Navision Comparison

Navi_Learner

Hi, I have a question regarding Navison and SAP Business One? Are they on the same level and which one is better? Thanks!

jannestig

Use the google luke.

I found 2 or 3 articles straight away, just with Nav V SAP i know there is a german site which rate more then just the 2 products managed.

http://www.google.se/search?hl=sv&sa=X& ... on&spell=1

I was working for a partner that sold and implemented both and although i am biased towards navision.

Read the neutral reviews.

girish.joshi

B1 is only acceptable for smaller businesses.

Table structure is much more difficult to modify.

kine

girish.joshi wrote:

B1 is only acceptable for smaller businesses.

Table structure is much more difficult to modify.

Everything in B1 is difficult to modify... :-)

And do not forget, that SAP B1 has something with SAP only with the name, else it is totally different product....

Savatage

http://demiliani.com/blog/archive/2007/05/21/6395.aspx

ara3n

Here is MS link

https://mbs.microsoft.com/downloads/par ... 053107.pdf

girish.joshi

I am going to post this in multiple parts. Much (most) of this is repurposed from the NAV - B1 Integration Document.

Both are 2 tier application products. - Draw

General Ledger & General Accounting - Advantage Dynamics NAV

SAP Business One utilizes an account structure that hard links all account segments. Thus, if there are 100 natural accounts that apply to 10 departments, one thousand separate accounts must be set up. This affects setup time and can imposes a number of limitations in the reporting area. SAP Business One does not utilize the concept of posting groups, which creates constraints in the general accounting and reporting areas for some users.

Dynamics NAV handles this much more elegantly with the concept of dimensions, which allows a g/l account to "sliced and diced"

For example, in inventory-based businesses, the ability to map the revenue/cost of goods/inventory asset account is limited to either Item, Item Group, or Warehouse. If there are multiple warehouses and separate balance sheet accounts are required by warehouse, the revenues must also post by warehouse. Likewise, Accounts Receivable are assigned by individual customer. If the customer is later reclassified, affecting the related accounting changes will require significant accounting work on the part of the users.

Budgeting functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is more powerful, especially with the ability to import/export directly from Excel templates and update workbooks. The multi-budget and related reporting capability in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is significantly more complete. SAP Business One does not have any inherent functionality in the following areas: Fixed Assets, consolidations, and inter-company transactions.[/b]

girish.joshi

Inventory & Warehouse Management - Advantage Dynamics NAV

Inventory functionality in SAP Business One is basic and there is no warehouse management functionality or material handling capabilities in the product. Replenishment and logistics functionality is very basic, as is the ability to handle multiple units of measure by item. Inventory transfer functionality in SAP Business One does not incorporate an “in-transit” capability. Thus all inventory transfers are instant, which can give an inaccurate perception of inventory availability. This is in contrast to Dynamics NAV which does have the in-transit functionality.

Dynamics NAV allows for warehouse management functionality includes warehouse shipments/receipts, picking/putting away documents, and the ability to manage the warehouse by zone and by bin.

Dynamics NAV handles multiple units of measure robustly, forcing all units of measure to relative to a base. Furthermore, the units of measure are validated throughout the system, in contrast to SAP B1, where small difference in the unti of measure can make it difficult/impossible to reconcile inventory in different parts of the system.

girish.joshi

Administration, Maintenance & User Customization - Advantage SAP B1

Updates and upgrades are more straightforward in the SAP Business One environment, as the customization tools (SDK, described under the Development/Integration Environment section) are external to the code base. With customizations made through the SDK, the base code is unaffected. However, because of the frequency of updates – some of which involve database changes – each update must be tested before live deployment. The SAP Business One administrator generally has to be involved in the update process. Database administration with both products utilizing Microsoft SQL Server is generally the same.

SAP Business One provides user tools to enable the addition of user defined fields and tables, as well as create various levels of functionality that can be attached to the field (through standard SQL functionality and syntax). However, these user defined fields cannot be incorporated into the standard screen layouts by the user. They are all displayed in a separate portion of the user interface screen. A significant amount of basic screen, search and (output) form customization can be accomplished by users within the SAP Business One customization environment.

However, business processes and functions cannot be modified either by the user or through the SDK. User defined fields are differentiated from the publisher defined fields in SAP Business One through the convention of inserting a “U_” in front of the user-named field.

However, in actual practice, SAP has named a number of fields used for localized versions of the SAP Business One application with this same prefix, making identification of true user-defined fields more difficult within the SQL environment.

girish.joshi

Flexibility - Advantage Dynamics NAV

Other than the user functionality noted above, SAP Business One tends to be less flexible once the system is initialized. Very few of the setup parameters in SAP Business One can be changed once transactions are posted in the system. There is also no ability to easily change or re-define your business processes after initial transactions. There is no ability in SAP Business One to rename key data.

Development /Integration Environment - Advantage Dynamics NAV

Other than the user customization noted in the preceding section, any other customization of SAP Business One must be done through the SDK, a separately licensed product. The SDK is not a complete development environment. Because the SAP Business One SDK is not a complete development environment, the developer is limited to the connections with the database and user interface that have been defined by SAP. Because other programming tools must be used to create new code (such as Visual Studio), the development time required – as compared with Microsoft Dynamics NAV – is significantly higher, as there are no tools for form, table, and report design and no ability to re-use existing core code for similar functionality.

Customizations made through the SDK do not affect the source code of SAP Business One; thus, any processes or functionality required to be created through the SDK must still utilize the built in posting and base functionality within the SAP Business One application.

Therefore, dramatic changes to a companies business process are not going to be able to be implemented.