRM in one. It extends Dynamics NAV with the CRM functionalities, but does not replace Dynamics NAV. Microsoft also only announced in March 2021 that support for Dynamics NAV will be continued.

How will the solution develop in the future? It remains exciting. To be continued… - or in Danish: Fortsættelse følger… 😊