Evaluating NAV2016. We are on 3.70 & really could use some screen tips.

Olof

Some of my key users have started to evaluate the Demo version of NAV 2016. But oh boy, the UI/screen layouts are very different from our current 3.70 version.
As such, my testers are becoming frustrated (even irritated..) because it's taking them 2-4x as long to perform any work-process, because they can't find their way around the screen.
What can I do to alleviate their pain? For example:
1. Are there any screen-setting-parameters in NAV2016 which allow me to create 'Classic' screen views or alter the UI such that it resembles more 3.70 ?
2. Any documents which help to explain the changes between 3.7 and NAV 2016?
3. ....any other tips more than welcome!!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Olof

jglathe

Hi Olof,

1. No, not really. The only thing that helps (a little) is to have a well designed role center.
2. There should be plenty on the web. Basically, more or less the same business logic, sort of "inverted" usage. Most things start from a list now, the card -> {lookup to list -> card} use pattern has been deliberately broken. And some others. Buttons are only in the ribbon now (no, you can't be sure they are always in the same place), and menus are sort of forgotten. Everything "works" now with icons that are "easier" to recognize, and different sizes for the icons. There are some performance improvements in the backend which are more than eaten up by the terrible UI NAV has now. Filters are horrific now. Marks are still there, but forgotten in the UI.
3. Don't take the irritations lightly. NAV RTC is slower, and is not intended for heavy data-entry use. That in itself is a big certificate of failure. You won't get as fast with the RTC UI than you were with the classic client. You can use a mouse only so fast, you can be faster with a keyboard - but not in this UI.

with best regards

Jens

jglathe

Hi there,

regarding object translation: The picture has changed somewhat. With ForNAV you can simply continue using your CC reports (bringing a 3.70 report to 2009 is sort of a no-brainer). But you need to consider effort for your customized forms - they need to be redone in pages. And lots of code on these needs to land in codeunits.

with best regards

Jens

jglathe

Hi Olof,

1. No, not really. The only thing that helps (a little) is to have a well designed role center.
2. There should be plenty on the web. Basically, more or less the same business logic, sort of "inverted" usage. Most things start from a list now, the card -> {lookup to list -> card} use pattern has been deliberately broken. And some others. Buttons are only in the ribbon now (no, you can't be sure they are always in the same place), and menus are sort of forgotten. Everything "works" now with icons that are "easier" to recognize, and different sizes for the icons. There are some performance improvements in the backend which are more than eaten up by the terrible UI NAV has now. Filters are horrific now. Marks are still there, but forgotten in the UI.
3. Don't take the irritations lightly. NAV RTC is slower, and is not intended for heavy data-entry use. That in itself is a big certificate of failure. You won't get as fast with the RTC UI than you were with the classic client. You can use a mouse only so fast, you can be faster with a keyboard - but not in this UI.

with best regards

Jens

Olof

Hi Jens,
Thanks for your quick en extensive reply!

You are confirming a fear w.r.t. the UI efficiency of data-entry. Sigh, sounds similar to when we made the change from DOS-based ERP to Windows-based version, that was also a terrible hit in data-entry efficiency...

I have not yet found 3.70 - NAV 2016 comparison (I have found 4.0 - NAV 2016 comparison however)

to be continued...

swpolo

Moreover, upgrade to 2016 needs object transformations. And the most time consuming is the report transformation process.
This concept should be accounted while planning transition to NAV2016.

Also the most significant change is in infrustructure. Now it is 3 tier. Most of processes run on server side contrary to 3.7.

jglathe

Hi there,

regarding object translation: The picture has changed somewhat. With ForNAV you can simply continue using your CC reports (bringing a 3.70 report to 2009 is sort of a no-brainer). But you need to consider effort for your customized forms - they need to be redone in pages. And lots of code on these needs to land in codeunits.

with best regards

Jens

Olof

Thanks all for replying. Perhaps it's a good idea to tell you how we are planning the migration:
Background info:
- NAV 3.70 with custom work.
- But NO reports, thankfully. We stopped using them years ago and are using an Excel add-in ('Exsion') to pull data into Excel and building our reports there.

Approach:
- Thorough evaluation by key users of full demo version NAV2016. To see which custom work from NAV 3.70 is no longer needed and which ones we still would like to have in NAV 2016
- Critical appraisal of 'wishlist for keeping custom work 3.70' which key users would like to keep. Just to be 100% sure it can't be solved by NAV2016 in another way
- then migrate

For now, we are still trying to get to grips with RTC screens. Found lots of info on RTC vs Classic when NAV 2009 was launched. That info is helping...somewhat....