microsoft dynamics nav sod may2009

Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Statement of Direction

Date: May 2008

www.microsoft.com/dynamics/nav

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. The information and product plans contained in this document are based on current market conditions and are subject to change at any time. The information in this document should not be assumed to represent a commitment on the part of Microsoft. The products addressed in this document are subject to availability in your country or region. The document will be updated as market conditions and product plans change over time. Monitor PartnerSource or CustomerSource for the latest information about changes in this document. Or contact your local Microsoft country office for local product availability, questions or more information about this document.

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Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT DYNAMICS ..................................... 5 HOW MICROSOFT DYNAMICS BENEFITS ORGANIZATIONS ...................... 5 WHAT IS MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV? ................................................. 6 THE MICROSOFT PEOPLE-READY APPROACH – PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST .... 7

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV STRATEGY ........................................... 9 INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV ................................... 9 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV ASPIRATIONS ......................................... 12

COMPELLING BUSINESS APPLICATION ............................................. 12 MORE USERS MORE PRODUCTIVE .................................................... 17 EMBRACE SOFTWARE-PLUS-SERVICES ............................................. 19 RAPID TIME TO VALUE ................................................................... 19 BETTER TOGETHER – HOW WE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES ............................................................................. 20 INCREASE PARTNER PRODUCTIVITY ................................................. 21 EXPAND AND STRENGTHEN OUR PRESENCE IN INDUSTRIES AND VERTICAL MARKETS ....................................................................... 21

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP ................................................... 23 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV 2009 SERVICE PACK 1 ........................... 23 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “7” 2010-2011 ...................................... 26 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “8” 2013-2014 ...................................... 27 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “9” 2016-2017 ...................................... 28

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This summarizes the Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We recommend that you read the document in its entirety.

The purpose of this document is to update customers and partners on the broad product strategy for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the specific product roadmap. It focuses primarily on the next major release Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” and provides a general outline for the items planned for Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8” and “9”. Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business applications, which works like and with familiar Microsoft software enabling people to work more productively and make important business decisions with greater confidence. These solutions automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes in a way that can help companies and organizations drive business success. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a business management solution for midsized organizations that helps them simplify and streamline specialized business processes, rapidly adapting to their unique way of doing business. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Strategy

Our strategy involves focusing on creating relevant core business functionality and by further developing the application to support current and emerging regulatory requirements. As we continue to add new functionality to NAV we will focus on five basic principles:

• Simplicity

• Productivity

• User Experience leadership

• Continuously take advantage of Microsoft Technology

• Rapid Time to Value

Our strategy is to enable partners to address a variety of business scenarios, including vertical and micro-vertical business needs in core industries based on the application that Microsoft delivers. We will continue to provide customers and partners with a clear roadmap of where we want to invest in the application and where business opportunities for partners will be. We will include enhancements in the application that make it easier for our partners to build solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

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OVERVIEW OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV PRODUCT RELEASE ROADMAP 2009-2017:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Service Pack 1 Q3 2009

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1) builds on all the innovations that were introduced with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 we are continuing to improve productivity for customers and partners. We want to ensure an easier upgrade to the new RoleTailored user experience for Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers working on previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV as well as adding the innovative Client Extensibility for both existing and new customers.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” 2010-2011

We will maintain the innovative RoleTailored approach. Through enhanced interoperability with Microsoft Office and SharePoint we will enable more users in an organization to be more productive. Furthermore, we will provide Software + Services by attaching Dynamics Online and make it easier for partners to consume our Web services and develop their own services. With this release, we expect to only support Microsoft SQL Server as a database platform.


We expect that we have a RoleTailored developer experience and a full .NET runtime environment which will benefit our customers and partners. The C/SIDE and Classic client components will most likely be retired in Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8” and we will maintain focus on the business application as well as customer and partner productivity.


We plan to continue investing according to our strategy in Productivity and User Experience leadership. We will continue to invest in core business functionality that complies with current and future regulatory requirements and functionality that will meet our customer’s core business needs. We will continue to enable our partners to develop vertical and micro-vertical solutions. As always, we will take advantage of the investments and innovations provided by other Microsoft technologies.


INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT DYNAMICS Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable ERP solutions that enable people to make important business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software—easing adoption and reducing the risks inherent with implementing a new solution. These solutions automate and streamline financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes in a way that can help companies and organizations drive business success.

HOW MICROSOFT DYNAMICS BENEFITS ORGANIZATIONS Designed with a focus on the roles people play throughout a company, Microsoft Dynamics delivers an individualized, RoleTailored user experience that enables employees to easily personalize and automate their tasks based on their own preferences and work style. That means less training and development time, a rapid return on investment, and, most important, significant productivity gains throughout the organization. We believe this is the unique value the RoleTailored user experience provides customers.

