[nom] to know about upgrading
[nom]
PAGE 1 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
CONTENTS
Why upgrade · 3
Worksheet: Change drivers · 5
How to upgrade · 6
Worksheet: Upgrade options 9
Get started · 10
Introduction
In April 2018, Microsoft launched Dynamics 365
Business Central as ‘a convergence point for Dynamics SMB products…Dynamics SL, Dynamics GP, and older versions of Dynamics
NAV’.
This shift took the most successful product from each solution category forward into the new brand. For ERP, they’ve kept Dynamics AX (now
Finance & Operations) for large enterprises and NAV (now Business Central) for the SMB market.
Though the brand is new, the source code comes from NAV 2018. supported by a long history of success. The rebrand shows
Microsoft’s commitment to taking NAV forward into its vision for the future.
However, this is not to say that Microsoft
Dynamics NAV is obsolete. Businesses running
NAV can continue to do so and will be supported in line with Microsoft’s Lifecycle Policy. As always, NAV customers can continue to purchase additional licenses as and when they
[nom] to.
Having said that, there will always be benefits to upgrading on a semi-regular basis so as not to fall out of support or be left with an antiquated
ERP that doesn’t fit with the rest of your infrastructure – it’s like trying to run Windows 95 on a brand new Surface.
We’ll presume that we’re preaching to the converted on the general benefits of NAV upgrade, since [nom]’ve downloaded this whitepaper, and just focus on issues specific to Business Central. The biggest change is a shift from concurrent user licenses to named users.
This reflects a shift in the software market as a whole and Microsoft are offering a number of incentives to NAV customers to smooth that transition. In this whitepaper, our aim is to provide
[nom] with a toolkit to make your own informed decision on when and how [nom] should make the jump to Business Central.
Jay Tahasildar
Director, Mercurius IT
PAGE 2 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
WHY UPGRADE?
With any infrastructure change, there will always be push factors (things that are bothering [nom] about your current solution) and pull factors (things that would be great about having a new solution) that drive change. An upgrade to Business Central is no different.
As [nom]’re reading through the scenarios, try to imagine what would happen if your business faced these situations. We’ve included a worksheet on page 5 to help [nom] identify the change drivers in your own business based on the gravity of the consequences and how likely they are to occur.
WHAT IF YOUR DYNAMICS NAV
INSTANCE WENT DOWN TOMORROW?
How many orders would [nom] miss? How many customers would [nom] lose to competitors? How much revenue would [nom]
miss out on? How long before [nom] could get the system back up and running?
If [nom]’re using NAV 2013 R2 or earlier, [nom]’re no longer supported by Microsoft. This means no bug fixes and no improvements.
Of course, [nom] can still rely on your local partner for change requests and how-to queries, but what happens when the issue is with the product itself and needs to be escalated to the same team that built it?
WHAT IF AN UPGRADE COSTS 40%
MORE 2 YEARS DOWN THE LINE?
The longer [nom] leave it to upgrade Dynamics
NAV, the more it’s likely to cost [nom]. There’s a sizeable difference in the work required to upgrade to NAV 2018 from NAV 4.0 or 5.0 compared with NAV 2009.
Microsoft is currently bridging the gap with discounts and incentives for existing NAV customers to upgrade to Business Central, but this won’t always be the case.
If [nom]’ve not been paying your BREP, things can get even more expensive. To take advantage of free licenses when [nom]
upgrade, [nom]’ll [nom] to repay your BREP at 16% per year plus a 3% penalty.
It’s easy to see that this won’t get any cheaper the longer [nom] leave it.
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WHAT IF [nom]’RE FINED £17,000,000 BY THE ICO?
What if a customer exercises their right to erasure and [nom] miss a key piece of data? What if [nom]’re unable to comply with Making Tax
Digital or industry-specific regulations?
Microsoft has released updates to ensure NAV
2015 and newer versions are compliant with both the GDPR and Making Tax Digital.
However for those who are using older versions, it’s up to [nom] to ensure [nom] remain compliant.
The ICO has the power to issue a fine up to 20 million euros should [nom] be found to be non-compliant.
WHAT IF [nom] COULD GET THE LATEST
MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY AT A MINMAL
COST?
Microsoft has made significant investments in the research and development of Dynamics 365 to create a modern, intelligent suite of business applications.
