Microsoft released Navision 4.0, its ERP product suite that
integrates financial, manufacturing, distribution, customer management, supply chain, analytics
and e-commerce data.
The latest update is intended for smaller companies, divisions,
subsidiaries or branch offices with no more than 100 or so users. Developed at Microsoft’s Vedbaek, Denmark,
campus, Navision 4.0 will eventually be released in 39 languages
and 41 localized versions.
This is the first major Navision release since Microsoft
acquired Navision in 2002.
A new user interface, modeled after Microsoft Outlook 2003, lets users personalize their menu
structures while connecting to corporate data and resources outside of the application. Enhanced sales orders
capabilities and analysis tools include a graphical view of business analytics. The product introduces Business
Notification, which is built on Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services, and it includes an extensible markup language
(XML) port, so the application can exchange data with other applicants inside and outside the company.
Microsoft added templates for specific verticals, such as furniture, manufacturing and electronics engineering,
to reduce the time it takes to customize the software.
Navision 4.0 has been designed to enable partners and ISVs to develop and integrate extensions and enhancements,
including improved upgrade tools and the XML port feature.
Microsoft Navision 4.0 is available now in North America, six European countries and South Africa; additional
countries will follow. A typical Microsoft Navision configuration starts at an estimated retail price of $2,500
for a single user.
Microsoft acquired Axapta, Great Plains, Navision and Solomon, the four products that comprise the MBS
division, along with its sales channels and partners. Each provides basic enterprise resource planning (ERP)
functions, as well as a variety of specialized tools, such as project management and business analytics.
Microsoft recently shipped new versions of two other products in the MBS line:
Solomon 6.0 this month and
Great Plains 8.0 in June.
