Why moving from Dynamics NAV to Business Central must be at the top of your shopping list

This may be difficult to comprehend but Microsoft for a while has stopped selling Dynamics NAV to new clients. That’s it, it's finished. 

How did this move by Microsoft come about? 

The writing was on the wall when Microsoft released the latest version of NAV back in April 2018 which was rebranded as Dynamics 365 Business Central. Business Central was portrayed as the next generation software designed to complete all the core functionalities of NAV, whilst at the same time providing greater functionality as well as a brand-new user interface to work with.  

Up until that point, Dynamics NAV’s popularity was accelerating since its launch in 2005 with over 200,000 businesses and 3 million users making use of NAV worldwide. Microsoft who are very much a forward-thinking technology company are not ones to leave their existing NAV customers in limbo so they’ve decided to allow users access to mainstream support and updates for a few more years. It is important to note that even support has a certain shelf life so we would suggest that you get the wheels in motion to upgrade your software.  

In our latest blog article we discuss why moving from NAV to Business Central must be at the top of your list: 

1) The support will be stopped 

Not to put such a dampener on things, but even the best-looking Dynamics NAV version will reach the end of the road sooner rather than later given that Microsoft is no longer selling it to new customers.  As a general rule, you will find that your NAV solution is guaranteed five years of mainstream support at which point this then switches to just extended support (security updates only) before the solution falls out of any support whatsoever. This may help to convince you that you don’t need to start panicking just yet. You are thinking that you will still be getting your NAV support from a partner such as ourselves and will look to face an upgrade when it happens. In our professional opinion, we recommend that you face facts sooner rather than later. Dynamics NAV support won’t be around indefinitely, so the quicker you start preparing to move the easier the transition to the new system will be for your business. 

2) The modern versions are better than yours 

What is the point in settling for just what your version of NAV has in terms of capabilities, when you can make the transition to the cloud and access a whole host of new and improved features? Portrayed as the ‘all-in-one business management solution’, Dynamics 365 Business Central offers businesses even more than before, enabling them to customise the software to suit their specific business needs. Put it this way, it’s like having finance, operations, project management and sales in one place. What SME would not want to have that? 

3) Upgrading pays dividends in the long run 

If the new & improved features of Business Central don’t tempt you, how about the fact that you can as Dynamics NAV users receive a 40% discount on Dynamics 365 Business Central licenses if you make the move before the end of June 2021. Don’t just take our word for it, now is the right time to improve your business management toolkit with a comprehensive all-in-one solution. 

4) Don’t let extensions hold you back 

It goes without saying but you will need to upgrade your software eventually, so what is the point in delaying the process of doing so? Perhaps you should be seeing the move to Dynamics 365 as an opportunity to analyse all the functionalities within your current NAV software and identify which ones you want to keep going forwards. If you don’t have time to do this, we can offer you a free Dynamics health check for your business. 

Next Steps? 

If you are a business that is currently using Dynamics NAV and are considering upgrading to Business Central to take advantage of the 40% discount off licensing then please get in touch with our team of Dynamics 365 Business Central experts today to discuss your project. 

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