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MICROSOFT ENCOURAGES DYNAMICS NAV CUSTOMERS FOR A SWITCH!

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is in use on the international markets for over 25 years now. This solution originated in the early 1990’s as the flagship product of the Danish company Navision Software. Microsoft acquired that company in 2002 and rebranded the solution to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. By using her worldwide distribution channels and through the efforts of thousands of implementation partners, Dynamics NAV became the market leader in the ERP market for SMB. In 2018, Microsoft announced the successor that is called Dynamics 365 Business Central. It now appears that Microsoft wants to motivate its Dynamics NAV customers to prepare for a switch.

While technologies evolve at a fast pace, Microsoft must constantly weigh the interests between the support of existing versions and innovation. That applies to operating systems like Windows 95 and 98 but also for ERP solutions. Microsoft’s general manager for Dynamics 365 in SMB Mike Morton said earlier that “Microsoft is committed to continue the support on Dynamics NAV, to continue with new releases and to keep these products on the roadmap for as long as we can foresee. There is no secret plan to stop releasing new on-premise versions”.

So that is comforting news for you as a Dynamics NAV user. Yet we see signs that Microsoft is slowly but surely trying to motivate this group of users to prepare for an upgrade. Here are some of these observations:

  • limiting the possibilities to further expand existing Dynamics NAV systems
  • phasing out mainstream support on older versions of Dynamics NAV
  • and more recently: the implementation of price increases

For the first time in years, Microsoft has announced a series of pricing changes for Dynamics NAV. From October 1st, 2022, customers with an annual maintenance contract for Dynamics NAV or Business Central on-premise will not pay 16, but 17 percent of the initial purchase value of their licenses. An increase of 1 percentage point.

And there’s more going on. Microsoft will charge a recurring fee for outdated customizations from January 1, 2023. Customers who still work on Dynamics NAV will pay extra costs when upgrading to Business Central on-premise if the developed customization is not in extensions and/or is not yet optimized for the cloud. This initiative is called Universal code. If your current customizations are not in extensions and not optimized for the cloud, you will pay more per user license per year from 2025. These costs are then added to the existing maintenance costs.

Fortunately, not all costs increase! Microsoft makes your switch to Business Central now extra attractive by offering a whopping 60 percent discount on the standard subscription costs. Find more about how we can help you stepping into the Cloud! All details here. (link – Bridge to the Cloud page)