NAV 2017 Official Release Date and News from Directions

I’ve finished with a first two days on Directions NA. Both of these days I had sessions and I couldn’t prepare this article earlier. I wanted to say a lot, but I couldn’t.

First, NAV 2017 still didn’t official released, but finally we know when to expect. Not on Directions NA and not on Directions EMEA, but few days after that. Official release of Dynamics NAV 2017 will be at October 24th. And, Microsoft also promised that we will get official release of Dynamics 365 for Financials (ex. Project “Madeira”) shortly after. OK, we will wait these dates, but generally we already know what we will get with these releases.

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Some of these functionalities were presented by Marko Perisic and his team on Keynote, and some of them on other sessions. I’ll noticed some of the in this article, but I’ll write more about them in the future. Now, I want to speak more about future of Dynamics because I think this is something the most important in this moment. As you can see on the following picture, we have something very interested and Paul White said “This is an AND strategy”.

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Based on this strategy Dynamics AX and CRM will continue to live only as part of Dynamics 365 solution. Something is not clear enough because we expect CRM as part of both Enterprise and Business edition of Dynamics 365, but AX will be part only of Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition and on other side, Project “Madeira” will be on the same position in Dynamics 365 Business edition. But NAV (GP and SL as well) will continue to exist as independent solution, in this moment available on-premises and as subscription. On the first sight this is the perfect for all NAV fans, but I need more time to be sure.

In any case, we will get new opportunities and we have to learn how to make the most of them.

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And what about Project “Madeira” and licensing. We have some pictures earlier where we found recommended priced about 40 USD for each App. That is a true, for example if you want only Project “Madeira”, you need to pay 40 USD, but if you want some other app, for example PowerApps, you need to pay the same amount for this app per user per month. But if you want to have access to all apps (currently 4 of them), you need to pay only 50 USD for all of them as Plan model (and yes, this price will decrease with the number of concurrent users). And you can use Team Members for only 5 USD as some kind of limited users. And what is good more? If some of exiting NAV clients with Perpetual licensing model want to transit to new subscription model, he will get pretty big discount for every month.

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And I said that I don’t want to write about all features, but I need to notice few of them. I already wrote about Cortana Intelligence in Inventory Forecast, but now we saw Cortana Intelligence in Cash Flow Forecast; it is a perfect and you can use this in NAV 2017 and Project “Madeira” and the best is that it is very easy for using and configuring.

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End something more – new development environments. First you can use Visual Studio Code in the future as new code oriented environment (soon more about it). Marko presented live work with new tool.

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And on the end, new development tool for incredibly easy work. You just need to click on Edit button in your Web Client and you will get perfect logical environment where you can change pages, add fields to table and page… And on the end just click Stop and choose how you want to use this development… You can see all changes as preview in Web Client, Tablet Client and Phone Client. And all changes will be finished in Web Client and Windows Client, as well (of course, this is just short description – soon more about it).

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End again about dates, the new development environment preview will be available for Christmas.

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New Dynamics Exams – finally

Finally we’ve started with Dynamics Exams. Currently, there are following exams available:

  • NAV Core Application Setup Certification
  • GP Core Financial Setup & Functionality Certification
  • GP Core Installation & Configuration Certification

As you seen, currently there are only three exams, but we will get new NAV exams in Q2 2016:

  • NAV Core Installation & Configuration Certification
  • NAV Core Development Certification

All these exams are prepared by Association of Dynamics Professionals. The vision of the Association of Dynamics Professionals (DynamicsPro) is that every Dynamics professional recognizes and adheres to high quality and certification standards for all Microsoft Dynamics products. I am part of this project and I think these exams are really good way to approve your knowledge and recognition. I know other people who are involved in these exams preparation and I strongly believe in this. Exams were written by people who know what it takes to have a successful project. They will help consultants deliver excellent service and ensure they meet professional quality standards.

Beginning this month – February, exams will be available on many different location in US and finally in Europe. You can register for exams here. Please take a look and register for the next exam in your area. If you don’t see something in your area, check back often, as DynamicsPro will be adding new exam dates and locations regularly.

Thea are currently available on the following locations, based on the next schedule:

  • Tuesday, February 23, 2016: Houston, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix
  • Wednesday, March 2, 2016: Atlanta
  • Thursday, March 10, 2016: Las Vegas
  • Tuesday, March 15, 2016: Washington, DC
  • Tuesday, March 22, 2016: Minneapolis, Phoenix
  • Tuesday, March 29, 2016: Netherlands
  • Tuesday, April 5, 2016: Midlands, England
  • Thursday, April 7, 2016: Tampa
  • Tuesday, June 7, 2016: Chicago

You can expect on more location soon. Online exam delivery has been delayed, but it will be available in the future. Be among the first in the industry to prove your knowledge and skills on the latest versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and GP through this new certification program.

New Dynamics Logos

Microsoft has decided to change Dynamics logos in the spirit of “One Microsoft” idea. This change has made on July 30. All partners have to use these new logos when represent Microsoft Dynamics logo and solutions. All directions are in the Product Tile Usage Guidelines.

OneMicrosoft

On some places on internet, you can find a small mistake. You can find “CS” instead of “C5”. This error is most likely caused on MicrosoftDynamicsPartnerGuidelines.pptx (slide 21) from Partner Source. But, you can find actual logos on this page on Partner Source: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/sales-marketing/branding-guidelines-logos/MSDY_BoxShots. You can download all of them as PNG or EPS. I hope, Microsoft will correct this small mistake in document, because this pptx is very useful. You can find a lot of additional helpful information here.

DynamicsBrands

New Dynamics ‘Give Me 5’ Promotion

Few days ago, Microsoft has published new “Give Me 5” FY16Q1 customer promotion. New customers that buy license between now and end of September can get Starter Pack + 2 Full Users for 6000USD. But I have to underline that this is available for US market only.

Unfortunately, we have not explanation why this promotion is only for US market. Only we know, this promotion is valid for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and GP and for new customers on US market.

I hope, we will get the same promotion in the rest of the world soon. The same promotions help us every time in competition with the local solutions and in undecided potential customers. I hope it will be good for Microsoft and for partners altogether.

New Certification Exams for NAV

As you already know, Microsoft has canceled official exams for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently, three exams for NAV still exists, but only for NAV 2013. Microsoft does not want to prepare new exams in future for NAV and GP. But it does not mean that we will have not exams in the future.

Microsoft want to support the launch of the Association of Dynamics Professionals and exams preparation by Community, because certification is an important way for individuals to develop their skills and enhance the value they are able to add to their clients or employers.

In the close future, the Association of Dynamics Professionals will continue with certification exams for NAV and GP. First, we can expect two new exams for NAV 2015 at the fall this year. After that, it will be continued. You can find more about it on http://www.dynamicspro.org/.

About the Association of Dynamics Professionals:

Founded in 2015, the Association of Dynamics Professionals is an independent, not-for-profit membership organization devoted to the Microsoft Dynamics Community. The Association exists to serve its members and to improve the community as a whole through knowledge sharing, education and the establishment of competency standards and assessments.

See you soon with new NAV certification exams…

You can find more about exam here.