Business Central – Implementierung, Schritte, Herausforderungen

Das ERP Projekt

Wie es meist abläuft?

Gerade beim Starten einer ERP Einführung werden manchmal viele Fehler gemacht, bei kleineren Firmen im Besonderen. Budget und Zeit werden deutlich überschritten, Anforderungen werden nicht erfüllt.

Warum?

• Der aktuelle Software Partner nimmt das Projekt zu wenig ernst.
• Unerfahrene Junior Berater übernehmen das Projekt.
• Es wurde keine oder eine unzureichende Business Analyse durchgeführt.
• Das Projektmanagement hat schlichtweg versagt.
• Anforderungen werden nicht oder schlampig umgesetzt.
• Termine werden nicht eingehalten.
• Der Berater ist oft nicht erreichbar, hält keine Zusagen ein.
• Die behaupteten Ergebnisse sind nicht nachvollziehbar.
• Das Vertragswerk benachteiligt den Kunden erheblich.
• Die Basis Einrichtung, speziell die Fibu Einrichtung wird schlampig umgesetzt.
• Die Altdaten werden vor der Übernahme nicht bereinigt und korrigiert.
• Bei der Datenmigration wird unsauber gearbeitet, Folge sind Fehler bei den importierten Daten.
• Es wird viel zu wenig getestet.
• Die Mitarbeiter des Kunden werden viel zu wenig eingebunden.

Folgen

• Ärger mit dem Partner und der Software dauert oft Jahre.
• Ein Partnerwechsel wird kaum in Betracht gezogen, da das Risiko als zu hoch eingeschätzt wird.

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Wie sollte die Einführung von Business Central, generell von einem ERP System ablaufen?

• Mit einer umfassenden Business Analyse werden ihre Prozesse erfasst, obsolete Prozesse frühzeitig erkannt, Optimierungen werden vorgeschlagen.
• Die Analysen werden genau protokolliert und dokumentiert.
• Die Datenmigration wird detailliert vorbereitet, die Altdaten werden zuvor gesichtet, bereinigt, korrigiert.
• Die Buchhaltung wird genau besprochen, Kontenplan, Buchungsgruppen und dgl. Die Einrichtung wird entspechend vorbereitet.
• Die Berichte werden besprochen, Layout und Informationen definiert.
• Nötige Anpassungen werden erörtert.
• Ein Testsystem wird aufgesetzt, die Basis Einrichtung inkl. Fibu wird umgesetzt, ein wesentliches Set an Echtdaten wird übernommen, die Mitarbeiter des Kunden arbeiten damit, um das System kennenzulernen.
• Die besprochenen Anpassungen bei den Tabellen, Formularen, Berichten werden umgesetzt und getestet. Erforderliche Änderungen werden übernommen und ebenfalls getestet.
• Termine werden eingehalten, Hindernisse und Verschiebungen werden zeitgemäß bekanntgegeben.
• Das Projektmanagement arbeitet agil, Tasks werden in einem passenden Tool wie Jira oder MS Planner verwaltet.
• Nach erfolgreichen Tests mit dem Testsystem wird das Produktivsystem aufgesetzt, die Anpassungen (Tabellen, Formulare, Berichte, Schnittstellen) werden eingespielt, die Einrichtung incl. Fibu durchgeführt, die Datenmigration wird vorbereitet und Schritt für Schritt die Datenbank aufgebaut, die Eröffnungsbilanz eingerichtet, Abnahmetests schließen den Vorgang ab, der GoLive wird einige Tage bis Wochen begleitet, notwenige Änderungen und Korrekturen durchgeführt.

Freelance Consultant

Hi,

since a couple of years i work as freelance consultant, in the bc/nav area as well as business analyst and project manager.

If you are looking for support, want to implement bc, have issues with your bc or nav system or you are not satisfied with your current partner, feel free to contact me.

I provide consulting for Business Central and Navision. That contains business analysis, project management, license management, data migration, trainings, coding, reports.

Other services are business analysis and project management for every kind of software project as well as software evaluation.

As you may know i was an active member of the nav/bc community for many years, helped thousands to solve there issues. I do also have many years of project experience in various branches.

My company homepage: dfk-consult.at

So, you are welcome to contact me via

freelancermap, my homepage, mail

Dipl.Ing. Franz Kalchmair

ERP consultant, Business Analyst, Project Manager
Problem solver, Former MVP

Austria

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Pricing and Licensing

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Pricing and Licensing is now available on PartnerSource.

Visit the following page for more information (PartnerSource access required):https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/pricing-ordering/licensing-policies/Dyn365PricingandLicensing

There are also pricing and licensing training videos available.

