Yearly Archives: 2009

What did NAV bloggers blog in January?

  • Reading time:4 mins read

When I started blogging just short of two years ago, there weren’t too many NAV blogs. I don’t bother to go do the count, but I figure there was no more than ten of them. Then it exploded: today, there are about forty.

Keeping track of forty RSS feeds has become a complete nightmare for me, so I decided I’d keep a monthly digest of the most valuable blog posts in the NAV blogosphere, as a reference I can refer back to, later on. If you find it useful as well, even better.

Continue ReadingWhat did NAV bloggers blog in January?

A look back: January 2009

  • Reading time:6 mins read

imageIs there a better way to start a week than coming to NavigateIntoSuccess.com to find a fresh new post about Microsoft Dynamics NAV or something of the sort?

Of course there is, come on.

And yet, to my surprise, Mondays seem to be the busiest days over here at NavigateIntoSuccess.com. I’ll take it you liked my new policy: a new post every Monday and every Thursday. Since it worked for both you and me, I’m going to keep it in place.

In January, I’ve introduced a lot of changes to this blog, and although I didn’t expect them to really work, you proved me wrong. So, let’s take a look back at this fantastic month.

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Sure Step in action: Architecture Assessment

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Implementing a new Microsoft Dynamics solution doesn’t merely introduce a new piece of software into your environment. Yes, the software is an important part, you need to deploy it successfully, configure it as necessary, probably even customize it and change the business logic under the hood.

One component, however, is easily overlooked, and you wouldn’t believe how often it’s not addressed until late. Or too late. It’s the infrastructure.

Infrastructure is tough. It’s not just servers and desktops with some wires, switches and access points in between. Its a lot more. What kind of hardware do you need for your servers or desktops? What kind of performance do you really need? What kind of network layout is optimal for your transaction volume? Should you run the client on desktop machines, or would a remote desktop access be a preferred method? Do you virtualize your servers? What kind of failover capacities do you need? Can you retain any of your old hardware? How many users will use the system? Tomorrow? In five years? What about interfaces and integration to other systems or applications?

A couple of wrong answers, and down you go.

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Cookbook user experience, anyone?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

image I’ll never forget my first NAV project. I was helping a customer migrate data from their old COBOL-based application, and was spending most of my time with a mid-aged lady who at first fascinated me with her mastery of their old application.

That was until I found out she actually had no clue whatsoever about what she was really doing.

What I perceived as her masterful dexterity with a character-based user interface of a DOS application, in fact was total cluelessness about both her business and her software.

Continue ReadingCookbook user experience, anyone?

Not very-well-known NAV blogs

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When I started blogging about Microsoft Dynamics NAV back in 2007 it was because there were not too many blogs on the topic at the time. There were a few notable ones, and that was it. If you wanted to track them all, it was a piece of a cake.

Today, there are hundreds of blogs, more or less frequently updated, sharing a lot of insight, opinions, tips, tricks and stuff. There is no way to keep an eye on a lot of them, and many of them are probably slipping under your radar.

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog

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image One of the major tasks I decided to undertake here on this blog in 2009 was to create a comprehensive Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog.

When you are making a decision to implement any large scale business management or ERP system, it can take dozens of presentations to learn about the functionality, and you might still have a number of questions lingering in the air unanswered. With this functionality catalog I hope to help you deciding on implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV by explaining in detail most important application features, so you can easily get the picture of system out-of-the-box capabilities.

The first round of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Functionality Catalog has been written, giving you basic overview of application areas of Microsoft Dynamics NAV from business processes functionality perspective. It’s going to grow, so do drop by. You can visit the catalog by following this link.

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We don’t wear shoes, we use footwear!

  • Reading time:6 mins read

(A short, almost pointless rant about PMBOK vs. Sure Step nonsense)

Once, while preparing an important RFP response, a partner told me they don’t use Sure Step because they use PMI methodology. This made my toenails curl up—when people tell me they are using PMI methodology, they in fact tell me they are using no methodology at all. It’s simple:

  1. There is no such thing as PMI methodology
  2. Anybody familiar with PMI should know that

Another time a partner told me they preferred PMBOK to Sure Step. Now, while this was a better argument, it was still very much wrong. As if they told me they don’t wear shoes, because they wear footwear.

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Starting it from scratch – do you dare?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

(Three compelling reasons to reshape your business processes, not your software)

Has your computer ever crashed while you were doing something important, causing you to lose all your work? A natural first reaction to this situation is frustration: your work is gone, your effort went in vain, you’ll never do it as well as you did it the first time…

And yet, when initial frustration is gone, and you start doing it over again, from scratch, you are more likely to produce results of higher quality than the first time. Why? The reason for this is simply called—experience.

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV regulatory compliance

  • Reading time:2 mins read

Every so often I get an inquiry about regulatory compliance of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. How well does it support IAS requirements? Does it conform to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulations? Is it aware of Basel II recommendations?

Instead of explaining it, I’ve prepared this list of resources that you can use to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics NAV’s compliance to regulatory and international standards.

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