Since Microsoft’s move to yearly release cycles, we no longer have to wait as long to check out the cool new features. Dynamics NAV 2017 will be released and available for download on October 28th.
We had an opportunity earlier in the month to take a peek at what’s was around the corner for NAV 2017. Here are some of our favourite features which we think you’ll find useful.
Item Attributes
There is a new extension to the “Item Category” and “Product Group” concept. New “Item Attributes” functionality allows you to define various details about a particular item, or group of items.
What may have classically been stored as Variants, or fixed fields through a modification, can now be defined in a more dynamic way. Items can be assigned user-defined attributes, e.g. Size, Colour, Country of Manufacture, etc. This allows you to easily filter and locate the items without needing a fixed field to store the information.
Inline Notifications & Intelligence Engine
When a customer is over their credit limit, or you get a warning about item availability, it can really disrupt your workflow.
Classically, these messages have always shown as dialogs that require an action (OK, Cancel) before you can continue what you’re doing. In NAV 2017, we now have the ability to show notifications at the top of the page, so that less critical errors can be moved out of the way while still conveying a warning to the user.
These notifications also work with the new intelligence engine “Cortana”, that will give you advice or recommendations based on previous actions, historical and forecasted data.
Upgrades
Upgrading Dynamics NAV regularly is important. It allows you to stay current, and up-to-date with the latest features.
We generally recommend upgrading on a 2-3 year cycle. This allows you to stay current and leverage both your maintenance and new features.
Leaving it longer can mean a greater jump, as the upgrade process generally requires a “pass through” any interim versions. This can multiply upgrade effort, so staying current is generally more cost effective.
Fenwick Gold will soon be available for NAV 2017, so all your granules will be ready to go once you upgrade.
…and even more!
I’ve only covered a handful of features in NAV 2017. We’ll cover more in upcoming posts.