We can break down “works like and with” into four primary areas or benefits to business owners, their staff and ultimately their business.

Figure 1: How Microsoft Dynamics Benefits Organizations.

Familiar to Your People

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A Microsoft Dynamics implementation helps to support and enhance the work employees do, and the way they do it. By building on software familiarity they already have, the teams and individuals in a business can be more productive to accomplish their personal and organizational goals.

Fits Your Systems

Microsoft Dynamics works the way most current technology works, and fits easily and seamlessly into existing systems helping organizations maximize their technology investment. It also offers the opportunity to take advantage of other Microsoft product innovations, including Microsoft SQL Server® and Microsoft Windows®.

Fuels Business Productivity

Automating business processes is the backbone of Microsoft Dynamics. From financial and accounting processes to supply chain and manufacturing to sales and marketing - automating business processes helps your people concentrate more on productive tasks and less on repetitive busywork. This also helps to reduce the cost and complexity of doing business.

Enables Confident Decision Making

An organization needs to be able to respond quickly to changing conditions. It is people who have to respond to these changes, make informed decisions, and set the business apart from other organizations. Microsoft Dynamics provides access to critical data that can be easily analyzed using familiar tools such as Microsoft Office Excel®.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV? Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a business management solution for midsized organizations that helps them simplify and streamline specialized business processes, rapidly adapting to their unique way of doing business. Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides relevant, industry-specific functionality, even for the most specialized industries and organizations. Through the rapid adaptability, simplified customization, and ease of use offered by Microsoft Dynamics NAV, companies and organizations can easily add functionality, custom applications, and online business capabilities. Microsoft Dynamics NAV enables companies and organizations to work more effectively and be more competitive.


THE MICROSOFT PEOPLE-READY APPROACH – PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST People are at the heart of every organization—they bring the creativity, passion, hard work and thought leadership that ultimately propel a business forward. The Microsoft People-Ready business is based on empowering people with the right tools, information, and opportunities they need to succeed. Microsoft’s long-term strategy is to raise usability to a higher standard to enable the People-Ready Business. User Experience researchers and designers at Microsoft conduct extensive research into the requirements customers have for business management solutions. The detail oriented approach includes three practices: Research, the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model, and RoleTailored Design.

Research and Development Methodologies

The Microsoft Dynamics User Experience approach is based primarily on research. By using a variety of different research methods, Microsoft Dynamics User Experience researchers and designers continue to focus on user’s productivity and continue to deliver on what is needed, to provide it in an easily usable format.

The Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model

Microsoft Dynamics User Experience researchers and designers distilled voluminous research results into a framework called the Customer Model—a representation of the people within a typical organization, the departments within which they work, and the actual work that they do. Part of the design strategy to enhance productivity in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is based on the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/support/brcc.mspx�

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Figure 2: The Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model describes how people in departments do work within and across organizations. The findings are based on interviews with several thousand people.

RoleTailored Design

RoleTailored design enables people to cut through the clutter, delivering just the information they need, where and when they need it. It offers perspective by providing an overview of the work ahead, so that organizations can plan and prioritize efforts.


MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a leading ERP business management solution that helps people work faster and smarter and gives businesses the flexibility to adapt to new opportunities and growth. With over 1.25 million users, more than 40 localized versions and a global network of 4,000 certified partners, Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides real business value to a growing number of more than 73,000 customers around the globe.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is designed to be fast to implement, easy to customize and simple to use. Microsoft Dynamics NAV helps enable companies to simplify and streamline their specialized business processes and can be rapidly adapted to the unique way they do business. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, a company’s employees are able to work more effectively. These productivity gains and the product’s rapid time to value help make companies more competitive.

Market Focus

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is especially suited for midsized organizations with unique business processes and a strong need for a flexible, vertically focused solution. Individual locations of multi-site and international organizations (MIOs) represent another strong group of customer prospects because of the solution’s comprehensive functionality, flexibility and capability to integrate with other ERP systems.

We will focus on 5 core industries; Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution, Professional Services and Public Sector from a go-to-market perspective. Development wise, we are taking a slightly different approach to each industry. For Wholesale and Distribution, Professional Services and Manufacturing companies, we will continue to ensure that Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides functionality that addresses the most common business needs within these types of organizations. We will also ensure that our partners and ISVs easily can build their vertical and micro-vertical solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV to address these specific needs.

To address specific needs for Retail and Public Sector organizations – as well as other industries – we will enable our partners to build their vertical and micro-vertical solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Please find more information about Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions here.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV covers the following application areas: Financial Management, Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing, Warehouse and Distribution, Jobs and Resources, Reporting and Business Intelligence.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/solutionfinder.mspx�

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Figure 3: Microsoft Dynamics NAV - core application areas.

