Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrade projects represent an important and growing revenue stream for your business. But, they can be time-consuming and require special skills.
Partnering with an upgrade specialist gives you the opportunity to take on upgrade projects without diverting your team from strategic development tasks. And, partnering can save you time and money, with time savings of up to 54 percent. That makes Dynamics NAV upgrade projects fast, efficient and profitable.

Market demands are growing

It‘s important that your clients upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. New features and improvements to the new NAV version can help them accelerate growth, improve productivity and efficiency, and take greater advantage of the cloud.

Keeping their ERP solutions up to date and taking advantage of the latest technology and features can help clients save money and time. Upgrading also provides an opportunity to increase revenue while meeting rapidly growing market demands and strengthening customer relationships.

The challenge of upgrading

However, upgrading is time-consuming and requires people with special skills and a detailed knowledge of different Dynamics NAV versions. You or your team may not have the specific skills that are required for upgrade projects.

And, even if you do, your team may be busy on other development projects. Upgrades require considerable analysis and many repetitive tasks. You have to identify customization that are no longer needed and analyze the usage of forms and reports.

Then you have to find time to analyze the technical upgrade process of merging customizations, data migration and transformation, and evaluate the effort required. That all has to happen quickly as clients demand faster upgrades and look for developers that can meet strict deadlines.

To handle upgrades internally and maintain deadlines, you might have to invest money in recruitment or training, or risk delays on other projects.

That‘s why professional upgrade partners are so important. They focus on one thing – NAV upgrades. That means they have specialists with specific skills, knowledge, tools and best practices to handle upgrades quickly and efficiently at a lower cost than your internal team.

Trust an experienced upgrade partner

Simplanova is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrade and development specialist. We understand the challenges that NAV developers are facing. Our team has specific Dynamics NAV upgrade and development skills, which has enabled our partners throughout the world to deliver successful upgrade projects to their clients.

We believe that a number of factors are important in choosing an upgrade partner – quality standards, high levels of automation, clear communication, best practice, commitment to innovation, and professional support before, during and after the project.

Use automated tools to reduce project time

Automation tools are among the most important factors to consider. They help the upgrade process go smoothly, reduce or eliminate the risk of human error and speed up the most complex and slowest parts of an upgrade, such as reports.

Simplanova has found that automation tools provide a number of benefits that reduce project timescales:

• • Transform matrix and menu forms, and dataports to Xmlports
  • Transform classic reports to RDLC reports
  • Identify changes more precisely
  • Identify pain points in customized solutions
  • Plan upgrades more accurately
  • Identify customizations that are no longer needed
  • Identify missing captions
  • Generate a translation sheet.

We have found that using automation tools rather than conventional processes can lead to time savings of up to 54 percent on upgrades and up to 89 percent on upgrades to RDLC reports.

Prepare for the upgrade

Another way to reduce the time and cost of NAV upgrades is to identify the functionalities that are essential. Experience indicates that many clients are unclear how many NAV functions are in use or essential to their business.
Simply upgrading all functionalities, regardless of their importance, increases project cost and time. By asking clients to audit their NAV installations and submit a list of essential functionalities, you can simplify the upgrade project and avoid wasting time on non-essential functions. This saves teams time and helps give the client an accurate forecast of cost.

You can also avoid complexity and delay by evaluating any add-on functionality before starting the upgrade. This is important if the NAV version has been modified with customizations or add-ons.
Many certified add-ons can be upgraded to work with newer versions of NAV, but it‘s worth checking before the upgrade. The add-on provider can supply an appropriate upgrade or you can ask the upgrade partner to carry out the work.

By carrying out this preliminary work, you can prepare the ground for a successful upgrade project in partnership with Simplanova as your upgrade specialist.

Concentrate on strategic tasks

By following these essential steps and choosing an upgrade partner like Simplanova, you can free your team to focus on strategic development tasks.

It‘s important to recognize that upgrades are different to other NAV development tasks and developers may not have the skills to complete them. Upgrade specialists have developed standardized techniques that enable their teams to handle projects efficiently using common methods and repetitive techniques.

At Simplanova, we have carried out more than 70 upgrades for value-added resellers and independent software vendors. Our teams are experienced in upgrades from the earliest versions of NAV right up to NAV 2016 and they also understand the specific requirements in many different business sectors.

Increase competitive advantage

Simplanova can help your business grow and meet market demands by adding skills, resources and value to your own capabilities.

We can help you improve productivity by delivering upgrade releases faster, in line with your clients‘ needs or schedules. And, we can help you improve efficiency and reduce costs compared with upgrading products in-house.

Working with Simplanova can help you increase your share of the growing market for Microsoft Dynamics NAV services. With more than 110,000 companies using NAV, according to figures from Microsoft, there are great revenue and profit opportunities for your business.

Want to discuss your case? Contact us now!