For the “Existing Customer Guidance for Renewal” follow: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/global/pricing-ordering/pricing-ordering-news/Existing_Customer_Guidance_Renewal

 

 

Check License state of Objects

In Nav forums it’s quite often asked, how to check, if a object is within the current loaded license. There are some solutions for Nav 2009. I did not find a satisfying solution for newer Nav versions. So i’ve developed a “License Permission” Page, which lists Objects and their Permissions. Object IDs, which are not in the current loaded license, means there is no read or execute permission for that Object ID, are displayed red. When running the page the list of all nav objects in the database is loaded.

The buttons in the page:

Reload Base Objects: List all current database Object IDs
Swap Read Filter: Switch between 3 Read Permission Filter settings ” “, Yes|Inherited, No Filter
Swap Execute Filter: same as button above for Execute Permission
Custom Objects Filter: List objects between Object ID 50.000 and 99.999.

The object range buttons:

View Table Range: List all table Object IDs according the filter you set.
View Page Range: List all page Object IDs according the filter you set.
View Report Range: List all report Object IDs according the filter you set.
View CU Range: List all codeunit Object IDs according the filter you set.

You can download the page source code here.

The license information is saved in table “License Permission”. With a page on base of that table the windows client freezes, because the data load is really huge, especially, when filtering. So i developed that kind of solution.

cheers

Differences between Dynamics NAV and AX

An often asked question is: What are the differences between Dynamics Nav and AX?

In addition: There is a 3. ERP system provided by Microsoft, Dynamics GP, but this ERP system is only used in the US.

Dynamics Nav and AX are both used around the globe.Both were originally developed by danish companies, Navision and Damgaard (Axapta). The companies merged 2000 and were sold to Microsoft 2002. Microsoft rebranded both ERP systems: Axapta became Dynamics AX, Navision became Dynamics NAV. Both systems are quite successful.

From the historical view AX was mainly used for big companies and/or companies with many branches (sectors). NAV was meant for small and mid sized companies. Nowadays it does not matter, which ERP system you buy, if you do not have one. Both systems use sql server as database. Since vs. 2013 NAV can also be used in big companies with large amount of data, the data connector between Nav and Sql Server works fine since that version. NAV is in many ways easier to use and easier to install. One of the reasons, why NAV is more successful. The finance module is in NAV also better than that one of AX. AX is the choice, if you have many different branches in your company. Both systems can be customized, both can be extended with additional modules. For AX there is a quite long list of localised versions, that one of NAV is quite short. So maybe your country is not on the official list. But i’ve posted a list of localizations developed by nav partners. This list can also be helpful for you to find a capable partner.

A big point is the license model of Microsoft according both ERP systems. Depending on your needs the NAV license could be more expensive than that one of AX (perpetual license). For licensing best contact a partner for license/asset management, e.g. QBS.

Both systems are available in the cloud (azure), Nav earlier than AX. For both systems there are mobile solutions.

Critics about NAV may contain:

• It’s slow: The windows client (RTC) is not very fast, the base tech (WPF) is too complex, so the rendering of the pages/windows lasts …. the client pcs should have a good graphics device. The number of (open) pages can be very big, because the handling was solved not very good, not very usable, means to navigate can be a challenge. Nav was fast till Nav 2009 Classic Client. There the client used simple windows forms (all was grey and white). The navigation was also better.
• Reporting is slow and expensive: Customizing/adding classic reports was much easier than now using the sql reports. It’s right, the sql reports (rdlc) are no good tech, slow and the customization lasts about 3 times comparing to an old classic report. The new word reporting did not change the situation.

In general the best is to talk to NAV and AX partners in your region about the special needs of your company. Maybe a partner has a good branch solution and branch knowhow. Also check the terms and costs for customization and maintenance.

Additional postings:

• http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/2011/03/the-real-difference-between-microsoft-dynamics-nav-and-ax/
• http://www.elvadms.com/differences-microsoft-dynamics-nav-dynamics-ax/
• http://www.tvisiontech.co.uk/blog/dynamics_ax_v_nav.html
• http://www.opendoor.ca/2014/04/the-difference-between-microsoft-dynamics-ax-nav-and-gp/

cheers

How to vote on Microsoft.Connect

Weeks ago i’ve voted for a new dynamics nav feature. It was not easy  to do that. Other people had also problems with that. So for those, who also like to suggest new features or ask for hotfixes, there is a guide:

• Goto http://connect.microsoft.com/.
• Sign in with your Live account or create one: Top right corner, drop down list, select `Microsoft Account`. To sign in you need special product permissions. If you get a “Access denied” message, you have to less permissions. Then please contact your nav partner or microsoft support.
• After logging in, search through the product directory for Dynamics NAV and join the NAV Group. That’s needed for further options.
• Select then Microsoft Dynamics from the drop down in the top right.
• There you click “Search existing” and search for “Notifications”, then select the bug/feature from the list.
• Now you can vote . If you want, you can write a feedback e.g. “That’s an annoying bug, the customers call me every day, …”.

