On 3.7, Thinking of moving to 4.x or 5.0.

headley27

Good day,

I'm currently on 3.7 and I'm thinking of moving to 4.x or 5.0.

Other than the fact that 3.7 is no longer supported by Microsoft why would I want to move to 4.x or 5.0?

What are the key new features/benefits?

I am primarily using General Ledger, Sales & Receivables, Purchase & Payables, Inventory and Manufacturing.

Any quick insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

ara3n

Well one thing I can think that may or may not apply to your company is Kitting. A lot of company use manufacturing (which goes through a lot processes) to create the final good that is sold the customer.
The final item could be basically a box with several items on it. Kitting is the right solution for this.


They've made a lot of improvements in 5.0 for costing.

Prepayment is another feature. Approval process for sales and PO.

themave

things I am looking at are also the kitting, and the document link

we have a lot of related documents for items, suchs as service manuals, detail pictures, sales flyers, ect. and being able to make an easy link to an item is appealing

diptish.naskar

Well for me, there are really good things that are present in NAV 5.0 starting from the kitting, document links, exporting documents to word or excel, They have made significant inprovements in Projects, Sales and Purchase. But still as it is very new, it also comes with a box of problems...while 4.0 SP3 is there for quite a long time and is quite stable according to my opinion...I think you should move to SP3 and may be on a later date think of moving to 5.1(when it is released)

headley27

Good info and tips. Thanks everyone.

Alex_Chow

One big reason is the ability to install Navision on Windows Vista machines... But that's only an executable upgrade.

Miklos_Hollender

It really depends on your approach. If you are trying to stick to the standard system, then an upgrade is most certainly a good idea because besides the "flagship" improvements there are many smaller ones under the hood. For example keys are set up very well in 5.0 - must be a significant performance improvement under SQL.

On the other hand, if you generally consider Navision as a development environment, continuously making changes, then just stick to technical upgrades I think. It's a question of how you relate to NAV business logic - if you use it mostly as it is then do upgrade, but if use some bits of it when they seem useful but usually just develop your own then don't.

headley27

More good points. Thanks.

I have these concerns too. Vista is certainly something to consider (I think the biggest reason we might upgrade).

We also do a fair amount of development, so I am a little apprehensive to do so at the same time. I'll figure it out though.

I did see a demo movie on the MS site a short while back about setting email notifications. The example was 'If a Purchase Order wasn't confirmed, etc. etc., send an email notification'. It looked really simple to set up as well.

Can anyone tell me...
Is this standard functionality in any specific version or is it an add-on and what is it called?

Thanks again.

Alex_Chow

It's a standard feature called Business Notifications.

headley27

Thanks Alex,

I would like to clarify one thing.

Is 'Business Notifications' a granule that you have to purchase or can you use it for any module (S&R, P&P, etc.) that you already have licensed?

Thanks again.

Alex_Chow

Business Notification is a granule you have to purchase and requires SQL server. It's used in conjunction with S&R, P&P, etc.

headley27

Thanks for clarifying.

PerJuhl

Hi

In short:

- Vista enable
- New C/SIDE commands FINDSET, FINDFIRST, GETLASTERRORTXT and others.
- SQL 2005 enable.
- Option of different keys on SQL and in applikation, gives good option to improve speed.
- New Outlook integration.
- New Offices integration with use of style sheets.
- Links to external files.
- New Costing options and "Adjust periode".
- New BA applikation, "Integrated BI".
- Reopen Item Ledger entry.
- Total redesign of Job applikation.
- New Services Invoice system.
- XML-ports.
- New menu structure
- Approv Sales and Purchase documents.
- Intercompany posting.
- New security options on SQL "Standard" and "Extended"
- Pre payment on Sales documents
- New Item tracking.

BR Per

headley27

Thank you PerJuhl. Very thorough.