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HOW TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV | 1

How to Future-Proof Dynamics NAVTHE COMPLETE GUIDE TO KEEPING NAV UPGRADED AND UP-TO-DATE.

Unprecedented ERP and CRM SupportcatapultERP.com

http://www.catapultERP.com


The world of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is changing rapidly these days.

NAV used to be a rather stationary target, where updates and new versions were few and far between. As every NAV customer knows, the ease of customizing functionality to suit unique business requirements is where the platform really shines. It has always been both easy, and relatively inexpensive to develop modifications and there are an impressive number of partners and developers available to tackle virtually any challenge.

Lately Microsoft has shifted to a more rapid pace of development and with more frequent new version releases, and NAV has become aligned to the cloud-enabled world where it has to operate. Each new release is packed with features and capabilities, of which many are platform related, making NAV more interoperable with other Microsoft technologies like CRM, Office 365, PowerBI, or more accessible over the web via browsers and mobile devices. In an “always-online” world, security is a key concern and customers need to be increasingly proactive about managing risk.

This guide from Catapult comes at a good time. It explains how to get on board with upgrades in the new cloud-first, mobile-first world, and maximize the potential end-user and business benefits available. NAV has always been supported through a vast network of certified partners. The team at Catapult really understands what it takes for customers to support a NAV system over the long-term and they offer some very unique and pragmatic insights for those looking to stay ahead of the curve.

ERIK HOUGAARD OUR RESIDENT NAV MVP

Hougaard has been programming since he was a kid in Basic, Poly Pascal and everything else that would run on a 4.77 Mhz CPU. He got started with Dynamics NAV programming for IBM with “IBM-Navigator 3.00” in 1990. During the 90s he programmed with Navision and many other systems both in Denmark and USA. Since 2000, Eric has been the R&D Manager at E Foqus Denmark, and the designer of several Dynamics NAV add-ons as well as architect on the Glomaris OI .NET based framework. He programs robots, builds 3D printers and plays the trombone in his spare time. Hougaard is a three-time NAV MVP in business solutions.

Foreword


The ERP & NAV specialists team is deeply engaged with clients every week, implementing, enhancing and upgrading solutions; generally keeping customers supported and finding new ways to improve business performance and insight.

Their contributions to this guide are rooted in hands-on experience, and a special appreciation for the challenges customers grapple with.

A special thank you to our Microsoft Dynamics NAV subject matter experts:

The production of this guide would not have been possible without the extensive contributions of Catapult’s ERP team and NAV specialists.

Acknowledgements

BLAIR HURLBUT ERP PRACTICE LEAD

JEFF LANDEEN SENIOR NAV SPECIALIST

RAMIN MARGHI NAV FINANCE CONSULTANT

ERIK HOUGAARD RESIDENT NAV MVP

CECILIO GAPASIN NAV FINANCE CONSULTANT


First, lack of access to NAV customers for support after implementation. Second, the inability for customers to evolve their NAV solution effectively as needs changed. Catapult is the only solutions partner in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV channel that is dedicated to ongoing support, managed services, and continuous improvement for companies that run Dynamics NAV.

As CEO, Elliot brings Catapult’s purpose — helping organizations perform at their best — to life. Elliot leads our business planning, marketing functions and strategic partnership initiatives to ensure Catapult never lose sight of its core values.

For nearly 20 years, Elliot has been helping organizations use information technology to improve their business operations and performance. His experience spans domains, such as ERP, CRM, business intelligence, enterprise portals and content management. Prior to leading Catapult, Elliot was Partner Executive Vice-President with Habanero Consulting Group, the leading Canadian provider of enterprise portal solutions. Elliot’s experience also includes senior management consulting and systems implementation with KPMG and management roles in Finance and IT with the University of Chicago.

Elliot mentors young entrepreneurs and CEOs through the Canadian Youth Business Federation and the Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business.

Elliot Fishman, CEO of Catapult, started Catapult with a vision to solve two of the biggest challenges he saw facing Dynamics NAV customers.

