Frequently Asked Questions on Dynamics NAV & 365 Business Central

Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution that's easy to use and adapt - its purpose is to help you get an end-to-end view of your business. It is what is commonly referred to as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution and is designed to cover all your business processes from finance to purchasing, warehouse management to general reporting.

Dynamics 365 Business Central is just the new name for Dynamics NAV. The update of the Dynamics NAV brand has changed and so has the technology beneath it, with C/AL code being fully replaced by AL as of Business Central version 15. We've also said goodbye to the Windows client altogether, as the modern clients (Web, Tablet, Mobile and Outlook) take precedence. The look and feel of the product are different: modern and clean with key information highlighted for each user at the top of the role centre. As has always been the case with this product, the core functionality remains the same and is only being improved as time goes on.

We hear this one a lot! So much so that we have put a huge amount of effort into the options and tools for getting you to where to want to be. Our website is full of resources for you to dive into and we hope it will answer all of your questions and queries.

Visit our upgrading webpage for more on:

• The various upgrading routes
• Reasons to/or not to upgrade
• When to upgrade
• Upgrading terminology
• The NAV | 365 People's Bridging technology
• Our free upgrading consultation

Business Central is super flexible and, as such, can be adapted to work for any industry - from retailers to restaurateurs, food producers to financial services - it can work for them all. Industry-specific add-ons, available from Microsoft's AppSource or directly from Partners like us, mean that no matter what your industry requirement, there's bound to be a solution ready and waiting for you.

Yes - Business Central can be modified by 'extensions'. Extensions are little bits of code that hook into the core solution code in order to change the way that it works. They are incredibly clever because they allow developers to make changes to your solution, even if it is hosted in a public environment, without affecting all the other systems which are hosted in that same environment. We think that extensions are a big deal - if you take a look at the competitor ERP market, like SAP or Sage, there is nothing else remotely like this. With extensions, Microsoft have provided the ultimate 'Software as a Service Platform' (SAAS) which you can tailor and modify to suit your business.

You can indeed! Microsoft have developed an online marketplace called 'AppSource' where you can buy tried and tested add-on extensions to work seamlessly with your Business Central solution. In addition to AppSource you will also find a suite of Business Central extensions which have been developed by The NAV | 365 People to take the hassle out of your everyday tasks; from reporting to productivity and customisation, these add-ons will give you extended versatility of your Business Central system and make life so much easier!

You can purchase Business Central on two levels Essentials and Premium - Premium simply gives an additional layer of functionality for manufacturing and service order management.

• Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials is charged from £52.80 per user per month
• Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium is charged from £75.40 per user per month

Business Central is charged on a subscription per user per month basis. Dynamics 365 Business Central user subscriptions classify users into two types, 'full users' and 'additional users'.

Full users
These users are those whose work requires use of the feature rich business applications functionality. Examples of full users are sales people, customer service representatives, finance employees, controllers and supply chain managers. These users have also been referred to in the past as 'Pro' users or 'Power' users.

Additional users
These users often represent a significant percentage of users in an organisation and may consume data or reports from line of business systems, complete light tasks like time or expense entry and HR record updates or be heavier users of the system, but not require full user capabilities.

Microsoft don't offer consultancy - instead they use a diverse range of partners, like The NAV | 365 People, who can help you set up your Business Central system. These partners can give you as much or as little support with the setup of your solution depending on the complexity of your requirements and the degree of system modification you need.

As with initial setup, your support for Business Central will be through Microsoft's partner network, of which The NAV | 365 People are a Gold Partner (sorry - we had to just drop that in there!)

The Microsoft Cloud (aka Microsoft Azure) is a set of cloud services which allow you to build, manage and deploy applications (like Business Central) on a global network using familiar tools. Microsoft's Cloud gives you the peace of mind that your applications are being hosted in an environment which is under comprehensive compliance standards (including GDPR) and protected by Microsoft's unparalleled security and privacy standards.

Yes, absolutely. You can host Business Central on your own servers, in your own private Cloud (e.g. Azure), in a private cloud which is provided by a Microsoft Partner such as The NAV | 365 People (also in Azure), or in Microsoft's Public Cloud version of Business Central.

Business Central is designed to work hand-in-hand with the applications in the rest of the Microsoft Cloud. It is part of the next generation of business applications which are built to connect people, products and data through seamless integration, breaking down silos between departments and giving a 360-degree view of your customers and operations.

Power BI is an out-of-the-box data visualisation tool - which means loads of great looking graphics and dashboards representing your data. With Power BI you will get access to a range of standard reporting templates and the ability to connect directly Dynamics 365 Business Central to create your own reports and dashboards.

Now familiar to most businesses, Office 365 helps organisations with the smooth running of their day-to-day tasks with tools to help with collaboration, security, analytics and mobile access, no matter where you are or what device you are using. Dynamics 365 Business Central integrates with Office 365 seamlessly, unifying your business like never before!

The Intelligent Edge is a continually expanding set of connected systems and devices that gather and analyse data. Users get real-time insights and experiences, delivered by highly responsive and contextually aware apps. Together with Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud it gives you the ability to create a new class of connected applications and, ultimately, to revolutionise your business outcomes.

Microsoft have taken Dynamics CRM and pulled it apart to create the Dynamics 365 Sales app and the Dynamics 365 Marketing app. This means that if you just wanted a sales app, you'd just buy Dynamics 365 Sales. Or just looking for marketing functionality? Then you'd buy the Dynamics 365 Marketing app.

Microsoft have created Dynamics 365 for Talent which is an HR management tool to help businesses with their employee attraction, engagement, development and retention. Like all other Dynamics 365 apps, it can easily be hooked onto Business Central to give you the extra functionality you need without creating data silos.