Blog

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.

As I announced, I am starting a new category on this blog: "From the blogs". I will run a monthly post in this category giving you the insight into latest development, news and remarkable content on another relevant blogs (on NAV, ERP, Dynamics, Project Management, or generally the topics I am covering here). I admit – I was totally uncreative when it came to designing the category title, so I simply went for "From the blogs" – the title used by a feature on MSDynamicsWorld.com, a great site to which I contribute regularly. Adam, thanks for not suing me! 😉

In this month’s “From the blogs” category I’ve decided to introduce several less-known blogs that discuss Microsoft Dynamics NAV either regularly or from time to time. The only requirements I used for this list are the following:

• The blog must be regular: it means regular postings, not a hello-world post and three other posts.
• The blog must be alive: this means having a post in the past six months, and having at least a monthly post (on average).
• The blog must discuss NAV on regular basis: the blog doesn’t have to feature NAV as it’s only or even primary topic, but they must blog on it regularly. There are many very-much-alive blogs which mention NAV in one or two posts out of fifty. These don’t qualify.
• It must not be a well-known blog: now this one is tough. I used simple criteria—low Google page rank (0 to 2), fairly low Alexa rating (over 3 million), or few links from other NAV blogs (less than 3 blogroll links).

So, here we go:

• Stefano Demiliani: The king of not-very-well-known NAV blogs. The blog is run by Stefano Demiliani, a highly certified professional in a variety of Microsoft technologies, and covers a broad selection of technology topics, including Microsoft Dynamics NAV. His posts on NAV are highly technical, and he gives both insights, tips, tricks, and his own thoughts on how things could be improved. He posts fairly regularly (I didn’t do the math, but he has posted more than 1,000 posts in five years), and even though NAV makes for about one fifth of all posts in the past two years, his blog is worth your visit.
• The Navision Gnome: An interesting blog. It doesn’t let you learn too much about its author, but from what I figured out it is written by a user (power user or administrator) in a company which implemented NAV not that long ago. It started enthusiastically in May 2008 and its author was able to crank just short of 80 posts in about 5 months of activity. It gives functional overview, tips, tricks and lessons learned about NAV and LS-Retail, a vertical add-on for NAV for retail industry. This blog reminds me of Navision-Girl. Too bad it entered a dormant phase, there are no recent posts there, but it’s definitely worth a visit as a some sort of a knowledge base.
• Pleasant Valley Business Solutions: A company blog from a consultancy with the same name, covers mostly news, updates and opinions relevant for their niche: government contractor companies. NAV is not their only concern, and they blog regularly (more or less on a bi-weekly basis) about CRM, project management, government contracting, project accounting and Microsoft technologies in general. However, NAV is their second most represented topic, so this might be worth your time.
• evo-soft erp blog: Another company blog, delivering mostly news, insight and opinions on primarily Microsoft Dynamics NAV topics. It isn’t updated too frequently (once a month on average), but if you are a potential NAV customer, especially from UK, you might want to visit this blog.
• Confessions of a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Consultant: A very interesting blog written by Alex Chow, a NAV consultant from US. It delivers a regular dose of real-life stories from NAV implementations and some thoughts and tips about NAV functionality. Although I don’t necessarily agree with 100% of what Alex writes, this is the beauty of blogging: standing up and sharing your opinion not fearing the opposition (and opposition is ubiquitous). Definitely a recommended blog.
• TechBlog: Written by Ingrid Byllemos, a software developer from Denmark, who happens to have been recently in touch with NAV a lot. From content perspective, it is another Navision-Girl type of blog as it delivers mostly technical and functional lessons learned along the way.
• Noisy Van: This one is yet to be seen. It barely qualifies against my categories above as it only sports 7 posts and hasn’t posted anything in past three months, but it brought some technical tips and tricks. I hope they continue posting from time to time.
• ara3n: Another yet to be seen blog. Written by Mr. Ahmed Rashed Amini, a distinguished member of Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and an NAV MVP. It hasn’t been around for too long, and isn’t updated too regularly, but gives some technical tips and tricks and real-life lessons learned which you might find useful.
• nextequalzero.com: This blog is almost dead, but there was time it was an active one. It is written by Ian Crocker, an NAV developer, and delivers technical content and tips, some news and an occasional off-topic post. I hope its author revives it, because it almost didn’t qualify for this list because it has been just short of six months since the last post here.

Update, January 27, 2009:

• Stefan’s Dynamics NAV blog: Thanks to Stefan, the owner of the blog, for bringing this blog to my attention. It only proves how easy it is for a blog to fly low under a search-engine radar. In any case, this is also one of those learning log and tips &am
  p;
  tricks blogs out there, and if you are new to NAV, or are just exploring the product, and you are a developer, this blog will be worth your click.

Depending on your preferences, you might like several of the blogs above, and it’s a pity that their authors and owners don’t do something about promoting them. Some of the blogs above are really worth your time, pay them a visit, leave a comment and motivate them to continue delivering new content and contributing to the pool of knowledge.

Bon voyage!