To make the most of Microsoft’s current and future investment, as well as your own investment in terms of licenses and annual BREP, it does make sense to upgrade to Business
Central.
What if [nom] could:
- Use market-leading AI technology to predict late payments
- Use natural language search to find functions within Business Central
- Copy and paste rows the same way [nom] would in Excel
Microsoft has made sure that Business Central integrates seamlessly with other products in the Microsoft ecosystem, including the other
Dynamics 365 applications, Office 365 and the Microsoft Power Platform (Power BI, PowerApps and Flow).
PAGE 4 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
WORKSHEET: CHANGE DRIVERS
Plan to mitigate risk
Total rating (severity x probability)
Probability of occurrence
(0-5)
Gravity of consequences
(0-5)
Your NAV instance goes down and [nom] are left without [nom] postpone your upgrade and ultimately pay more [nom] are non-compliant with the GDPR or Making Tax Digital
Scenario · support
[nom] can improve efficiencies with new technology Add your own scenario
PAGE 5 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
HOW TO UPGRADE
As we mentioned earlier, Microsoft is offering a number of incentives to ease the transition for NAV customers moving to Business Central.
Which offer is most relevant and financially beneficial for [nom] will depend on your user numbers, current deployment method and future plans for growth.
We recommend [nom] work through each section methodically, calculating the cost as
[nom] go. We’ve also included a worksheet on page 9 to help [nom] compare your options.
A WORD ON LICENSING
With the move to Microsoft Dynamics 365
Business Central, we will no longer see yearly releases of the solution but will instead get bi-annual updates in April and October.
Business Central licenses come in two tiers, Essentials and Premium, similar to the functionality of NAV’s Standard Pack and Extended Pack respectively. Premium includes the additional modules of Service
Order Management and Manufacturing.
Instead of Limited Users, we’ll now see Team
Member licenses, with read access across the solution and write access to a maximum of three table objects, excluding General Ledger entries.
[nom] cannot mix and match Essentials and Premium licenses and [nom] must have at least one Essentials or Premium license before adding Team Members.
As with NAV, [nom]’ll still be able to choose from perpetual or subscription licenses. Perpetual means owning the licenses outright, with a larger initial investment, often working out cheaper in the long run. Subscription means paying on a per user/month basis, with a smaller initial investment, providing more flexibility to increase or decrease license numbers in the future.
OPTION 1: BUSINESS CENTRAL ON-
PREMISES PERPETUAL
Get 2 named users for every 1 concurrent NAV user
The first way Microsoft is helping existing NAV customers upgrade to Business Central On-premises is by offering 2 named Business
Central users for every 1 concurrent NAV user purchased before 1st October 2018. This means that if [nom] have the minimum requirement of the Starter Pack, [nom] end up with 6 Essentials users.
PAGE 6 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
For example:
Starter Pack (no Extended Pack) = 6 Essentials users
Full user (no Extended Pack) = 2 Essentials users
Starter Pack (with Extended Pack) = 6 Premium users
Full user (with Extended Pack) = 2 Premium users
Limited user = 1 Team Member
Microsoft’s Upgrade Policy document gives a much more detailed breakdown to help [nom]
calculate how many users [nom]’d get with this offer.
OPTION 2: BUSINESS CENTRAL ON-
PREMISES SUBSCRIPTION
Host on azure and save
[nom] also have the option to purchase Business
Central licenses on a per user/month basis, requiring a smaller initial investment and providing more flexibility to increase license numbers as [nom]
grow. By hosting those licenses on Microsoft
Azure, [nom] have an even bigger opportunity to save, with Microsoft offering a substantial discount. Of course, [nom] have to consider the cost of the Azure hosting itself. This is usually around
£30 a month but the majority of the time it does come in cheaper than running a server on your own premises or outsourcing to a local partner.
For example:
Premium—£60 down to £50 (per user/month)
Essentials—£42 down to £35 (per user/month)
Team Member—£7.50 down to £5.50 (per user/month)
OPTION 3: BUSINESS CENTRAL SAAS
Save 40% on licenses until June 30th 2021
[nom] are also able to deploy Business Central as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. SaaS deployments have licenses and hosting included in one monthly subscription, much like the way
[nom] might subscribe to Netflix. Business Central
SaaS is slightly more limited in terms of scope for customisation, however [nom] can still utilise
Extensions 2.0 to enhance your solution.