“ERP upgrades have always been a monumental challenge for customers, regardless of platform. Finally, Dynamics NAV customers have the ability to run the latest version with virtually no business disruption. It’s just amazing!”

Author – Elliot Fishman

ContentsCHAPTER 1Not Your Dad’s ERP SystemThe New NAV to End All Upgrade Debates ....8

Is This Guide for You? .................................................9

The Cloud – and the Internet – Change Everything ...................................................10

A More Modern Upgrade Model .........................12

Benefits of Staying Current on NAV ................13

1. Maximum Security ......................................... 14

2. New Functionality ............................................ 14

3. Lower Cost ............................................................. 14

4. Cloud Compatible .............................................. 15

5. Stay Connected .................................................. 15

6. Happy Users ......................................................... 15

06

CHAPTER 2Dynamics NAV 2017 Upgrade ToolsMicrosoft’s Internal Upgrade Toolkit...............18

Events and Extensions ..........................................1 9

Upgrade Tools Shortfalls .......................................20

16

CHAPTER 3How to Future-Proof Your NAVRe-Think the Way You Update ..........................23

Routine Maintenance ..............................................24

Cumulative Updates .................................................25

The Brilliance of Cumulative Updates .......25

Best Practices for Cumulative Updates ....26

Knowing When to Update ..................................27

Annual Releases ........................................................28

Making Modifications Upgradeable ...............29

Becoming Future-Proof for Upgrades ..........30

2102FOREWORD

03ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

30CATAPULT ERP – Dynamics NAV Upgrade Experts

04AUTHOR – Elliot Fishman

Elliot started Catapult with a vision to solve two of the biggest challenges he saw facing Dynamics NAV customers today.

Pg 24: Maximize your NAV solution through routine maintenance

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nav/

http://www.catapulterp.com/dynamics-nav-support/

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/Global/NAV


CHAPTER 1

Not Your Dad’s ERP System


Chances are you are unaware of how you are sabotaging the business impact your ERP solution delivers. Historically, enterprise software vendors would release new versions of their platforms every two or three years. Each new release was accompanied with enormous fanfare and hoopla, a marketing launch with big announcements, keynote speeches, and correspondingly big promises.

For existing customers, these big releases were met with fear, anxiety and frustration, rather than celebration, since upgrading an existing solution was a big undertaking. Upgrading meant a costly and time-consuming endeavor that often rivalled the magnitude of the initial solution implementation. To pull the trigger on an upgrade customers had to be convinced that the new version’s features were

mind-blowingly better than the previous version of the software they were running.

Experienced customers would also be weary of the consumption gap, the extent of new software functionality that cannot be absorbed effectively into business processes. “Good enough” mindsets are common, where a customer skips multiple version releases and actively ignores the potential benefits of upgrading due to a painful and likely costly experience associated with legacy upgrades. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!


Fortunately, a new upgrade paradigm has emerged for customers that run Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Starting in 2013, Microsoft abandoned the time-honored approach of tinkering away in secrecy to produce a new version of NAV, instead opting for a strategy of smaller, incremental annual releases.

The significant change and greatest strength of Microsoft’s new incremental annual release cycle is that NAV is no longer “reborn” with each new release, effectively “burying” the prior release. Instead, Dynamics NAV simply becomes more refined, more robust and more stable with each release. Today, Dynamics NAV is more adaptable to other enterprise software applications that are evolving around it. The release of NAV 2017, is the fifth major release since Microsoft’s paradigm shift and yields massive advantages for existing NAV customers.

The New NAV to End All Upgrade Debates


This guide was written for customers who have implemented or upgraded to NAV 2013R2 or later.

However, customers running a legacy version of NAV (e.g. NAV 2013 or earlier) will also find valuable information in this guide to help you with your upgrade decision as well as how to stay current on the modern release path. As we mentioned in the introduction, the methodology of upgrading from an older version of NAV (e.g. pre-NAV 2013 R2) is a more complex process, which you can learn more about in our other popular NAV guide, The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading from NAV 2009R2. Once customers move to NAV 2013R2 or later, staying current on the latest release has become easier than ever before…read on to learn more.