Simplicity, adaptability and ease-of-use remain core product values and with each release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV we strive to deliver a product that empowers both partners and customers to build and grow a successful business.

The latest version is Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. Released in November 2008, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is a landmark release offering a groundbreaking RoleTailored user experience, major new technology innovations, such as more flexible solution architecture and Web services, and tighter interoperability with Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft SQL Server 2008. These new innovations further strengthen the product’s core values of simplicity, adaptability and ease-of-use while significantly boosting user productivity. Moreover, these innovations, especially the new user experience in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, set the stage for future versions.


We will continue to deliver technological innovations to partners and customers while focusing on improving partner productivity and application functionality to make tasks and workflow more fluent and simple for the end-user.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is about Business Productivity

The result of our core values is business productivity. Business productivity can be characterized by the six dimensions Usability, Familiarity, Transactional Efficiency, Flexibility, Business Insight and Collaboration. For each of these areas we will focus on how we can improve functionality to help increase business productivity. Feedback from existing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 customers indicates that we have taken a huge leap forward in productivity and desirability – read more in the released paper “Benchmark Study on User Experience” here.

Figure 4: Microsoft Dynamics NAV – Business Productivity – the result of our core values.

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/marketing/marketingcollateral/whitepapers/Benchmark_UserExperience_NAV50_NAV2009.htm�

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MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV ASPIRATIONS

COMPELLING BUSINESS APPLICATION Our overall strategy for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is to continue to deliver a competitive product that enables us to expand our business in the key industries where we are present. We will do so by focusing on creating relevant and compelling core business functionality and by further developing the application to support current and emerging regulatory requirements.

Our goal is to enable partners to address vertical and micro-vertical business needs based on the application that Microsoft delivers. We are currently updating our documentation on how Microsoft Dynamics NAV meets the needs in the 5 industries that we have identified in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP Strategy.

As part of this work, we will include enhancements in the application that make it easier for our partners to build solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We will always support the most common and core business scenarios out of the box to support the five key industries. Thereby delivering a richer application that is even more relevant for partners to build solutions on.

We will ensure a compelling business application in Microsoft Dynamics NAV by focusing our development efforts and investments in the following areas:

Integration of Standard Modules in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

One of our goals is to make integration between the various application areas as smooth as possible. This will make it easier for users to stay productive as they have visibility into all the relevant information in the application. An example of this integration is when users can drill down directly into specific Inventory information from the General Ledger. It takes less time for the user to get the information they need to do their job or answer a question. More integration of standard modules will also make things easier for our partners when they build solutions on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Partners become more productive because they will focus more on building their solutions and less on integration of standard modules.

Financial Management

Financial Management continues to be a core area for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Features which are compliant with global standards, such as IFRS/IAS and local GAAPs and legal requirements, will continue to be part of Financial Management in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.


Within Receivables and Payables, including Order processing and Invoice handling, we will continue to improve the functionality based on input from the market to deliver efficient business processes that help end-users stay productive.

For Fixed Assets and Intercompany Postings, we will keep the existing scope of functionality and deliver on legal requirements.

Focus areas for the next releases will be:

• A platform for e-payment (incl. SEPA payments), e-invoicing and reporting to public authorities

• Cash Management, for example, improved Bank Reconciliation, new Cash Flow Forecasting, and improved currencies handling

• Inventory Cost Analysis – providing better overview for cost control

Sales and Marketing Management

Today Microsoft Dynamics provide three types of Sales and Marketing Management solutions – the best of breed CRM solution Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the built-in sales and marketing solution in Microsoft Dynamics NAV or a combination of the two by way of a connector.

The integrated CRM modules provide a powerful solution to customers that need a CRM solution that is fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The integrated CRM modules have a strong integration with Microsoft Office including Microsoft Outlook. We will also keep track of market requirements and demands and continuously develop the application to meet these needs.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides a strong solution to customers that have a large mobile sales force who need off-line capabilities to fulfill customer orders and engagements.

Today the integration between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics CRM is available through third-party CRM connectors. Microsoft are considering to release a connector between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics CRM in a future version of the product.

In addition to this connector, partners and customers will continue to benefit from the integrated CRM modules in Microsoft Dynamics NAV consisting of Sales & Marketing and Service Management.

Manufacturing

Our goals for Manufacturing include providing the best possible horizontal solution for supporting manufacturing, with full integration to the rest of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV functionality. The solution already includes functionality for supporting the entire manufacturing process – from the planning of material needs to the shipping of the finished goods to the customer. This functionality

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should also serve as a solid foundation for creating more specific ISV solutions within the manufacturing area.

