Since the release of Navigator 2009, I have had on my task list the need to update our Serenic Navigator Decentralized Technical White Paper.  If you are familiar with this white paper, then you understand the implications of the new Dynamics NAV 3-tier architecture for the   decentralized deployment of Serenic Navigator.  The recent announcement of NAV R2 further reveals how Microsoft is moving Dynamics NAV into the “cloud.”  How does this impact your organization if you have already or are getting ready to deploy Navigator in a decentralized environment?

NAV R2 will basically eliminate the need for Citrix or Terminal Services.  As mentioned in the press release, “this allows for remote or roaming users to take advantage of the richness and Microsoft Office integration of the RoleTailored interface and the many integration features connected to local resources, such as the operating system and Microsoft Office.” As the underlying architecture for Serenic Navigator (Dynamics NAV) continues to evolve, the deployment options have become even more flexible.

When I first wrote the decentralized white paper three years ago, the following options were available:

• Citrix or Terminal Services to deploy the NAV classic client
• Serenic Portal Services
• Data Backbone Replicator 4.21

Today, we have multiple clients around the world that run Serenic Navigator using these options.  One particular organization can open Microsoft Excel at headquarters, hit refresh and know the accounts payable balance for their Swaziland operating company.  They can do this daily.  Since the introduction of Navigator 2009 and with the upcoming release of NAV R2, completely new and exciting options are now available:

• NAV role-tailored client deployed using Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)
• Serenic Portal Services that now uses native NAV web services
• Excel templates utilizing web services
• RapidiOnline (formerly Data Backbone) Replicator OnDemand

Now more than ever, the technical challenges of deploying software across the world have greatly been reduced.  The toolbox has definitely expanded and we haven’t even mentioned SaaS J–yet.

Until next time…

A few weeks ago, I was in Copenhagen, Denmark to participate in the second Software Design Review (SDR) for NAV ‘7’.  The agenda is made up of multiple sessions where product managers and developers from Microsoft interact with select partners on functionality they plan to incorporate into future releases—a very iterative and productive process.  Unfortunately, I am unable to elaborate on the details of NAV ‘7’ , but the sessions did inspire me to write this blog.

I have been working with Dynamics NAV since version 2.6 when Dynamics NAV was marketed as “business your way.” Back then, Steve Ballmer made statements like, “I want to be Denmark.” This referenced the success of vertical solution offerings based on Dynamics NAV in Denmark, and therefore, a business model Microsoft needed to replicate worldwide.

After concluding the SDR, I really had to ask myself whether the current Microsoft Dynamics tag line of “People-Ready™” really does the NAV product line justice.  I kind of like the old messaging, as I think it better promotes the capabilities of NAV.  In fact, I predict that there is going to be an increase in the number of organizations not only using NAV as an ERP product, but adopting the underlying Dynamics NAV framework as a development platform.

Microsoft develops NAV based on these five basic values:

• Simplicity
• Productivity
• Continuously take advantage of Microsoft technology
• User experience leadership
• Rapid time-to-value

From what I could tell, NAV ‘7’ stays true to every one of these values. I look forward for when this version is available, so Serenic can continue to take advantage of the underlying NAV framework to further enhance or build new accounting software solutions for our nonprofit market.  Some really cool stuff is making its way into the underlying framework!

Until then, as a current (or future) nonprofit, NGO or public sector organization using Navigator, I might suggest that you consider expanding the vision of what this framework can do for you. Serenic and our partners have many nonprofit clients who have utilized the base Dynamics NAV framework within Serenic Navigator to incorporate functionality that displaced internally-built Microsoft Access, Excel or other 3^rd-party solutions, thereby enabling a more truly integrated overall solution—this premise being that you have a centralized development environment and can deliver a unified user experience (our most recent 2009 version made this proposition even more appealing).

I don’t know that people will be standing in line at midnight like they did when Windows 95 was released, but the future looks bright for the Dynamics NAV camp and I would suggest that any investment in the NAV framework will be supported well into the future.

By James Duplinski, Senior Implementation Consultant

After working with Serenic Navigator over the years, I’ve noticed that there can be several approaches to starting a new implementation. Some people immediately jump into the software and have the user start entering setup data. Others take an approach of defining exactly what should be setup by spending months defining business processes and mapping work flows. In my experience, the best approach lies somewhere in the middle of these two models.

When I first started working with software about 10 years ago, I’ll admit I used the approach that would have the users immediately go into the software, and I would explain to them every little setup option and how to enter data once they decided how they wanted the system to work. This would typically involve going over all the options with a handful of users for several days as I tried to impart everything the user needed to know to make an informed decision. While on the surface this seems logical, I found when I followed up with them in our next session, very little setup had been done.

The reason the setup was incomplete wasn’t due to a lack of effort from the users. Rather, it was the fact that there are many setup options in Serenic Navigator and proper consultation on which direction to go can be of great help. Serenic Navigator is highly configurable and can be set up many ways. This is great, but can be a double-edged sword. There are hundreds of ways to setup it up incorrectly and only a few ways to set it up correctly for individual needs!