Is This Guide for You?

http://www.catapulterp.com/nav-upgrade-guide/



Companies running NAV 2013 R2 or later are now able to keep their system up-to-date with significantly less time and less money, while enjoying measurable benefits in customizing their solutions.

The Cloud – and the Internet —Changes Everything

3RD PARTYWEB SERVICES

MODERN NAVVERSIONS

Legacy NAV Versions Prior to NAV 2013R2, NAV was far less exposed to the internet. Most data flowing in and out of the system was either manually entered through the user interface or processed through custom data ports, typically flat-file imports. And the solution itself ran on local infrastructure protected by corporate firewalls from internet traffic.

Modern NAV Versions NAV has become a much more powerful platform with a broad range of options to integrate with other platforms, devices and services. However, it has never been more exposed to the internet and consequently, higher degrees of interdependence with other software and greater exposure to security risk.

Figure 1: The differences between Historical NAV versions and NAV today emphasize the critical importance of keeping your NAV system up-to-date to protect your investment.


In the early days of NAV, ERP systems operated largely in isolation. Systems were traditionally closed off from the external world. They were deployed and ran behind corporate firewalls. The data flowing into and out of the system was limited to internal integrations between different corporate systems. Most third party integration was handled through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or data interchange by file import/export and validation. The internet was still a place where information flowed mostly in an outward direction towards customers, suppliers and partners.

Today, ERP systems plug into the business in radically different ways. The internet is now the glue that connects customers, distribution partners, and supply chains. Even the flow of cash itself, the lifeblood of business, depends on a complex network of software applications communicating in real-time. ERP systems and other enterprise software applications live in the cloud, relying heavily on web services connections (APIs) to exchange information and work together to deliver end-to-end business processes. It is

becoming increasingly rare, impossible even, for a business application to operate in isolation, disconnected from its ecosystem.

A new breed of “cloud services” have emerged to support even the most unique use cases and processes, consuming and creating data at an unprecedented pace, which is both increasingly contextual and role-tailored. End-users are connecting to these systems in new ways, from more devices and from more places. Business analytics, or “big data”, requires that database-driven enterprise software applications provision data in visually rich, often mobile-enabled platforms.

Essentially, Dynamics NAV has never been more dependent on its connections to the outside world. This was a defining reason Microsoft moved to an annual release cycle. The pace of change – in cloud computing and online business – requires a faster, more incremental approach to ERP roadmaps. Additionally, the innovation at the heart of the product roadmap isn’t just new features. NAV itself is challenged to keep up-to-date in the world in which it operates.


In the past, each new version of Dynamics NAV delivered serious changes – not only with new features and capabilities, but also updates in architecture, database and core system objects.

A More Modern Upgrade Model

As a result, this changed the magnitude of upgrades, making them more complex and prolonged, often matching the undertaking of the initial NAV implementation for customers.

Underlying infrastructure upgrades – hardware resources, server operating systems, and database versions – may have also needed upgrading with each new version of NAV. The return on investment from these extensive upgrades was not always clear. In addition, between the every few year sizable upgrades, Microsoft released hotfixes and service packs to address bugs. However, these were often nuisances as they fixed problems, but offered no new functionality.

With annual releases of NAV, everything has changed. Microsoft followed a model common to vendors of cloud-based applications – incremental releases with technically straightforward upgrades. Upgrading between versions is far simpler (see Chapter 2), and there is no impact to the underlying infrastructure. Microsoft also releases Cumulative Updates each month that contain bug-fixes, security patches, and new features to resolve any urgent issues.