A key investment area will be to get full support for subcontracting in Manufacturing. To support the industry trend of increased use of subcontractors during production, our aim is a solution that handles the entire scenario of sending items to a single subcontractor or between multiple subcontractors as well as receiving these modified items from subcontractors. All scenarios include cost and warehouse handling.

Another key investment area is a full integration of manufacturing capacities with other resources in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, such as project resources. This will ensure a strong uniform platform, both for ISV’s to utilize all the Microsoft Dynamics NAV resources even more, and for eliminating redundant data. Furthermore, this will increase overview and agility by having one calendar for all resources. With this investment we move closer to the next goal of supporting project-based manufacturing.

Another investment area is for the RoleTailored user experience to support a graphical overview with capacity load and the possibility for resource reassignment and leveling. This will eventually replace the Gantt chart viewer in previous versions.

Warehouse and Distribution

In the Warehouse and Distribution area, we aspire to have visibility and flexibility to ensure productivity and sound decision-making for customers requiring Supply Chain Management within Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

In the customer’s organization, visibility into internal processes is paramount for effective operations. What is the availability of the items depending on time, location, reservation, item tracking, warehouse processes, procurement agreement, returns, current on-going production or quality processes? Are all the processes in place to value the inventory - from cycle counting to cost adjustment in an easy way? These two questions exemplify where Microsoft Dynamics NAV must continue to excel in order to provide excellent order handling functionality.

Successful operations are able to “open-up” their operations both downstream and upstream; Microsoft Dynamics NAV should support this visibility and facilitate this by adding collaboration functionality. These areas could be:

• Enhanced Forecasting and collaboration-driven procurement - the collaboration with both customer and supplier should be seamless supporting all kind of fulfillment or procurement agreements.

• Optimizing the logistics – in addition to the existing WMS functionality, Microsoft Dynamics NAV should include all necessary features as scheduling of shipments, packing list, transportation agreements to minimize cost related to logistics. The solution should allow best of breed Transportation Management System (TMS) to integrate with Microsoft


Dynamics NAV to leverage the existing expertise of the transportation sector.

• Increase focus on environmental sustainability could result in specific features that support reverse logistics or the ability to collect activity-related data that are relevant for environmental reports or compliance requirements. (Please see the Environmental Sustainability section for more information on our initiatives in this area.)

Jobs and Resources

Our goal here includes continuing to focus on providing the best possible horizontal solution for supporting project-based delivery of services and products. The solution includes project accounting and project management capabilities to support the entire lifecycle or a project from lead-to-cash.

The key investment area for project accounting is to take advantage of supply chain management capabilities offered by Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Job Planning Lines will be used for the integration towards demands, purchasing and sales.

To enhance the Work in Process and Recognition process is a smaller, but high priority investment area. The aim is to make this process easier to use and more consistent.

The key investment area for project management is to enhance support for project scheduling and analysis, and resource assignment and levelling.

Another key investment area is a full integration of manufacturing capacities with other resources in Microsoft Dynamics NAV – for example, project resources. Additional investment areas include enhanced resource capabilities – managing resources as well as purchasing resources. We also want to have a consistent usage of Resources throughout the application by integrating with other areas of the application like, for example, to Manufacturing.

Service Management

Service Management was improved in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0, and we will continue to focus on support for service organizations.

For the common business scenarios we will focus on the following in the next releases:

• A flexible Service Contract process, including integration to Cash Flow Management.

• Revenue Recognition process where the prepaid amounts are transferred from a liability account to profit/loss account in the right sequence are essential for the service provider

• Service Level Agreement - benchmarks, targets and metrics to be utilized as a supplement to the economic conditions in the Service Contract (conditions like – General, Invoice and Invoice details and Price Updates )

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• Resource scheduling to avoid overload of resource and minimize idle time for machines/tools

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Reporting and Business Intelligence Capabilities

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Business Intelligence (BI) strategy is to deliver a complete and integrated business intelligence solution that is scalable and sustainable to the organization with a main focus on a widespread delivery of insight through Microsoft Office solutions. We focus on empowering Information Workers having simple as well as advanced Business Intelligence needs in a role tailored and customizable fashion. Our vision with Business Intelligence continues to be helping our customers make the most of their data and information by making the appropriate information available to the right people when they need it and bringing Business Intelligence closer to the users.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV continues to focus on improving the data foundation and cross product integration through the new Business Analytics in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and the Microsoft BI stack through Microsoft Office applications like Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office Performance Point Services being launched as part of Microsoft Office 14.

Our future plans for reporting include utilizing the benefits of Microsoft SQL Reporting technology in Microsoft SQL Server. We will also focus on optimizing integration with Microsoft Office utilizing the vast benefits of distributing reports as well as the possibility for optimizing business processes. Finally, we have a strong commitment to empower our users by continuing to focus on the customization perspective and the individual users own ability to create the reports they need for enhancing their business productivity.

