Allowed to upgrade without using my reseller?

Olof

We find ourselves in an awkward situation and looking for some insight.
For >8 years we have had the same reseller, through which we have paid the required annual fees/license. In those 8 years we have kept the same version, thus never actually upgrading our NAV.
Now that we are actually ready to upgrade, we prefer not to use the support from this reseller, but use another NAV expert for helping us on this specific migration project. (there are a variety of reasons, to long to get into here).
My questions:
1. Are we 'allowed' to do that? Allowed = under the NAV licensing agreement?
2. If yes, where do we then obtain the upgrade version of the software? From our reseller as we have paid for it, or do we have to re-buy from the new party?
3. Ideally, we would love to use outside NAV migration expert to help with the migration. And then 'return' to our reseller. Is this possible / allowed?
4. What possible stupidities are we forgetting in wishing all of the above?

Thanks in advance for any tips / suggestion
Regards,
Olof

davmac1

ask your partner to set you up on Customersource

matttrax

Yes, you can use any partner / reseller you want to upgrade your system. They will provide you with the software. You do not have to re-buy the software as being current on your enhancement plan gives you access to it.

You don't have to change your partner or anything like that. Just like you could hire an internal developer to do work for you, or an independent contractor to do work for you, you can hire any NAV partner you want to do work for you. We do upgrades all the time for customers where we are not the official partner of record. It's pretty common.

You will want to let your partner know that you are upgrading and using another company. Hopefully your existing partner is tracking things like your current version, add-ons being used, etc. and they will need to know so that they can continue to help you in the future.

cropredy

Hi! Have you considered to start from "scratch" ? Install and configure Nav 2016 and thereafter import masterdata via spreadsheet? This of course depends how much customizing you have done in the old version.

bbrown

If your annual maintenance fees are current, then you should have access to CustomerSource and be able to download software from there.

The only thing that you can only go to your "Partner of Record" (reseller) is to add something to your license. For other stuff, you are free to work with whoever you so desire.

As a thought, why not talk with your reseller about partnering with this migration expert for the project?

Olof

Thanks to you both for taking the time to respond.
@cropredy: we are in the midst of analysing + documenting our custom work. To help us decide the route forward

@bbrown: we are in Holland and I was not aware of CustomerSource. Tried to access it, but apparently not possible? It seems to be for North America and some larger countries in Europe....

davmac1

ask your partner to set you up on Customersource

matttrax

Yes, you can use any partner / reseller you want to upgrade your system. They will provide you with the software. You do not have to re-buy the software as being current on your enhancement plan gives you access to it.

You don't have to change your partner or anything like that. Just like you could hire an internal developer to do work for you, or an independent contractor to do work for you, you can hire any NAV partner you want to do work for you. We do upgrades all the time for customers where we are not the official partner of record. It's pretty common.

You will want to let your partner know that you are upgrading and using another company. Hopefully your existing partner is tracking things like your current version, add-ons being used, etc. and they will need to know so that they can continue to help you in the future.

Olof

Thanks DavMac1 & Matttrax for your info. I'm having a meeting now with my reseller this afternoon to sort it all out. And I'm going to ask him to set me up at Customersource.
For others who might be interested, I will report back.

Jones

Thank you all for helping with your precious answers. It really gave me some unknown new tips.