Keeping NAV current is more important & easier than ever before

LEGACY MODEL MODERN MODEL

Version Releases +2 or 3 years

1 year (annually)

Product Updates SporadicMonthly

(12 per year)

Customization Risk

Infrastructure Impact

OS/Database Dependencies


Figure 3: 6 Key Benefits of Upgrading Dynamics NAV

STAY CONNECTEDSupply-chain, customer and

partner integrationLearn More

NEW FUNCTIONALITYFeatures and capabilities are

constantly evolvingLearn More

CLOUD COMPATIBLEKeep pace with native cloud apps and evolution model

Learn More

SECURITYNAV has never been more

exposed to the internetLearn More

HAPPY USERSDrive better productivity

and enablementLearn More

COST SAVINGSMore cost effective than

infrequent major upgradesLearn More

$

Benefits of Staying Current on NAV


Benefits of Staying Current on NAV1. Maximum SecurityWith NAV’s increased exposure to the internet and integration with cloud services as well as access from browsers and mobile devices, it is vulnerable to a wide range of security risks, including hackers and other malicious activity that could easily disable a system and/or corrupt data. Keeping your NAV system current on annual releases and Cumulative Updates ensures that your ERP system has the greatest security parameters in place to minimize the risk of a security breach.

2. New FunctionalityEach annual release of Dynamics NAV, and many of the Cumulative Updates, include valuable, new features and capabilities. New business features are typically bundled with annual releases while Cumulative Updates often contain: localizations and platform updates, improvements to the web/mobile clients and enhancements to the way NAV integrates with other Microsoft technologies (e.g. Excel, PowerBI, SharePoint, CRM, Power Pivot, Web Client).

3. Cost SavingsKeeping NAV updated is less costly and time consuming than upgrading sporadically or crossing larger version gaps. Falling too far behind the latest version of Dynamics NAV increases the risk that your customizations will not merge seamlessly and requires more analysis of the target version’s capabilities before implementing. There may be additional cost-savings opportunities as new versions of NAV increasingly bundle capabilities that may have been accessible with ISV products only in previous versions.

Once you hop aboard the annual upgrade path and begin staying up-to-date with Cumulative Updates, adapting your customizations to the new development standards, the incremental cost of upgrading shrinks year-over-year. Plus, the newest upgrade tools and technology simplify the process of merging your data to deliver a straightforward upgrade every year. To explore a more detailed look into the new upgrade tools and technologies read on to Chapter 2: Dynamics 2017 Upgrade Tools.


4. Cloud CompatibleMicrosoft is placing all its chips on the clear blue sky of cloud first solutions. Microsoft has made many of its on-premise solutions, such as Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office available in the cloud over the past few years. This has enabled companies to connect more systems online then before. However, in doing so this has also has exposed all business systems to the cloud, even those that aren’t online.

This includes your Dynamics NAV system, as there are more and more integrations supplied by Microsoft to cloud-based products, your NAV system is then vulnerable to similar security threats and exposures as your cloud-based solutions.

With the evolution of many Microsoft products available in the cloud, this sends a clear commitment to the ongoing development of cloud-based, integrated solution from Microsoft including: Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics NAV and many more. This means any solution interfacing the cloud, or other solutions that reside in the cloud, are at risk if you do not stay up-to-date on the latest version and Cumulative Updates.

5. Stay ConnectedIntegration between Microsoft technologies propelled Dynamics NAV to center stage as it interacts with Office 365 (and all its applications) as well as Dynamics CRM. Your business gains a more comprehensive view of business operations in this integrated platform than you ever could patchworking your data together.

Not only that, but Dynamics NAV is easily hosted on cloud infrastructure such as Microsoft Azure, allowing entire business systems to be accessed, managed and operated remotely. With this level of integration and accessibility, you are able to stay connected to your business and your data at any time from anywhere in the world.

Beyond integration with Microsoft technologies and cloud hosting, NAV also enables you to connect and integrate with your supply chain, your partners and even your customers. There are numerous opportunities to integrate NAV further in all facets of your business and your business relationships.

6. Happy UsersThe latest versions of NAV have been dedicated to improving the user experience for you, the end user. Through platform integrations, like Office 365, Microsoft has delivered an enormous impact on end user’s productivity through a seamless interface for core business functions. This saves users from logging into and switching between multiple systems, creating a better user experience and building new efficiencies for businesses.