Environmental Sustainability

Microsoft has a long tradition of tackling tough challenges on a global scale. It started with our original vision of a computer on every desk and in every home. It continues with our current mission, which is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. Today, society faces concerns about energy use and about dangerous changes to our climate and environment. Microsoft is committed to helping address these challenges, read more here.

Until our investments bear fruit, there are several Microsoft Dynamics NAV partner solutions available to support companies and organizations with their environmental sustainability needs. These include compliance, reporting and tracking solutions, enabling companies track and report their energy output.

http://www.microsoft.com/About/CorporateCitizenship/US/ResponsibleLeadership/EnvironmentalPrinciples.mspx�


MORE USERS MORE PRODUCTIVE At Microsoft, we believe that the key to helping businesses become more agile and productive in the global economy is to empower individual workers – giving them tools that improve efficiency and enable them to focus on the highest-value work. Further development of Microsoft Dynamics NAV will include helping more users become more productive in the following areas:

RoleTailored User Experience

One significant development has been the RoleTailored user experience in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. As we continue to invest in improving and extending the RoleTailored user experience in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we can already document significant results with the RoleTailored user experience in empowering employees to be more productive more quickly.

For example, comparative benchmark studies carried out in March and June 2008 indicate that, when using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, novice users will experience a decrease in learning time and therefore associated costs, while also enjoying more success with greater satisfaction. In addition, the studies showed that overall users were more successful and more satisfied with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 compared to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0. The obvious benefit to customers choosing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is that they can significantly reduce their training costs due to decreased learning time. New users are likely to have a very positive initial experience with the product, with increased efficiency in completing their tasks and added confidence using the Role Tailored user experience.

Microsoft is committed to delivering business applications that people love using, and we intend to make Microsoft Dynamics NAV even more easy and enjoyable to learn and use.

Using Microsoft SharePoint as part of your RoleTailored User Experience

Microsoft Office SharePoint integration and interoperability are important parts of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV development strategy. We want to build on the notion of People Ready Software and with Microsoft Dynamics NAV we will drive collaboration among Information Workers by continue to focus on business productivity and improving their business processes. One of the ways in which we will do this is by bridging the gap between personal productivity software, such as Microsoft Office applications, with that of business management applications, like Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

To fulfill this goal of improved business productivity through a strong focus on enhancing business processes, the Microsoft Dynamics NAV SharePoint strategy

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is to deliver a RoleTailored user experience that takes advantage of Microsoft SharePoint. Our working title for that is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV SharePoint display target1

1) The name SharePoint display target will be changed upon release.

) that empowers Information Workers by expanding the use of Microsoft Dynamics NAV data and functionality across the organization. We want to deliver a framework that predominantly addresses the employees in the organizations that traditionally do not have access to Microsoft Dynamics NAV data or functionality. Our goal is to expand the use of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics NAV data and functionality throughout these organizations, building on the vast process and technology possibilities, like Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Integration, Search and Workflows, which exist in Microsoft Office SharePoint today and with the forthcoming Microsoft Office 14 release.

Workflow

Today, Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides some workflow capabilities with Business Notification and Document Approval. Our future strategy for workflow capabilities is to modernize the existing workflow capabilities into one coherent workflow solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Mobile Framework

We will continue to position the Mobile Framework as a feature in our ERP solutions and not as a separate product as we did previously. This will enable ISVs and partners to continue to build Mobile solutions that are integrated with the applications in our ERP products and relevant for the different industries and verticals served by partner solutions.

User Assistance

We will continue to emphasize task-focused content for end-user user assistance. We will provide a dynamic Help system that works on a variety of clients. We will enable partners and customers to extend Help to match each custom solution. We want to ensure that updates to Microsoft-provided Help do not overwrite partner- or customer-provided Help. Customers will be empowered to customize Help to reflect their company processes and workflow. Our goal is to make it as easy for customers to collaboratively extend context-aware Help as it is to write a Microsoft Word document, or create an HTML file, or a Microsoft SharePoint page, or contribute to a wiki. Partners and customers will be able to add instructional videos to their Help experience. Together these will empower users to define the assistance they need for their tasks in their individual companies.


For partners, we will work to continue to transition the Developer and IT Pro documentation to scenario-based Help, with walkthroughs, that maximizes partner productivity, and deliver it online. We will support a better-when-connected Help story so that partners can get the latest Help from online. We will integrate context-aware Help and improve F1 within the development environment: from within the code editor, object designers, and developer role center. We will support Microsoft Visual Studio scenarios by integrating Help with Microsoft Visual Studio as appropriate. We will include partner-focused instructional videos with the Help and/or link to videos on the internet. We will reduce the cost to implement custom Help by eliminating CHMs as the delivery format for Help. We will provide mechanisms for partners to extend Microsoft Dynamics NAV Help at a low cost, by integrating Help authoring into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV development process, and by using Microsoft Word, HTML, and Microsoft SharePoint. We will make it easy to extend Help with content on a partner Website.

