Employee Portal

Jonathan2708 · 2006-10-11

Hi,

To date we have been deploying Navision remotely through terminal services. I am aware there are the extensions known as 'Employee Portal' which utilises SharePoint to allow access to Navision over the intranet/web. What I need to know is :

1. What are the pros/cons of Employee Portal?
2. I'm assuming it has limited functionality compared to the standard Navision client?
3. What reasons would someone choose Employee Portal over terminal services?

Any help appreciated,

Jonathan

ara3n · 2006-10-12

1. What are the pros/cons of Employee Portal?

1.cheaper per user
2. no client installation.
3. for employee only, they have to be an users in domain.

2. I'm assuming it has limited functionality compared to the standard Navision client?

3. there certain things you cannot do. Such as fully post the invoice. You can but it's just that you will get bad screen updates.
3. would not recommend to work the whole day. web interface is clunky.

3. What reasons would someone choose Employee Portal over terminal services?

3. cheaper.
4. can be accessed from anywhere.

kuju · 2006-10-12

Maybe some other remarks:

Advantage:
Sharepoint Services is a "semi"-free solution where microsoft in general is going into invest a lot into the future.

If i did understand the NAV5.0 solution with the role based UX, web parts will be very important. It is also very easy to combine several webparts from several solutions (eg. NAV + Outlook Inbox + Outlook Tasks + OWN parts)

Employee portal in navision is very easy to set up even if you have a lot of customisation.

Employee portal could be a great advantage if you have business partners who just want to consult your data outside of you network
Right now in our NAV solution we have several clients who want to have an acoount simply to track and trace some flows in our system.
With employee portal you have a "safer" solution

Training to the end users is also more easier (only a browser)

Disadvantage:
A possible disadvantage is that its not suitable to key in lots of data into the solution.

K.

Kowa · 2006-10-12

With its present state of development, the employee portal can at best act as a makeshift. It may suffice a for sales representative on the road who just wants to check a price for a certain item, but on the whole it is so cumbersome it will slow the normal user to an unacceptable extent as well as depriving him of considerable functionality.

SteveO · 2006-10-12

I think people are getting the wrong idea about what Employee Portal is actually meant for.

It isn't meant to be a replacement client for Navision, it's just meant to allow people to review data from Navision without needing the client installed. ie as kuju said, if people want to track the status of something. If there's some production manager who wants to track what's on the floor, or a support manager who wants to see a list of unanswered calls, Navision isn't the main tool of their job they only need to every now and again. It would be a complete waste for these types of people to have Navision installed on their PC when they don't really need Navision, only the data it holds. I guess it could be comparable with SQL Reporting Services??

IMHO they should have just left out the ability to edit records and display reports as these are the areas that let the system down. Also they should have implemented client side sorting and filtering to further enhance that side of it (ie strengthen what it seems to be meant for).

Also they should have used something other than MSMQ and NAS because as BlackTiger said there are no materials relating to performance etc. If you have a lot of webparts pulling info from Navision then this can generate quite a lot of traffic. They should have made something that can directly tap into the underlying database.

Just my 0.02c

Jonathan2708 · 2006-10-12

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for all your input on this thread, you've been very helpful.

Jonathan

kriki · 2006-10-16

[Topic moved from Navision forum to Navision e-Commerce forum]

Employee Portal

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