The new Microsoft Dynamics NAV is also designed with mobile users in mind. With the latest usability features, like Web Client and Mobile App, it has become significantly easier for your mobile workforce to stay connected. These new mobile interfaces provide more accessibility and options than previous versions of NAV to keep your mobile users more connected and informed.

http://www.catapulterp.com/our-services/lean-deployment/



CHAPTER 2

Dynamics NAV 2017 Upgrade Tools


Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 is packed with tools and features that can make your upgrades faster, easier and more predictable.One of NAV’s greatest strengths also used to be one of its biggest weaknesses. Namely, NAV’s ability to develop customizations to support unique customer requirements. In the latest release of NAV, Microsoft removed some of the obstacles that have dogged customers for years, those that created upgrade anxiety and ultimately slowed the pace of new version adoption.

Without getting too technical, because we actually are building another guide dedicated to the technical tools in NAV 2017, we will highlight how the new NAV 2017 upgrade tools make your Dynamics NAV upgrade easier than ever before, both today and moving forward for future upgrades. We like to call these NAV upgrade tools the future-proofing upgrade tools.

Historically, Dynamics NAV notoriously had three major hurdles to cross for upgrading, including:

1. No backwards compatibility2. No automated merge tools 3. No accommodation for customizations

It is with great pleasure, I report these NAV 2017 upgrade tools have effectively eliminated the notorious hurdles to upgrading, while adding further benefits for future upgrades. The best is yet to come.


It is almost as if we’ve received the keys to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV kingdom or to Level 40 of Pokemon Go.

Microsoft released their own internal Dynamics NAV upgrade tools for us to leverage in order to perform our own NAV upgrades more easily. Considering that the Microsoft Corporation uses these tools to keep their Dynamics NAV team on the most current version of Dynamics NAV worldwide, there are no better tools for upgrading Dynamics NAV.

The availability of these sophisticated NAV upgrade tools have easily eliminated two of the most notorious hurdles to upgrading through automating object merging and accommodating for customizations. I can attest these tools

have yielded significant time saving and cost savings for NAV upgrades we’ve performed at Catapult on behalf of many of our Dynamics NAV customers. They provide a significant benefit over previous merge analysis tools because they offer detailed insight into customized objects. Previous analysis tools could only identify that an object has been modified, but provide no insight into what was changed.

To learn more about Catapult’s NAV upgrade methodology and experience – check out our Lean Deployment & Upgrade services.

Microsoft’s Internal Upgrade Toolkit (Yes, the one the product team uses!)




The latest version of Dynamics NAV has laid the foundation for simpler upgrades year-over-year by providing entirely new ways to achieve custom functionality – without modifying core NAV objects!

Using new development concepts, called Events and Extensions, NAV now has distinctly separate layers in the product for core objects and customizations, so that the foundation, the core of NAV, can always be easily upgraded to the latest release. Customizations that are captured in Events and Extensions are simply reapplied to the upgraded solution. In this context they function very similarly to apps.

In this guide, we don’t go beyond the added benefits these new upgrade tools provide, but we will be publishing a secondary guide that details the technical ins-and-outs of these exciting, new upgrade tools and how to leverage them for your latest upgrade. Stay tuned!

The benefits of Events and Extensions are as vast as the NAV ERP solutions they help to upgrade. Events and Extensions essentially help you create robust custom capability in your Dynamics NAV system, without modifying the underlying NAV source code. The possibilities for what you can do in Dynamics NAV with Events and Extensions are endless. By isolating customizations using these tools, the act of upgrade is a snap. If you have been through an arduous, complex NAV upgrade project before, you won’t believe the simplicity and seamlessness these tools lend to the process.

Events and Extensions


These new NAV Upgrade Tools seem too good to be true. So what’s the catch? Well, you are right to be cautious. There are a few things to be aware of:

1. Events and Extensions Events and Extensions may not cover of 100% of customizations. Having said that, Microsoft has made new object merge capabilities available in NAV 2017, so that you can upgrade modified objects easier.

2. Legacy Object CustomizationsLegacy Object Customizations may need to be redeveloped to remain sustainable and supportable. It is important to work with a Microsoft Dynamics Partner and/or developer(s) that are familiar with the latest technologies included in Dynamics NAV as many legacy customizations could be applied as Events or Extensions moving forward. Leveraging these new tools to modernize legacy customizations will make each future upgrade easier, essentially future-proofing your system.

