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"
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer established the principle of
"Integrated Innovaton" as a top priority company-wide to take computing to the next level for information-worker productivity and customer satisfaction."
Source : Microsoft
Integrated Innovation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Integrated Innovation is also known as :
Case Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation Technology,
Integrated Innovation Organization,
Concept Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation Phase,
Value Integrated Innovation,
Business Integrated Innovation,
Framework Integrated Innovation,
Product Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation Capacity,
Evaluation Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation Management,
Integrated Innovation Model,
Integrated Innovation Process,
Integrated Innovation Professional,
Integrated Innovation Services,
Need Integrated Innovation,
Generation Integrated Innovation,
Vision Integrated Innovation,
Managing Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation Landscape,
Developed Integrated Innovation,
Factors Integrated Innovation,
Integrated Innovation White Paper,
Integrated Innovation Environment,
Integrated Innovation Strategy,
Integrated Innovation Software,
Business Growth Strategy,
Business Strategic Planning,
Business Strategy.
Introduction
This white paper is intended for Microsoft partners. It reviews how Microsoft Dynamics NAV and other
Microsoft products create value for customers and partners by enabling small and medium-sized
companies to increase productivity, improve collaboration and make smart business decisions.
After reading this paper you will know:
- What Microsoft Dynamics NAV is and how Microsoft products and technologies have
always been an integral part of Microsoft Dynamics NAV
- Which Microsoft products and technologies integrate with Microsoft Dynamics NAV
- How this integration benefits customers and partners
Background
What is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an integrated business management solution designed specifically for the
unique needs of growing, small to medium-sized companies. It is ideal for businesses looking for one
solution that is fast to implement, easy to customize and simple to use and maintain. Microsoft
Dynamics NAV delivers integrated functionality to support solutions for Financial Management, Supply
Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management and e-Commerce.
The product originates in Denmark and was the flagship solution of Navision a/s when Microsoft
acquired Navision a/s in May 2002. Today it is one of four products in the Microsoft Dynamics product
portfolio.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV was originally envisioned around three fundamental design principles –
simplicity, flexibility and adaptability. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV development team’s unwavering
commitment to these principles and the expertise of the Microsoft partners has made Microsoft
Dynamics NAV the success it is today. To date, Microsoft has over 1500 Microsoft partners specializing
in Microsoft Dynamics NAV in at least 50 countries serving more than 48,000 small to medium-sized
companies. These companies rely on Microsoft Dynamics NAV every day to help them run their
operations.
Better Together: A Successful History of Integrated Innovation
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has a long history of utilizing Microsoft technologies and products. As early
as 1993, the development team behind Microsoft Dynamics NAV recognized the potential of the
Microsoft® for Windows® NT 32-bit graphical user interface (GUI) -based software. At that time, a major
development effort was initiated to create a new generation of solutions with a highly adaptable and
easy-to-customize user interface. This resulted in the successful launch of Microsoft Navision Financials
Windows 95 and Windows NT versions in 1995 – making it one of the first accounting solutions for
small and medium-sized businesses based on Microsoft Windows.
Since then, innovative enhancements have been made to Microsoft Dynamics NAV making it even
easier and more cost-efficient to sell, implement, upgrade, use and maintain. And, Microsoft products
and technologies have been and continue to be an integral part of these enhancements.
For example, in 2000, Commerce Gateway for Microsoft Dynamics NAV was one of the world’s first
solutions based on Microsoft BizTalk Server. Today, Microsoft Dynamics NAV represents a significant
number of the total sales of Microsoft Biz Talk Server. And, again in 2000, User Portal for Microsoft
Dynamics NAV was one of the first the world’s first solution based on Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard.
Today, Microsoft Dynamics NAV is leveraging the benefits of Microsoft SharePoint technologies with a
new employee portal based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.
Integrated innovation and Microsoft technologies continue to be the foundation for the future
development of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Integrated innovation will enable us to achieve our ultimate
goal of empowering both Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers and partners to realize business success
by working more productively without increasing costs.