After experiencing this result several times, I modified how I approached the initial kickoff meeting. Now, I spend our first meeting with the key users talking about their business practices and issues, and I don’t even display the software during that initial kickoff. As part of standard Serenic practice, I also fill out a Concept Document, which touches on all of the major factors when setting up a database. This document serves as the agreement between me and the client as to how their business works, and the client signs off on this document as acknowledging that we are both on the same page.

After this initial meeting and signing of the Concept Document, I take all I have learned about their business and set up a database for them. I can generally return it to them within 1-2 weeks with all the basic setup completed. This gives the users the chance to play around with this configured database, check the results of their transaction entries, and verify whether I have set it up correctly or not. After practicing in the database and confirming that the transactions are posting correctly, I can then go back through the setup options I chose for the client. Here, I explain why I made those choices and how they affect the system. This approach has proved to be the most successful. I get a better understanding of their business, and the client can more narrowly focus on their test and setup efforts.

The only time I do get comments about this approach is in that first meeting, and it is generally from users who just want to jump right into the software and start clicking on buttons. I understand that people can be anxious to jump right in and it does seem like I am holding a holiday present in front of them, but telling them they can’t open it until after the New Year! I like the fact that they are interested in jumping in, but I still have to convey that this is an important step. Not only do I get them a test database more quickly with this approach, I also learn about their business and can ask more informed questions about their business practices, ultimately providing the best configuration possible. That is why I say that the accounting software implementation doesn’t begin with the software; it starts with conversations about how the custom install of YOUR Serenic Navigator will fit your nonprofit needs and empower your mission.

A great post in our SerenicSource forum that we had to share with the rest of you. Thanks, Jeremy, for such great insight!

One of the features that used to really get folks pretty excited when I would be rolling out a Navigator install was the ability to have emails hit their inbox when things needed Approval, either due to business process or for budget control. We’d spec out who got which notifications, all the nuances. One to two weeks later, they’d have it disabled.

Why? For a small array of reasons, but the two biggest reasons were: “I have to open up Navigator to approve it anyway, so why should the trigger be in my mail box?” and “I got 120 emails this morning alone!”

Starting in Serenic Navigator 5.0 Improvement 2, E-Mail Approvals got an overhaul of dramatic proportions:

• Approval and Budget emails can now be batched into regularly scheduled digests, so you can minimize Inbox insanity
• The Merge Field logic used in Email Templates was updated. Remember “%3 = Document No.”? Now you won’t have to. It supports “[Document No.]” instead. Out of the box, the Merge logic can pull in values from the Line Distribution Buffer of the transaction, the Approval Processing Line, and the Email Ledger Entry, allowing you to really add all the details you might need to see at a glance.
• If using the new “Combine Lines in Approval Processing” functionality of Approval and Budget Rules, Email Templates can have separate headers and lines, making it clear what is the whole document, and still providing line by line detail
• The email handling system was updated, so that it’s easier to deploy in non-Exchange based environments
• The ability to link directly to the Approval Portal was added to the Email Engine

That last one sounds unimportant, but in reality, has some pretty big implications. If you setup the Approval Portal, from an email, a user can process approvals without ever opening Navigator. This means that if your organization requires the approval of department heads, team leaders, and others who may not need access to Navigator, you can deploy the Approval Portal and still allow them access to approve documents. This allows you to extend the control of Navigator into parts of your organization that it may never have gone before.

There are still licensing implications, so make sure to talk to your Serenic Partner about Approval Portal and Portal User costs.
_________________
JEREMY VYSKA
SMALL SQUARE SERVICES

Thanks again for the post!

By Brandon Taylor

Last year, when Serenic made the decision to join the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 6.0 SP1 TAP (technology adoption program), there was that brief moment of, what have we done? As an embedded solution, Serenic Navigator is roughly 30% larger than base Dynamics NAV.  That translates into a lot of work, and we were aware that there was a lot that we didn’t know when entering the program.

As discussed in my last posting, there ended up being three primary areas that we really needed to understand: menus for the role-tailored client, roles and activities, and pages.

Let’s break these down.

Before jumping right in, I would like to apologize as the following contains development rated material – screenshots of the NAV object designer.  So, if you haven’t had the luxury of spending much time in the NAV development environment, this is where programmers spend the majority of their time.

It turns out that menus for the role-tailored client are modeled in the exact same way as the classic menus.  The only difference is that instead of having an object number of 52, they start in the thousands, i.e. 1055.  During the transformation cycle we had a non-developer update these.  That should give you an indication of how we started to feel—piece of cake !

Next up, we needed to understand the most important framework of the role-tailored client – roles and activities.  These are the basis for the whole “Role-Tailored Experience,” so it was critical that we shipped product with roles that were relevant for the NonProfit/NGO/Public Sector market.  As with menus, Microsoft’s implementation of roles and activities fit within the NAV architecture by utilizing the new page object.  Both the role and activities each require one page.  Below are the roles and activities we shipped with Navigator 6.0.