PAGE 7 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
Microsoft is offering a 40% discount on Business
Central SaaS licenses for existing Microsoft
Dynamics customers (as of 1st April 2018), due to run until June 30th 2021.
For example:
Premium—£75.40 down to £45.24 (per user/month)
Essentials—£52.79 down to £31.67 (per user/month)
Team Member—£6 down to £3.60 (per user /month)
BUSINESS READY ENHANCEMENT PLAN
(BREP)
One other important consideration is whether
[nom]’re up-to-date with your Business Ready
Enhancement Plan (BREP) payments. BREP is an annual maintenance fee paid to Microsoft, calculated at 16% of your original license cost.
[nom] can only take advantage of the offers in this whitepaper if [nom] are up-to-date with your BREP but, if [nom] haven’t been paying, there is a simple calculation to work out how much [nom] owe (16% of your original license price per year, plus a 3% penalty). This will help [nom] evaluate whether it makes more sense to backpay your BREP or re-enrol as a new customer. However, it is worth noting that, by the laws of maths, the longer [nom]
leave it the more it will cost to backpay.
For example:
Back pay + re-enrolment fee + future year
License List price is £10,000. Lapsed 420 days
£10,000 *(16%+3%)/365 = £5.21 per day
£5.21*420 days + (16%*£10,000) = £3,788.20
Microsoft’s policy on re-enrolment fees is also a great resource if BREP repayment is something that affects [nom].
PAGE 8 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
WORKSHEET: UPGRADE OPTIONS
NAV PERPETUAL CUSTOMERS
Continue to buy additional licenses as and when required from the existing price list and move to Business Central when [nom]'re ready.
- Upgrade to Business Central On-premises
Perpetual
Swap your concurrent licenses for named licenses when [nom] upgrade. Get
2 named users for every 1 concurrent user bought before 1st October 2018.
Then add any additional licenses as and when required from the Business
Central price list:
Premium—£1878
Essentials-£1341
Team Member (similar to Limited User functionality)—£268
- Upgrade to Business Central SaaS
Move to a Business Central SaaS subscription and get 40% off licenses until 30th June 2021. Drop your BREP payments by moving to SaaS and take advantage of dual-use rights, allowing
[nom] to deploy an on-premises tenant in addition to your SaaS solution for free.
Notes:
NAV SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMERS
Automatically move to Business Central subscription pricing on 1st October
2019. Until then, continue to add additional licenses as and when required from the existing price list.
- Upgrade to Business Central On-premises
Subscription
Upgrade to Business Central now and pay lower subscription costs. Host your solution in Microsoft’s Azure cloud for an extra discount.
- Upgrade to Business Central SaaS
Move to a Business Central SaaS subscription and get 40% off licenses until 30th June 2021. Take advantage of dual-use rights, allowing [nom] to deploy an on-premises tenant in addition to your SaaS solution for free.
PAGE 9 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
GET STARTED
As well as Microsoft’s incentives to upgrade, we have also extended our highly successful Fixed
Price NAV Upgrade offer to existing customers wanting to upgrade to Business Central.
Our customers have seen their upgrade bills reduced by up to 60%, saving them more than
£25,000. By quoting at a fixed price, we shoulder the risk of project overrun for [nom].
Our competitive rates also mean that we usually come in much lower than other quotes [nom] might receive, which tend to average £800-£1000 day.
If [nom]’re interested in upgrading to Business Central, we’d love to have a chat to understand your requirements in more depth. Get in touch for a no-obligation Fixed Price Upgrade quote.
[nom] support?
Are [nom] paying for NAV support as a fixed annual or monthly fee or as a percentage of your license costs? Our Pay
As [nom] Go MaxCare Support starts at just £55/hour, so [nom]
only pay for the support [nom]
[nom]. With Mercurius IT, [nom]
are guaranteed value-added services at the best possible price.
GET IN TOUCH
24 Shenley Pavilions
Chalkdell Drive
Shenley Wood
Milton Keynes MK5 6LB
UNITED KINGDOM
[téléphone] (Office)
[téléphone] (Fax)
[e-mail]
PAGE 10 NAV UPGRADE | MERCURIUS IT