Integrated Innovation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV Today
Microsoft Dynamics NAV integrates with a number of Microsoft products and technologies to help
Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers realize business success in three ways:
- Empowering employees to work more productively in a cost-efficient way
- Seamlessly connecting people, processes and information throughout the business and
- Providing employees with better insight so they make smarter decisions.
Companies Can Do More, Faster, without Increasing Costs
Increasing employee productivity – without increasing costs – is a top priority among growing small
and medium-sized customers. With tight integration to the Microsoft productivity tools Microsoft
Office and Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Dynamics NAV enables employees in small and mediumsized
businesses to work faster, smarter and get more done in less time.
A familiar user-interface increases productivity
Customer research shows that employees waste valuable time re-keying
redundant information and data into disparate systems, switching back and
forth between different applications and getting reacquainted with
applications that look and feel different.
The intuitive, task-based design of Microsoft Dynamics NAV looks just like
Microsoft Windows. The familiar user environment enables employees to wo
faster and more efficiently because they feel “at home” with the application.
The Navigation Pane has the familiar look and feel of the Navigation Pane in Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003. Its main menu content has been structured
around departmental areas to reflect employees’ roles and tasks. Each of
these areas has its own menu. This makes it easy for employees to find the
functionality they need, quickly.
The Navigation Pane displays one menu at a time. Menu buttons at the
bottom of the pane enable users to switch from one menu to another. Th
menus are organized in intuitive, logical tree structures, just like the folder
structure in Windows Explorer. Menus contain menu items for the windows
reports, and batch jobs that users have access to. To make it easier to navigat
within a menu, related menu items are gathered in menu groups.
Systems administrators can use the Navigation Pane Designer to configure the
Microsoft Dynamics NAV main menu to suit the way their organizations
operate. They can also assign users to menus so that employees only see the
menus that are relevant to their roles.
The familiar and intuitive Microsoft environment enables new employees to start working immediately thereby saving money on training. If they
have worked in a Microsoft program before or are used to surfing the
Internet then they have all the training they need to start working.
The main menu in Microsoft Dynamics
NAV looks and feels like Microsoft
Windows
Integration with Word, Outlook, and Excel helps employees work faster
The tight integration of Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Microsoft Office enables employees to draw on the functionality of familiar programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Excel.
Users can build queries that will extract data directly from the database from within Microsoft Word to
create customer letters. Or users can export data from Microsoft Dynamics NAV directly into a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to produce reports or create a pivot table for analysis.
Figure 1 Tight integration with Microsoft Office enables users to create letters using Microsoft Word from within the Microsoft
Dynamics NAV application. Here, the user is about to create a letter from the customer contact card in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Employees can book meetings, manage contacts and tasks and send email in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
and synchronize automatically with Microsoft Outlook. Users can also access up-to-date contacts, tasks
and calendar information from Microsoft Outlook directly in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Users can also keep records of e-mail correspondence, business contacts, meetings, tasks,
appointments, and so on, in both Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics NAV and share selected records
with colleagues. For example: when an e-mail from Microsoft Dynamics NAV is created, the e-mail is
also registered in Outlook, and when a task is assigned in Outlook, the task is also registered in
Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Integrated innovation enables better communication with customers and colleagues. E-Mail Logging
gives a greater overview of e-mails. Employees can integrate e-mails between Microsoft Outlook and
Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Companies are able to maintain current e-mail records in both systems and
employees can share and publish knowledge about external contacts.
Figure 2 Here you can see how the information retrieved from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV contact card is now used in a letter
created in Microsoft Word. Integration between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Office make all of this happen automatically.
The user does not have to “jump” back and forth between applications.
In addition, Microsoft Dynamics NAV industry specific solution templates utilize Microsoft Excel and
Microsoft Project for set-up and project planning. This helps partners increase productivity and reduces
customer total-cost-of-ownership.