Finally, now that we understood menus to be an extension of the classic model along with roles and activities that are really just pages, the only new thing we needed to learn were pages.  Below is a partial shot of the Fund Card page object.  If you have ever looked at XML code from a web page you will see some similarities in the layout.  In fact, the page object gets compiled into managed C# code on the service tier.

Below is how the role-tailored client renders and presents the page to the user.

All in all, it took a couple of weeks for it to become clear on what we needed to do.  It then became an exercise based on the volume of work rather than the technical unknown (although there were the typical technical hurdles associated with any early adopter program).

Hopefully, this provides a little more clarity to what’s under the hood related to the role-tailored client.  It really comes down to a new object type called a page.  As is usually the case, Microsoft has done all of the heavy lifting and we now get to build and deliver some pretty cool stuff.  But, that’s for next time…

Ever wonder what’s better for your Nonprofit as far as accounting software solutions?

Last week we had almost 30 financial leaders from nonprofit organizations drive to Microsoft’s Los Angeles and Irvine offices to check it out.  The attendees (who dodged the rain!) were able to learn more about Dynamics accounting products, including Serenic Navigator, Great Plains and Dynamics SL (formerly known as Solomon).  Some might think these are tedious seminars, but we tried to make them exciting!

Matt Thayer, one of our marketing gurus, coordinated the events and was thrilled to see so many attendees interested in how they can do a better job of managing their nonprofits’ finances. One lucky person at each event received a free Microsoft Zune—load your tunes and you’re ready to dive into accounting software .

More than 60 nonprofit executives were registered for this week’s event at the Microsoft offices in New York City. We were once again thrilled at the number of attendees.  Unfortunately, mother nature prevailed and we had to cancel the event due to a huge snow storm.  But, we will definitely reschedule!

Anyway, we’re looking forward to similar events in various cities through the coming months.  We can’t imagine what attendance will be without all the rain and snow!

Stay tuned!

We’re excited to be featured on last week’s video blog: “Tech Tips with Matt Rothman.”  The video blog is a fun way to see what IT experts are saying about our nonprofit financial and operational software!

The video guest, Rob Kaplan of Watkins IT, talks with Matt about how nonprofits have different accounting challenges and why Serenic is a must-have when addressing nonprofit financial needs.  Other topics of discussion include grant management, how Serenic has built upon Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and of course—the NFL Playoffs.  Thanks, Rob and Matt, for giving Serenic a great shout-out—and we’re sorry that the J-E-T-S lost

Check it out!

Tech-Tips with Matt Rothman on Serenic

by Brandon Taylor

Having a hard time understanding exactly what Web services are?  As an important piece of the new Navigator 2009 product, here’s an explanation from Brandon Taylor – VP Product Strategy & Development.

What are Web Services?

Web services are a combination of frameworks, specifications and protocols used to support integration from one application to another. They are standardized, widely understood, supported by a lot of tools and most importantly, now supported in Serenic Navigator 2009.

A more detailed description can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_services.

So what does this really mean for Navigator 2009 now and in the future? To use the old adage, “a picture is better than a thousand words.”  With a web service interface between Navigator 2009 and Microsoft Excel®, the screen shot below shows how it is possible to read and update vendor data directly in Excel.

How does Excel know how to do this?  It doesn’t. Through code, we make a call using the Dynamics NAV WS (Web Service) service to connect to the Navigator database and request that it return all of the vendor records. Excel is just the client that displays the results. You could just have well used any client that supports web services to request the same vendor data. In the next screen shot we use the same Excel call, but this time the data is displayed in Internet Explorer. You get the idea. Web services are the framework that standardizes how this is accomplished.

Does this mean any client application can update vendor data in the Navigator database with invalid data? No, if coded correctly, the business logic that validates data input now resides on the service tier under the new 3 tier architecture. This means that the role tailored client (RTC) and any other application (Excel in this example) executes the same business logic. For example, if you attempted to update a vendor record with an incorrect fund number, when Excel requests to update the record through web services, the server would return (through web services) an error that the fund is invalid. This is the same error message that you would receive in the RTC as it is executing the exact same business logic.

The real power of web services is that any client application that supports the correct framework and protocol can access Navigator 2009. The same is true in reverse. The RTC has built in client extensibility to integrate with other applications utilizing the same web service protocols. Below is an example of a weather control incorporated directly into the Navigator RTC.

Web services integration provides endless capabilities. If in doubt, Google, “Microsoft Dynamics NAV web services.” I like to use the analogy of iPhone apps. As Microsoft continues to evolve support for additional industry standard specifications and protocols, integrating with Navigator will continue to get easier and easier. This initial release is truly foundational for all good things to come.

Here are some additional references. I highly recommend the NAV blog.

http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2002/02/12/webservicefaqs.html

http://blogs.msdn.com/nav/