EMBRACE SOFTWARE-PLUS-SERVICES Software-plus-services, Microsoft’s approach for the next generation of computing, is an industry shift that combines Internet services with client and server software to deliver more compelling opportunities and solutions. We will work to make Microsoft Dynamics NAV take advantage of this blended approach to provide customers with flexibility and choice in how they use, buy, deploy, and manage their business processes, such as finance, supply chain, sales and marketing, or operations. We expect customers to consider which delivery model to use depending on their unique characteristics and industry requirements.

We will work to make our products even more fitting for hosted deployments. We believe that more and more midmarket segment customers will want ERP functionality “in the cloud”. For Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we focus on making our solution more hostable by providing

• A setup and implementation guide for partners

• Hostable solutions through our partners

We will also incorporate “Attached Services” delivered from the Microsoft Online team as well as enabling partner delivered services. Examples of these attached services could be Payments, Commerce Service, Credit Rating, Credit Card Transaction import, and Address Validation to name a few.

Learn more about the Microsoft Dynamics Software-plus-Service Strategy.

RAPID TIME TO VALUE A key goal for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV strategy is to provide rapid time to value for our customers. This will require that we invest in three scenarios that are described below.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/softwareplusservices.mspx�

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• Shorter time to deployment: We will strive to ensure that Microsoft Dynamics NAV continues to be very easy to deploy, configure and learn for our customers.

• Even better productivity: We will continue to invest in research into how we can provide even better productivity for our customers by investigating how people work and how their work processes can be improved.

• Value of Upgrade: For existing customers we will strive to ensure a smooth upgrade path through improved upgrade tools and methodologies.

BETTER TOGETHER – HOW WE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES Microsoft Dynamics NAV can help organizations and partners utilize their investments in Microsoft technology. Our strategy is to continue to look for services and functionality provided by the .NET Framework, Windows, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office and emerging technologies that can create synergies and enhance the capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics NAV focusing on business productivity and optimizing the business processes of Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers.

We have a strong focus on Microsoft SharePoint technologies. Examples of this include the work that was carried out in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 utilizing Microsoft SharePoint technology and Web services to make it easier for partners to build portal solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint.

We are going to take advantage of new features and capabilities included in the forthcoming Microsoft Office 14. With the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Server we will enable our customers to take full advantage of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft SharePoint technology by delivering the previously mentioned SharePoint display target2

2) The name SharePoint display target will be changed upon release.

). We intend to focus on delivering a framework that covers new scenarios that will deliver the opportunity for optimizing business processes, improve collaboration, lead to faster and more insightful decision making and the ability to utilize the strengths of the structured Microsoft Dynamics NAV data.

Another key goal for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is to make sure that we take full advantage of all the new Microsoft technology waves for Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server. This means that we expect to support each new release of Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Server within 3 months following their general availability.


INCREASE PARTNER PRODUCTIVITY With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 we started the transition to the next generation architecture for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We introduced the RoleTailored client and thereby a new run time for Microsoft Dynamics NAV; however, we did not introduce a new development experience. The current release is therefore the first step in a transition to a completely new architecture and we expect the transition to be completed in the following two releases, Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” and Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8”.

Increasing partner productivity even more is a major goal for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. A big part of the products’ success is due to its integrated development environment (C/SIDE) which is proven to be fast to learn and simple to use. C/SIDE is perceived as a secure and reliable environment providing the right framework to allow partners to focus on the business pain they are trying to address instead of focusing on IT resources management.

Therefore, as we move forward, it is crucial to maintain a safe and easy development experience and thereby continue to offer a great environment for existing and future partners with business domain expertise as opposed to deep technology knowledge. The first step towards this goal will be to move to a RoleTailored developer experience including new tools, such as page and report designers, which are fully integrated into the RoleTailored Client. We will also focus on adding productivity enhancing functionality such as source and version control, debugging options, help file tools, and more.

Secondly, we want to make it easier for partners to attract new developers by extending the environment to include a .NET programming model through C# using a similar structure to today’s C/AL. This means that developers who are capable of using the wider possibilities in .NET and C# would be able to do so in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Additionally, all runtime will be based on managed code only, giving better solution quality, making maintenance and implementation easier, and opening up for new partner opportunities.

As part of our efforts to make partners more productive, we want to consolidate relevant application functionality from the local Microsoft Dynamics NAV into the global version. An example of this is Kitting functionality. This exists in a number of local country versions but we want to provide that kind of functionality in all our markets.