Smart Tags give employees a more effective working environment
The tight integration between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Office enables employees to
access information that is stored in Microsoft Dynamics NAV without leaving Microsoft Word, Excel or
Outlook. Smart Tags functionality provides predefined information such as a name or an address and is
recognized in Microsoft Office applications and more detailed information from Microsoft Dynamics
NAV can be added.
Integration with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint helps employees
access the information they need to do their job
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services enable organizations to increase productivity by
providing their customers and employees with the information they need when they need it so they
can make timely, informed decisions.
The Microsoft SQL Server Option for Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides analysis and reporting services
so it’s easier for employees to access, extract and analyze business data and information quickly so they
make sound decisions faster.
Employee Portal for Microsoft Dynamics NAV uses Microsoft SharePoint technology to save employees
time by giving them instant access to the information they need to do their job.
Salespeople can access customer accounts and sales history, and enter orders. Purchasers can look up
stock availability, and production designers can look up BOMs. Without having to learn a new system,
staff gets access to:
- Analytical reports
- Real-time integrated data
- Sales and service tools
Companies can create a company-wide intranet where you decide how much access your employees
have to the system. This helps ensure that employees remain focused on relevant data, and don't waste
time struggling to learn a system that they really don't need to use.
Seamless Connectivity of People, Processes and Information
To remain competitive today, small and medium-sized businesses must be able to connect and share
data and information cost-efficiently among employees, customers and business partners and across
different systems.
Microsoft BizTalk Server and Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Microsoft Dynamics NAV integrates with Microsoft BizTalk Server to facilitate the electronic exchange
of business documents between business partners. Commerce Gateway helps customers efficiently
unite systems, employees, and trading partners and automates their interactions in a flexible way.
Information sent or received by Commerce Gateway is automatically updated in Microsoft Dynamics
NAV. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and significantly increases data accuracy.
This tight integration enables companies to become more competitive. They can reach out to new
trading partners cost-efficiently – regardless of the system they use or the standards they require.
Companies can work faster. The time it takes to respond to requests for information and documents
decreases so companies can do more. And, Microsoft BizTalk Server works with the Application Server
for Microsoft Dynamics NAV to immediately handle sales orders. This improves service and makes
companies more attractive to new trading partners.
For example, Microsoft customer, CRT Group was the first organization in the Asia Pacific region to
implement Commerce Gateway for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. CRT Group is a leading transport
company in Australia and they needed an integrated financial and transport logistics management
system with an e-business interface. According to CRT, their customer service staff saved up to 50% in
order entry time in just one month following implementation of Commerce Gateway. Tony McAvaney,
Logistics Project Manager of Qenos, one of CRT Group’s most important trading partners, reported that
Commerce Gateway eliminated the double entry issues. Data errors, as a result, dropped 75% –
virtually eliminating the costs of those errors – a benefit for both organizations.
Figure 3 Commerce Gateway was one of the first solutions to utilize Microsoft BizTalk Server and comes with 16 schemas out-ofthe-
box
Integrated innovation helps companies leverage the power of the Internet
Commerce Portal for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an Internet-based e-commerce solution within
Microsoft Dynamics NAV that leverages the Internet to streamline interactions with vendors and
customers. Commerce Portal is based on technology from Microsoft such as Microsoft Windows Server,
Microsoft Internet Information Server (ISS), Active Server Pages, Microsoft Commerce Server and
Microsoft .NET.
In addition, all relevant data in the Commerce Portal is synchronized with Microsoft SQL Server so that
the data is actually stored in both the Database Server for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the Microsoft
SQL Server database. The system automatically synchronizes the Microsoft SQL Server database, and
subsequently the Web pages on a storefront, with the C/SIDE Database for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Better Insight and Smarter Business Decisions
Companies today are buried under an enormous amount of data and information – so much so that
companies end up analyzing too much of the wrong information and missing out on profitable
opportunities. For example, information in their system is not up-to-date so employees are notified
too late of problems or opportunities to make a difference. Often, when needing data from other
departments, employees must have someone send them the data since it is stored in departmental
data sources which are not shared. And moving data from one source to another and reformatting it
for analysis can cause errors. The challenge lies in being able to access the right information and
transform it into insight and knowledge.
