MS Dynamics NAV on VSAT

Recently I have been engaged in an assignment where I had to access MS Dynamics NAV through VSAT. Till date I have seen implementations with Dial-up connection,Broadband, or leased line but this was the first of its kind. To have some more knowledge about the vsat you can follow the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_small_aperture_terminal
During the testing phase of this connectivity, I also tried to connect to the server directly with the client without using Citrix, the results were horrible. Please don't even try to perform the same for testing purpose also.

Secondly, We used citrix to connect to the NAV from the various remote locations. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP3 was used with SQL Server 2005 to have the database server. Another server was configured which is used as the citrix server which is being acessed from the various remote ocations to login to MS Dynamics NAV. What I specifically want to discuss out here in this post is, the latency time taken to connect to the database compared to the other media such as dial-up, broad band etc with the VSAT.

Generally the connection is quite slow with 512kbps of line, opening up the login screen and entering into the database requires 10-15 secs of time, while navigation between the panes may differ from 5 to 7 secs. What I observed during this entire testing process is the posting of the various documents that are present in the NAV. The time taken to create the documents may differ from user to used based on the aquintence of the system, but the posting routines to my surprise takes the same time as you do the same in the client server architecture.

Reversal Entry Posting Date

Most of the customers do complain about the same, here is the situation. The customer passes several journals in a month and at the end of the month its month closing which the management reviews and internal audfit of the same is carried ofut. Take for example the organization passes 5000 journals in the month of January and for which the accounts have been finalized. In the month of March it come to notice that out of 5000 entries 2000 entries are wrong and needs to be reversed. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 4.0 SP3 provides the provision to reverse the journal entries, but when this functionality is used it reverses the entries exactly on the date in which the entries were being posted implies that date of posting=date of reversal.

This raises a question at the time of internal/external audit as the accounts have been finalized for that month and eventually the entries are being reversed on a seperate date, having a misleading information in the system. If the question asked when the entry was reversed, we will not have an answer to the same.

To cater to this situation I have done a simple modification, in NAV SP3. This allows the user the user to reverse the entries, but the posting date of the reversed entries are based on the workdate as set in the application.

You can download the file from the following link.
http://groups.google.com/group/MSDynamics-arena/files

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 6.0

We were expecting to see the version 5.1 of Microsoft Dynamics NAV but Microsoft announced that the 5.1 will be named as 6.0 as this version of NAV has significant changes. After viewing the video of the sneak preview of 6.0 this was quite clear that yes this version has indeed enhanced a lot specifically in terms of the user interfacse and architecture, can't comment about the added functionalities and location that we will be able to see.

In case you want to have a preview of the same and learn more aboput the upcomming NAV 6.0 follow the link

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/products/navision/technicalpreview60.htm

Printing In Custom Paper Size

This is one of the aspect that many of us actually look for during the implementation- printing Navision reports on cutom paper sizes.

The answer to the same is simple, in the report designer donot put any papersize leave the same as blank. Run the report and previow the same. Now select the print option and set the paper size in which you want to print the report from the printer dialog box or you can use the paper sixe option.

Hope this will solve your problem.

Demand Planner For NAV

In the fast paced ear of Customer demand planing NAV provides the same with the demand planner.Demand Planner provides functionality for manufacturers and distributors of goods, helping them to effectively and efficiently establish a well-defined process for planning customer demand.

To get more information use the link given below:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/products/navision/demandplanner.htm?printpage=false

Price List Explanation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Now there are various models that exists for licensing of MS Dynamics NAV. This post will help you understand some of them.

1. For New Customers

For new customers you can go for the BRL(Business Ready Licensing) or AM(Advaced Management) Licensing module. The AM consists of all the modules and hardly anything is left that the user doesnot gets in the license(but still there are things that needs to be procured additionaly like service management[not an exhaustive list]). In case of the BRL some of them are left out like Inter Company Postings and many other things.

2. For Existing customers who are not upgrading the product.

There is only one answer to this question, MBL(Module Based Licensing), select the modules that you need in the liscence and get in touch with Micrososft for the same.

3. For Existing customers who are upgrading from the older version.

Now this is a tricky situation, you can directly jump from the MBL to BRL/AM based on the customers requirement, or you can stick to the same MBL. It all depends on the requirement and cost.

If you want to have a look at the explanation of each of the granules then you can see the Explanation sheet

Problem with Refresh of forms

A few days back, I was being asked a question. There is a problem with the refreshing of the forms in Navision, here is some narration of the situation.

When the user is working is working on two forms say Form-1 and Form-2 (as you know that you can work on multiple windows at the same time in Navision) simultaneously where the records fetched and modified in Form-1 becomes a factor of computation in another form Form-2. But we sometimes notice that the form is not properly updated and hence the user feels that there is something wrong with the system.

Well there is a quite a simple solution for this type of problems. there is a property of forms in Navision, updateonactivate, so when the user returns to the form, the system automatically updates the information in the form.