Implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is the latest release of the NAV application (formerly known as Navision) from the Microsoft Dynamics family of products that brings a 3-tiered architecture, web services enablement, and many more exciting features, to the well established Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.

Although Dynamics NAV is carefully designed for ease of use, attaining measurable business gains requires an understanding of business, finance, analysis and design techniques, programming skills, and the ability to manage complex projects coupled with an expert knowledge of the product itself.

This book distils hard won experience into an easy to follow guide to implementing the full power of Dynamics NAV in your business. It won't just tell you how to do it; it will show you how to do it. It will help you to become a better consultant or developer by providing practical examples and expert advice.

From an introduction to the new RoleTailored user interface to a series of practical web services programming tutorials, you will gain a deep understanding of what NAV 2009 has to offer compared to previous versions. With a strong emphasis on practical examples, we take you through the implementation process and provide guidance on configuring the Chart of Accounts and Dimensions for financial analysis, how to use the Rapid Implementation Toolkit (RIM) to reduce implementation effort and an overview of the Sure Step implementation methodology. You will learn how to take a business problem through to a working solution using industry standard techniques such as use-case modelling and object-role modelling. We will teach you how to design and develop NAV objects including the new Page object and the Client Reporting Services report layouts.

Explore the new features of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, and implement the solution your business needs

• Discover the new features in NAV 2009 such as the 3-tiered architecture, the RoleTailored client, and Web Services Enablement
• Learn about the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model and how to apply Role-Centric Thinking to your NAV implementations
• Avoid common implementation mistakes by benefiting from the expert insights of NAV consultants with over 20 years of ERP experience
• Improve your solution design expertise with basic accounting principles
• Explore the extensive personalization capabilities of the RoleTailored client
• Discover programming for non-programmers by creating NAV objects without writing code
• Learn about the phases in Sure Step and why an implementation methodology is so important to successful projects
• Create useful add-ons and extend your core application using web services enablement

Here is a brief summary of what each chapter covers:

1 – Introducing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009
The purpose of this chapter is a teaser introduction to get people excited about the product, what’s in it in general, and what’s in it as compared to previous versions, to give them a little taste of what’s coming up in the book, and explain what the fuss about this new release is all about.

2 – The RoleTailored Client
The RoleTailored Client is the new user interface for users of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and it is completely different to the pervious versions. We’ll take you through the different components of the interface, introduce the terminology, explore the navigation components and page types and teach you how to personalize the application to meet your own requirements using the extensive personalization features.

3 – Roles and the Customer Model
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 introduces a new paradigm to ERP. Instead of the system being focused on the forms that capture and present data and the functions the user can perform, the system is based around the individuals within an organization, their role and the tasks they perform. We cover how Microsoft researched the roles and explore the departments, roles and tasks that have been identified in the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Model. We also show the reader how to assign the standard roles to the users, how to create new roles and how to allow departmental super users to configure the application for their role so that the change is applied to all users with the same profile.

4 – The Implementation Process
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is not a product with a Next-Next-Finish type of installation and it takes a lengthy project to deploy it successfully. We focus on the six phases of the implementation process, and explain each phase with details of what to do and what not to do in a typical implementation. Based on the Dynamics Sure Step implementation methodology with advice liberally sprinkled throughout, special attention is given to new features of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, and where the new capabilities must be taken into account to make the most out of the implementation project.

5 – Configuring the System
Every implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 will require the system to be configured to meet the needs of the business. This chapter tells the implementation consultant how to do this from a core financials perspective and provides valuable information that will allow developers to understand more about the application they are changing. We cover basic accounting for programmers, dimensions and posting groups, and how to use the Rapid Implementation Methodology (RIM) Toolkit to speed things along.

6 – Modifying the System
Hardly any standard system can fit the needs of a business out of the box. Either the customer must shape their processes to match the system, or the consultant must shape the system to match the processes, and usually the latter prevails. This chapter explains the process of modifying the system, how to design a viable data model and how to design and develop a functional user interface for both RoleTailored and Classic clients, without writing any code.

7 – Extending the Application
The three-tiered architecture of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and native web services enablement opens up a whole new world of possibilities for NAV implementations. We cover some of the many possibilities for extending the application, allowing the consultant and developer to understand the technologies that are available and their respective design considerations. Our practical examples introduce the NAV programmer to the world of .NET and show how you can use the information available on the internet to develop your own killer .NET add-ons.

8 – The Development Lifecycle
There’s much more to development than programming. It starts with understanding what the customer really needs, and usually extends way beyond the system being deployed to a test environment. This chapter focuses on the development phase, and what it takes to get from a concept to a live and working solution.

9 – Troubleshooting
After the system goes live, or as it grows, there are periods when new problems may arise, and often their source is far from obvious. This chapter explores the tools and techniques available for detecting problems, pinpointing the source, and helping to remove them from the system quickly and painlessly. It explains how to debug the Service Tier, how to troubleshoot performance issues, what can be done to avoid problems and how proper planning before design can help to get it right the first time.

10 – Sample Application
Our sample application focuses on requirements gathering, functional specification creation, solution design and the eventual build of a prototype. We look at how a business problem can be explored using techniques such as interviewing, use-case modeling, and object-role modeling to create a solution design that can be molded into a working prototype.
The sample application is a real-world Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 add-on that could provide genuine business benefit to companies that use Microsoft Dynamics NAV if extended into a finished application.

Written in an easy-to-read style, this book is a refreshing alternative to the official Microsoft training and reference material which, although comprehensive, can sometimes be tiring to read. This is not a reference book, although you may find you refer to it often, giving you access to years of experience in implementing and programming Dynamics NAV. You will learn all the new features in NAV 2009, without needing to invest significant study time.

Dynamics NAV implementation consultants and developers that want to quickly understand the new features offered in the 2009 release.

NAV consultants that want to learn more about programming and extensibility without needing to learn a programming language will also benefit from this book.

NAV programmers that want to learn about finance configuration and solution design in order to be a better programmer and design better solutions can also use this book.