Figure 4 Integration between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft SQL helps users transform data into better business
decisions
Integration enables efficient sharing of data and information
Microsoft Dynamics NAV draws on the benefits of Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Windows
SharePoint Services to unlock the value of business data and share relevant information among
employees across the organization in a secure way.
Since the release of Microsoft Navision 2.5, Microsoft has been providing the Microsoft SQL Server
Option to customers as an alternative to the Database Server for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This option
gives customers the opportunity to run their business on Microsoft’s industry-leading database
technology and gives partners greater flexibility in recommending and designing a solution that meets
the needs of customers.
The Microsoft SQL Server option offers a number of benefits to those customers whose businesses
require data integration across many systems and applications. It also provides benefits to customers
where down time means loss of revenue or business interruption, and who need faster access and work
with more data and information from their system.
Business Analytics in Microsoft Dynamics NAV utilizes Microsoft SQL Server Analysis services. And,
Business Notification in Microsoft Dynamics NAV utilizes Microsoft SQL Notification Services.
A cost-efficient way to deploy a Web-based interface and share information
Employee Portal for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a very convenient and powerful .NET- based product
to cover distributed information needs. It’s an Intranet solution that utilizes Microsoft SharePoint
Services and integrates with Microsoft SharePoint Portal making it possible to work with real-time
business information such as invoices, customer data and reports directly – and in a secure
environment – from Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Employees can access and share Microsoft Office
documents, receive information or updates quickly or update relevant business information in
Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Like all Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions, Employee Portal has been
developed with the user in mind so that it’s both intuitive and simple to use. Customers save on
training costs, and employees can start working immediately. There are no extra software costs.
Microsoft SharePoint Services is included in Microsoft Windows 2003.
How Integrated Innovation Helps Microsoft Certified Partners Improve Customer Total Cost of Ownership
Integrated innovation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV enables partners to realize business success, too, by increasing productivity and making it easier for partners to focus on their key competencies. Instead of partners using valuable resources on integrating their customers’ solutions with other systems, they can
focus on differentiating themselves and developing unique solutions with a lower total cost of
ownership.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has developed Microsoft Dynamics NAV Rapid Implementation Methodology
which utilizes Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project. These are templates that help partners rapidly implement standard industry solutions boosting partner productivity and decreasing customer totalcost-
of-ownership.
Figure 5 The setup of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Rapid Implementation Methodology is done in Microsoft Excel making it easy for
partners to quickly implement unique solutions for their customers
Conclusion
Microsoft Dynamics NAV was created with the spirit of integrated innovation. As one of the very early
adopters of Microsoft products and technologies, Microsoft Dynamics NAV continues to utilize
Microsoft products and technologies to help customers increase productivity, collaboration and
business insight. Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft products and technologies boost partner
productivity and profitability, too. Instead of wasting valuable resources on integration, partners can
focus on adding more customers and developing unique solutions that help small and medium-sized
businesses around the world achieve business success.
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you
and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like
and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship and
supply chain processes in a way that helps you drive business success.
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, The Microsoft Dynamics Logo, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Windows, and Microsoft BizTalk are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions
ApS is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Background
- What is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
- Better Together: A Successful History of Integrated Innovation
- Integrated Innovation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV Today
- Companies Can Do More, Faster, without Increasing Costs
- A familiar user-interface increases productivity
- Integration with Word, Outlook, and Excel helps employees work faster
- Smart Tags give employees a more effective working environment
- Integration with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint helps employees access the information they need to do their job
- Seamless Connectivity of People, Processes and Information
- Microsoft BizTalk Server and Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
- Better Insight and Smarter Business Decisions
- How Integrated Innovation Helps Microsoft Certified Partners Improve Customer Total Cost of Ownership
- Conclusion
- About Microsoft Dynamics