EXPAND AND STRENGTHEN OUR PRESENCE IN INDUSTRIES AND VERTICAL MARKETS Another key strength of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the enablement of partner-driven verticals and micro-verticals. We intend to increase our efforts to help and enable even more partners to take advantage of opportunities in vertical markets. A major factor in our vertical strategy includes providing partners with the best application platform for building micro-verticals. And, this means including functionality that provides value to as many partners as possible so partners can focus on their own industry-specific solutions that can help them

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grow their business as well as the appropriate tooling and infrastructure to support development and distribution of verticals. We will work towards building ISV and VAR capacity in a focused way around the Microsoft Dynamics NAV key industries, Manufacturing, Distribution and Professional Services, and we plan to provide horizontal functionality to support these industries. For Retail and Public Sector we will enable our partners to build micro verticals that meet the needs of our customers.

Figure 5: Microsoft Dynamics NAV – Industry Strategy and Focus Areas


PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Roadmap illustrated below covers our current product plans from 2009 through 2017. In the following sections you will find detailed information about our plans for each release.

Figure 6: Microsoft Dynamics NAV Roadmap

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV 2009 SERVICE PACK 1 The next release in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV product development roadmap is Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Service Pack 1 (SP1), scheduled for Q3 2009. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 builds upon the innovations introduced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 we are continuing to improve productivity for customers and partners. We want to ensure an easier upgrade to the new RoleTailored Client for Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers working on previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV as well

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as innovative Client Extensibility 3

3 ) Client Extensibility will be renamed upon release

) – a unique opportunity for partners to integrate 3rd party or custom built controls and UI parts into the RoleTailored user experience – for both existing and new customers.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 project will also include delivering some of the familiarity from the Classic Client user experience into the RoleTailored Client to encourage customers to upgrade, responding to feedback from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Early Access Program (TAP and Beta Access Program) on the RoleTailored Client and updating the product based on input from the market.

Database Options in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1

Today, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 contains two database stacks: The Classic Client working on either the native NAV database or Microsoft SQL Server database, and the RoleTailored Client with new the user experience working only on the Microsoft SQL Server database. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 will include both stacks as well; however, Microsoft SQL Server is the preferred database for Microsoft Dynamics NAV in all future releases. Therefore, we recommend that existing customers and partners consider this when they are planning an upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 or NAV “7”.

Reporting Enhancements in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 we will also focus on making reports even more dynamic. It will be possible to drill through to a report from a report based on a filter. For example, it will be possible to drill through from a pie chart and open a new report filtered on the section clicked in the pie chart. This will give customers even more insight into calculations and how data and information are related and calculations as well as provide a more in-depth reporting experience. Another new reporting capability will be Paging. When reports are executed these will now be sent in chunks to the requesting client. This impacts the memory footprint on the server dramatically, when a large report is executed, as memory consumption will be moved to the client enabling a higher performance of the server system.


Productivity Improvements for Customers in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 provides significant productivity improvements for customers as we have improved the following areas:

Scenario Description Data Entry Enhanced Keyboard Interaction; Auto-complete of

partial value; Next and previous record; In cell calculator; Copy Previous Value; Copy Cell Value; Matrix forms

Page Search Provide the user with the ability to search for a given page

Table Text Table Text Filtering in Matrix forms One-page data entry Pages, In-Matrix Editing, Filter

(changes) & Refresh User Defined Views Allow the user to save a given filtered list as a view on

the Navigation Pane User Configuration Add a splitter control that allows the user to configure

the minimum number of lines that should be displayed on the screen when entering orders

Progress indicators Provide the user with visual indicators when the system is busy progressing data

Data Emphasis Support the ability to emphasize data in the RoleTailored client through visual affects like colors and bold typeface

Productivity Improvements for Partners in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 specifically provides productivity improvements for partners with the following highlights:

Scenario Description Improved import support for COM

Enable fob import without COM type libraries required on the client performing the import

Client extensibility developer tools

Allow partners to add custom controls to the RoleTailored Client by providing C/SIDE tools for extending the client

Integrate visual elements Provide the ability for partners to integrate custom visual elements into pages in the RoleTailored Client

Edit and run on pages from C/SIDE

Pages: Improved developer experience for Pages

Data Zoom in the new client Debugging: Implement the data zoom functionality that was previously available in the Classic Client

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Additional Quality Improvements Planned for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1

In addition to these productivity gains – we also plan to make a number of enhancements and fixes that will ensure an even higher quality

Scenario Description Time Zones Allow connections across multiple time zones Improve NAV Server Enhanced streaming

Scalability and performance Reduce resource consumption for the NAV Server and improve overall performance of the NAV server

Jobs Enhanced Purchase Order integration for Jobs VAT Regulatory features for several countries; VAT 1:1

relationship between VAT and G/L

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “7” 2010-2011 For Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” we will focus even more on empowering our partners and customers to be more productive by developing the innovative RoleTailored approach and enhancing the business functionality. Furthermore, we intend to build on the client and service tier introduced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.

For Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7”, we are investing in application functionality to support partner industry enablement, such as providing Banking, project accounting, e-invoice functionality. We will also address the issues reported most often in pre-sales situations in order to help accelerate market penetration.

We plan to increase partner and customer productivity by focusing our development efforts on 5 key areas:

• Ensure compelling application functionality so that the product is easier and faster to deploy and partners can build more industry-specific functionality faster, such as invoicing and kitting

• Enable more users in an organization to be more productive with more user experience productivity enhancements and even tighter integration and interoperability with Microsoft Office and SharePoint. For example, we will provide the ability to use Microsoft SharePoint as part of the RoleTailored user experience as described earlier

• Provide Software + Services by attaching Dynamics Online Services and make it easier for partners to integrate with Web services and develop their own services within the cloud, such as credit card processing, customer credit rating check, to name a few

• Reduce time to value by ensuring continued simple and rapid deployment and maintenance with a scalable service tier, more support for international deployments, intuitive RoleTailored Client administration,


and greater use of existing Microsoft technologies including Microsoft SQL Server integration and Microsoft Sure Step to make installation even easier and reduce resource consumption

• Enhance possibilities for customization and extension by partners and developers, so partners can add richness and visualization to the client by building their own client components which they can add to the user experience

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” we expect that we will retire the native Microsoft Dynamics NAV C/SIDE database and support Microsoft SQL Server only. Customers and partners should consider this when they plan an upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7”.

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “8” 2013-2014 As we move into 2013-2014 we are planning to release Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8” where the C/SIDE and Classic client components will be retired and we will continue to focus on: Compelling Business Functionality, More Users More Productive, Software + Services, RoleTailored .NET Programming Environment within Microsoft Dynamics NAV and a Full .NET Runtime.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” we will have added a number of improvements in the application that will help customers and partners in our 5 industries. Secondly, we will have improved the application so our partners will be better equipped to address micro-vertical applications. This work will continue with Microsoft Dynamics NAV “8”.

We also will continue our efforts to ensure the productivity of Microsoft Dynamics NAV users. At the same time we plan to support business scenarios that will enable non-traditional ERP users to take advantage of the ERP functionality that Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides.

Improve developer and designer tools by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored UX principles, which ensures a simple-to-use, familiar User Interface for developers and consultants. We will release design tools that are integrated in the end-user client and thereby continue transition from C/SIDE providing a seamless experience connecting the business application to its design tools.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV “7” we will have started the transition to provide a RoleTailored user experience for our partners. This transition is expected to be done fully with Microsoft Dynamics “8” – at the same time, we also expect that we have a full .NET runtime environment which will benefit our customers and partners.

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MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAV “9” 2016-2017 As mentioned earlier in this Statement of Direction - Simplicity, adaptability and ease-of-use remain core product values and with each release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV we strive to deliver a product that empowers both partners and customers to build and grow a successful business.

For Microsoft Dynamics NAV “9” we want to continue investing in:

• Simplicity: We want to continue to make the usage of Microsoft Dynamics NAV as simple and desirable as possible.

• Productivity: We will continue to focus on business productivity for customers as a result of our core values. We will invest in application functionality, tools and processes that will enable our partners to provide the vertical and micro-vertical solutions fulfilling customer’s needs to be more productive.

• User Experience leadership – user experience will continue to be an important investment area as we will make the user experience even more desirable. Ultimately this will both help in making the system simple to use and still enable customers to be productive in their daily work.

• Take Advantage of Microsoft Technology – We will continue to take advantage of the investments and innovations that other Microsoft business groups are providing – especially within Microsoft Office – including SharePoint, as well as Server and Tools.

• From an application point of view, we will continue to invest in core horizontal application areas like regulatory requirements and functionality that will support our customers across various industries. We will also focus on functionality that will enable our partners to develop vertical and micro-vertical solutions.

• We will also monitor new trends or market requirements to ensure that we meet future needs like the reporting requirements for Environmental Sustainability. It is expected that the needs for Environmental Sustainability will change over the coming years and we want to help our customers meet the reporting requirements.

Overall, we will continue to provide rapid time to value for mid-sized organizations demanding an ERP solution which enables them to reach their full potential.


The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, this document should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property. © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, and the Microsoft Dynamics logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes in a way that helps you drive business success. U.S. and Canada Toll Free (888) 477-7989 Worldwide (1) (701) 281-6500 www.microsoft.com/dynamics

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