Say Goodbye to C/AL and Windows Client from Dynamics 365 Business Central ‘19 October release

ievasimplanova

Directions ASIA 2019 conference this year is the place where we find out that changes, which were planned for 2020 are coming earlier this year with Dynamics 365 Business Central ’19 October Release.

It was announced during Directions ASIA 2019 that Dynamics 365 Business Central ‘19 April Release is the last version where C/AL and Windows Client will be available and October version will be Cloud-based only.

In our NEW BLOG POST, I will go through Key Takeaways, which were mentioned during Directions ASIA 2019 about Microsoft plans, vision and point out Key information about Dynamics 365 ’19 April and October releases.

From my point of view, huge changes are coming, but on the other hand, it is also opportunities, we just need to see them.

Miklos_Hollender

Ahhhahaha. I thought Marko Perisic left MSDynamics precisely because they realized this strategy of forcing customers on it does not work - many customers did not even adopt 3-Tier, stayed on classic. So it seems they wanted a new management to return to the old ways of not pushing on customers they don't want and not forcing costly upgrades if not very necessary.

Well, it seems they didn't.

I have definitely adopted 3-Tier in all our subsidiaries, might have consider on-premise BC with C/AL and perpetual licencing, but no way I am gonna go to the cloud, give up C/AL and modifying standard code with an Application Designer licence, or suchlike. If they really force my hand, I might have to look into competing ERP software.

One reason I am particularly against the cloud, besides the obvious, is that I do a LOT of exporting and importing files automatically with NAS, it is just integration with other systems, which is possible in the cloud but far harder. And they just recently added .NET as a better replacement for OCX/Automation, now they think taking it away in the Cloud and replacing it with very limited safe alternatives is acceptable? Effectively they think they can predict what all customers need to develop? How can they predict all business needs?

The big question is even if they stop selling NAV2018 to new customers, what about old customers. And an old customer having a new subsidiary in another counts as an old one or not. As long as they accept it for old customers, and keep legal updates on forever for NAV2018 (note: all European countries are moving towards electronic invoicing becoming mandatory! fairly big deal), it is okay.

But even in this case I find it annoying that BC has features NAV does not. Upgrading to an on-premise, C/AL BC looked like a good thing. But if it is not their long-term strategy, all is left to stick to NAV 2018 and maybe add legal changes manually while slowly looking for a competing replacement.

TallyHo

On premise will follow cloud rules. C/AL will disappear.
This is as expected.

TallyHo

A glimmer of hope:

https://twitter.com/tobiasfenster/status/1112546278615867392

Slawek_Guzek

Miklos_Hollender wrote: »

Effectively they think they can predict what all customers need to develop? How can they predict all business needs?

They don't. And they can't. And they don't really care.

They simply don't want companies like yours (or mine), which require a lot of deep customisation, not even functional, but even changes improving system performance, or quick bug fixing. All they are after is a money, and the best strategy for that is to have thousands of small customers with no negotiating power, Their approach is simple - take it or leave (it is hard not to use the f.. word here).

Well, most of partners clap their hands how good the new things are. For someone who does not want to build a strong relationship with their customers and fine tune the system, just live off the royalties - yes, the changes may look good. But it is, imho, a short term strategy. At some point in the future Microsoft will cut margins for partners - as MS needs to show it is growing, and when the cloud adoption rate will start to fall they will look for money elsewhere - and a penny saved is a penny earned.

Yet the MS partners continue to clap clap clap MS - a turkey and a Thankgiving day comes to a mind.

Slawek_Guzek

@ievasimplanova Could you please clarify whether OnPrem version will be retired in October release or if it is going to be still available?

Your post is a bit confiusing. Does the "October version will be Cloud-based only." means that only this particular release will be cloud-only, or that from this point onwards we will only see cloud-only versions of BC?

Juhl

OnPrem is not retired, just moved to AL

jordi79

My organisation's take on extensions is simple. Until MS has yet to use extensions themselves, we will not be doing so. When I say until MS "uses it themselves", I meant until I see standard Modules implemented as extensions, and until I see localisations implemented as extensions, my organisation would not even consider moving to cloud.

What MS has done now, is just implementing the whole base app as 1 big extension. Implementing std NAV modules and localisation as extension is not going to be an easy task. Because the whole nature of NAV ERP is a single consolidated system. But the idea of extensions is going against the whole nature of how NAV was build initially. It would be easier for MS to just rewrite the whole app again. (Or branch out the whole version)

Having said that, I also understand the reasons why MS wanted to move to cloud. But MS already has AX on cloud. Why can't MS have an on-prem version of Dynamics? (being Dynamics NAV) Maybe having big corporate customers on AX move to cloud is not working so well for MS, and now instead they want to move Small medium customers on NAV to cloud.

muca

"The move by Microsoft from C/Side to Visual Studio Code is a bit like Brexit. At first everybody thinks it is a great idea, until they realise the consequences. And then there is no way back."

source: https://markbrummel.blog/2019/04/03/why-c-side-will-last-another-decade-at-least/