3. ISV SolutionsISV Solutions must also move forward with the new Dynamics NAV. These add-ons, as well as customizations, will run alongside Dynamics NAV core code base. However, getting from a legacy version of NAV (e.g. NAV 2009) to the latest version (NAV 2017), these add-ons and customizations must be separated. Again, it is critical that you work with a Dynamics NAV Partner and/or developers that have experience with NAV 2017 upgrade tools when you make the leap to become current to ensure you are architecting your solution to make future upgrades simpler. This is done through stripping and simplifying add-ons and customizations as separate layers from your core NAV source code. To learn more about upgrading from a legacy NAV solution, download our guide The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading from NAV 2009R2.

Upgrade Tools Shortfalls




CHAPTER 3

How to Future-Proof Your NAV


What does this entire guide really boil down to?The value of future-proofing your Dynamics NAV solution. Upgrading NAV to the latest major version and keeping pace with Cumulative Updates is a critical maintenance function for a well-functioning NAV solution. Staying current dramatically reduces break-fix issues and business disruption. Creating a routine program to keep the solution updated reduces upgrade costs and distraction. So, how do you get started?

There are 3 keys to keeping your NAV solution functioning at full throttle:

Routine Maintenance

• Reviews logs, performance tuning• Backup and testing• Environment maintenance

1.

Cumulative Updates

• Review, test & apply updates• Bug fixes and security updates2.

Annual Releases

• Incremental upgrades• Native NAV upgrade tools3.


First, you must reimagine your way of upgrading. It is no longer the painful, tooth-pulling and root canal drilling problem it was in the past, requiring fully upgrading or re-implementing your solution every two to three years.

Think of your NAV system just as you think of your health, an entire complex human system. If you perform the maintenance functions to keep your body running smoothly, such as: eating healthy, practicing good hygiene (e.g. showers, brushing teeth, etc.) and exercising regularly, you will keep your system, your body, performing at its best over time.

When you ignore those basic maintenance principles, the daily tasks, your body breaks down, not performing as well, and there a plenty of side effects from it. The same goes for your Dynamics NAV ERP solution today. It’s the little maintenance items that make a big difference to the long-term performance of your NAV system.

Therefore, you must transform your mindset from upgrading every few years to small cyclical maintenance, to minimize disruptions and maximize productivity. This includes routine maintenance tasks, small Cumulative Updates and annual version releases.

Re-think the Way You Update


Routine Maintenance

Figure 7: Dynamics NAV Team Blog Figure 8: Catapult ERP Team Blog Figure 9: Microsoft Dynamics NAV Customer Source

Routine Maintenance is critically important to future-proofing your NAV system.

To do this, you need a relatively sophisticated understanding of NAV’s components, performance and environment. Here are a few pointers on maximizing your NAV solution through routine maintenance:

1. Schedule SQL server updates, timed with annual updates.2. Run Windows updates regularly.3. Maintain Exchange server updates.

Next, you should educate yourself on when NAV Cumulative Updates and major versions (annual releases) are available to know how and when to keep your NAV system up-to-date. There are quite a few resource available to do this.

First, you can follow the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team blog.

Second, you can subscribe to the Catapult ERP blog, as we release blogs on Cumulative Updates and major versions (annual releases) monthly, in addition to many other blogs on relevant NAV topics to help you get the most out of your NAV system. To subscribe to our blog – click here.

Finally, you can use Microsoft’s Dynamics NAV Customer Source to stay well informed on all NAV updates.

Stay Informed to Stay Current

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nav/

http://www.catapulterp.com/dynamics-nav-support/

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/Global/NAV

http://www.catapulterp.com/blog/



The truth is, not all Cumulative Updates are built the same. You should always deploy Cumulative Updates in a test environment first, before deploying in production, just as you would do with any update to your NAV solution.

Utilizing a test environment allows you to identify the areas of your NAV system that will be updated to anticipate the impact it will have on all areas of your solution. For example, some Cumulative Updates will enforce database version upgrades, which will have a wider impact on your system than just smaller bug fixes.