Table Permissions for Limited Users

With Nav 2013 a new License Model was introduced. Especially the new Limited User License is a bit hard to understand. First of all: full read access is permitted. But … write access is very strong limited. It’s said, that within a write transaction 3 tables are allowed to access, But … it’s not described, how to do that. That is not easy to handle, especially for developers. 😦  But ok. It would be interesting, how the Microsoft Developers themselves handle that limitation.
What does that mean at the end? When writing your own code, always check your list of used tables. A maximum of only 3 tables, you use, might not be listed in “Appendix A”, within your code snippet!
At least there are a couple of tables, that can be used anyway. Following is the original text out from the “Dynamics ERP Perpetual License Guide”.

Limited User licenses for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 provide users full read, but limited write capabilities to all of the licensed solution functionality through any and all modes of access including the Windows Client. The Limited User license is designed to give customers a lower-cost alternative for extending ERP to users who only need to perform the following tasks:

• “Read access” to data contained in the ERP solution through any client accessing the application via the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Application Programming Interface (API) including but not limited to the User Interface Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• “Write access” via the Timesheet functionality
• “Write access” through any client accessing the ERP solution via the Microsoft Dynamics NAV API to a maximum of 3 table objects in any range number with the following exceptions:
  • limited users are not allowed to write to any of the following tables: General Ledger (table 17), Permission Set (table 2000000004), Permission (table 2000000005) or Access Control (table 2000000053) and
  • any table described in Appendix A as “Limited User Included Tables” do not count towards the 3 table objects

APPENDIX A – Limited User Included Tables
The following tables do not count towards the maximum of 3 permitted for Limited Users in Microsoft
Dynamics NAV. Last updated 20 November 2012 (11 tables added)

Table	Table Name	Table	Table Name
43	Purch. Comment Line	5123	Inter. Log Entry Comment Line
44	Sales Comment Line	5125	Purch. Comment Line Archive
51	User Time Register	5126	Sales Comment Line Archive
97	Comment Line	5150	Integration Page
309	No. Series Line	5151	Integration Record
336	Tracking Specification	5199	Attendee
337	Reservation Entry	5648	FA Allocation Dimension
355	Dimension Ledger Entry	5766	Warehouse Activity Header
356	Journal Line Dimension	5772	Registered Whse. Activity Hdr.
357	Document Dimension	5773	Registered Whse. Activity Line
358	Production Document Dimension	5814	Inventory Period
359	Posted Document Dimension	6550	Whse. Item Tracking Line
361	G/L Budget Dimension	7135	Item Budget Dimension
389	Service Contract Dimension	7310	Warehouse Journal Batch
405	Change Log Entry	7311	Warehouse Journal Line
455	Approval Line Comment	7312	Warehouse Entry
480	Dimension Set Entry	7313	Warehouse Register
481	Dimension Set Tree Node	7318	Posted Whse. Receipt Header
952	Time Sheet Detail	7319	Posted Whse. Receipt Line
953	Time Sheet Comment Line	7320	Warehouse Shipment Header
5050	Contact	7321	Warehouse Shipment Line
5051	Contact Alt. Address	7322	Posted Whse. Shipment Header
5052	Contact Alt. Addr. Date Range	7323	Posted Whse. Shipment Line
5054	Contact Business Relation	7324	Whse. Put-away Request
5061	Rlshp. Mgt. Comment Line	7325	Whse. Pick Request
5062	Attachment	7326	Whse. Worksheet Line
5065	Interaction Log Entry	7331	Whse. Internal Put-away Header
5072	Campaign Entry	7332	Whse. Internal Put-away Line
5075	Logged Segment	7354	Bin
5078	Segment History	2000000067	User Default Style Sheet
5080	To-do	2000000068	Record Link
5106	Document Dimension Archive	2000000073	User Personalization
5107	Sales Header Archive	2000000075	User Metadata
5108	Sales Line Archive	2000000080	Page Data Personalization
5109	Purchase Header Archive	2000000111	Session Event
5110	Purchase Line Archive

Source: Page 6 and Appendix A in Dynamics ERP Perpetual Licensing Guide.