From the birth in 1987 and along the path of its evolution, NAV has changed its name several times. From Navigator to Navision; from Financials to Attain. When Microsoft acquired Navision A/S in 2002, the product was first known as Microsoft Business Solutions – Navision. Today we all know it as one of the ERP solutions in the range of Microsoft Dynamics products known as NAV.
The acquisition of Navision by Microsoft was a very dynamic period of my working career. I was Product Manager for SEA one day and the next day, I was part of the Microsoft team and wondering what would happen to our team and the product.
There was some fear in the market that Microsoft would consolidate all of its ERP products (Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX & Dynamics GP) into one product. For Microsoft, it was a very brave move into a market that was unknown and unpredictable. Penetration into this market presented significant challenges for Microsoft as it had to shift its outlook from a product-based volume strategy to a solution-based business strategy.
Thankfully, Microsoft chose to keep all of its three ERP product lines and not only enhance the functionality but also make significant investment into making sure that these products grow and serve the businesses in an ever-changing environment.
The result is a completely revolutionised product and an intuitive interface with seamless integration to many of the other Microsoft products e.g. Office, Visual Studio, SQL Server etc.
None of the original Navision founders are working in Microsoft any more.