Cumulative Updates are critically important to the seamless performance of your NAV system. Why? Because skipping Cumulative Updates and trying to apply workarounds for known bug fixes is likely hindering your NAV system’s performance. For example, one of Catapult’s clients unfortunately skipped their first year of Cumulative Updates and encountered a number of issues that disrupted their daily

business operations. It was a nuisance that could have easily been fixed with the latest bug fixes released in the monthly Cumulative Updates.

The Brilliance of Cumulative UpdatesWhy are Cumulative Updates better than hot fixes? They stand on their own, completely separate from other dependencies.

What does this mean? It means that you don’t need to apply each Cumulative Update as hot fixes to get to a certain level. You simply can apply the next Cumulative Update or skip the to the tenth Cumulative Update to apply only that one.

Cumulative Updates


Best Practices for Cumulative UpdatesCumulative Updates have their own set of best practices you should be aware of:

1. Keep Up-to-Date: You should stay within two Cumulative Updates to keep your NAV solution secure. Given that the latest versions of NAV are exposed to the internet through the Web Client, it is critically important to keep your NAV system secure given the level of exposure.

2. Stay Informed: You should stay informed on what each Cumulative Update includes through reading the Dynamics NAV Team blog, and/or reading the Catapult ERP Blog as we release a new blog on Cumulative Updates monthly.

3. Know Your CUs: You should know when a Cumulative Update will force a database version upgrade. These Cumulative Updates will take a little more time and effort, which you should be aware of when rolling them out.

4. Time Your Updates: Your Cumulative Updates should be timed within business cycles, just as you would run regular checks and updates on other critical business system, the same goes for your NAV ERP solution.

5. Always Test Updates: As always, be sure to deploy each Cumulative Update in a test environment before introducing it to your production environment.



Knowing When to UpdateWhile we recommend keeping your NAV solution on the latest version and with the latest Cumulative Update deployed, we recognize this isn’t always possible. So how do you know when you should be upgrading for the sake of keeping your solution functioning properly? You should be answering these questions:

• Are you experiencing issues that are slowing down your system or encountering frequent errors?

• Are there any major pains you are dealing with right now?

• Can you take the leap now for a couple of quick wins (e.g. bug fixes and new features)?

If you are answering “yes” to any or all of these questions, it is time to update. Remember to always make a backup of your system and to deploy in a test environment first to understand the implications of applying the latest Cumulative Updates. This will also showcase the latest benefits and features you will receive as well.


If you aren’t taking advantage of annual upgrades yet, here are the primary reasons you should:

1. Less Downtime, Disruptions: Making the leap to annual upgrades will save you time and money, year-over-year. There are fewer disruptions to your users with predictable, incremental upgrades as smaller features and functionalities are introduced each year, rather than drastic interface and database changes that interrupt and transform how your employees use your NAV system. Additionally, annual updates can be scheduled to update over a weekend or a slow period, rather than an enormous re-launch of your entire NAV system, taking weeks or even months.

2. Smarter Upgrades with Tools: As previously mentioned, Microsoft has now released their own private set of upgrade tools, used in-house at Microsoft, for you to leverage for your annual NAV upgrades. Given that Microsoft uses these to perform their own NAV upgrades, these are the best of the best, supplied to help make your upgrades easier and more time efficient. For more information on smarter NAV merge tools click here.

3. More Mobility, Integrations & Cost Reductions: Each new version of Dynamics NAV further improves the capability of mobility for your employees, with refinements to the Web Client and Mobile App. Improved integration with other Microsoft products delivers a richer, more comprehensive experience for users/employees integrating with Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Power BI and more. Plus, the final move of delivering NAV on Microsoft Azure SQL in the cloud further reduces costs providing predictable expenses without the heavy infrastructure expense.

Shifting to the annual upgrade cycle, provides you with the greatest performance and functionality for your NAV ERP solution. If you are lagging in your current upgrade cycle, now is the time to make NAV work for you, as the latest features and integrations deliver the comprehensive user experience you need to make your employees more productive and efficient; eliminating the need to toggle between systems or compare differing business data. To learn more about upgrading your NAV system, download our popular guide now: The Ultimate Dynamics NAV Upgrade Guide.

Annual ReleasesWhen Microsoft moved to annual releases, it was a colossal change from the multi-year behemoth NAV releases of the past. This delivered to NAV customers a predictable upgrade pattern that could be scheduled and planned alongside other business operations.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn789581(v=nav.90).aspx



Take a hard look at your customizations with your Microsoft Dynamics Partner to plan to evolve your modifications in order to make your NAV solution future-proof.

Find ways to replace existing customizations, rather than keeping old customizations and moving them forward with embedded code.

This really boils down to what modifications you have and what form they are developed in. Leveraging new NAV 2017 upgrade tools, such as Events and Extensions, can alleviate the burden of manual upgrades for customization moving forward. When leveraging these modern approaches to modifications, you can keep them self-contained and handle them completely separate in each Cumulative Update and annual version upgrade.

When you have many custom NAV objects in place, it is worthwhile to re-think how you are handling custom functionality. While you may be subject to more rigorous testing and merge analysis when upgrading, staying on a legacy version of NAV isn’t worth the trade-off.

Upgrading today not only gives you access to the latest features and functionality to improve your NAV solution, but it also eliminates the cumbersome upgrade process in the future for the one-time inconvenience of modifying your customizations to make them self-contained to future-proof your solution moving forward.

Take it from NAV MVP, Erik Hougaard, on the importance of modifying old customizations: “A lot of things are changing in NAV right now. Extensions are only going to grow. Microsoft envisions that at some time in the future, Extensions will be the only way to get a modification on the NAV database.“

Making Modifications Upgradeable


Becoming future-proof is all about deploying the best practices we’ve outlined in this document, including:

1. Staying current on Cumulative Updates and annual releases;

2. Staying informed with many NAV resources, including Catapult’s own blog dedicated to NAV support;

3. Utilizing new NAV smart merge upgrade tools; and

4. Leveraging new NAV 2017 upgrade tools to future-proof modify customizations.

Your Microsoft Dynamics Partner also plays a critical role to ensuring your solution is future-proof and helping you get the most value out of your Dynamics NAV system. At Catapult, we take pride in providing unprecedented support for NAV solutions and NAV customers. We have helped dozens of businesses deploy, upgrade, maintain and future-proof their NAV solution to help them get the most out of their systems. To learn more, please visit Catapult’s own blog.

Your Dynamics NAV Partner can help you future-proof your NAV system through answering the following questions for you:

1. What version of Dynamics NAV am I running?

2. What is the best path to get my NAV system up-to-date?

3. Is my NAV solution customized? How were the customizations architected? Are the customizations upgradeable?

4. How are my ISV solutions impacted?

5. What is our plan to make sure my system doesn’t fall behind on updates?

With these answers, you along with your Dynamics NAV Partner have what is needed to architect a plan to future-proof your NAV system for better performance and easier maintenance moving forward.

Becoming Future-Proof for Upgrades



Catapult provides Unprecedented Support for ERP and CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM.Our unique service offering and engagement model enables customers to directly access solution experts, developers and other consulting resources to address the ongoing challenges of maintaining and evolving your NAV solution as business needs change.

From basic responsive support and help desk to managed services for maintenance and monitoring of servers and infrastructure, to dedicated teams that follow agile practices for ongoing improvement, Catapult ensures that solutions are performing at their best, while customers have access to the functionality they need to make their users more proficient.

Catapult also provides Upgrades as a Service, a unique fixed-annual-fee engagement model that guarantees customers will run the latest NAV version without the budgetary guesswork and surprises. Request a Dynamics NAV Upgrade Consultation with Catapult today to deliver savings and future-proof your solution by calling us at +1-778-383-1090 or emailing [email protected].

We proudly support small and medium sized business in deploying, maintaining and supporting their Dynamics NAV solutions from day 1 to day 10,001, and anywhere in between.

www.catapulterp.com | [email protected] | +1-778-383-1090

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