ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 3
The ArcherPoint technical staff—made up of developers, project managers, and consultants—is constantly communicating internally, with the goal of sharing helpful information with one another.
As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them companywide on Yammer for everyone’s benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this group—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share them with the rest of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Community? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from the ArcherPoint staff. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.
Alan Campbell on the difference between upgrades and re-implementations:
What is the difference between “upgrades” and “re-implementations”? I have had many conversations with people over this topic. Both engagements are geared toward moving the client into a future version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Here is a quick run-down on how I view the two engagements:
Upgrades are technical in nature. An upgrade migrates existing code into newer version. Upgrades are not focused on trying to solve a set of business needs or the impact the new version and feature set will have on the future organizational state of the company. Plain and simple, an upgrade gets the company on a new version of the software.
Re-implementations are business need driven engagements. Just like their parent, the “Implementation”, the goal of a re-implementation is to address an organization’s business problem or opportunity. The business need(s) identified may be small and focused, or the business need(s) may be larger and more global in nature; it just depends on the situation. Inevitably, there is some change in a solution that needs to occur which will fulfill the current business problem or opportunity for the company to consider a re-implementation.
There are a number of key indicators that tell us when a re-implementation may have business value for an organization. Here are a few we commonly see:
- The business has grown significantly
- The company has entered a new line of business
- The business has acquired other companies
- The original decision makers of the original Dynamics NAV acquisition are no longer with the company
- The requirements for the use of Dynamics NAV has changed or been better refined since the initial implementation
- The original Dynamics NAV implementation was performed without consideration for the client’s original business needs
- There may be new solution components on the market that stakeholders suspect can address their business needs
- Stakeholders have grown apart and are split on the viability of their Dynamics NAV investment
Some people think that re-implementations always cost more than an upgrade. This is not the case. Sometimes it does and sometimes it does not. It is totally dependent on the nature of the problem or opportunity, the solution scope, project scope, and the solution cost. If carefully identified and addressed, there could be a large ROI for re-implementations which could provide significant business value for an organization, where many times clients view an upgrade as just a necessary expense for staying current with their Dynamics NAV investment.
In summary, upgrades are technical engagements where re-implementations are business need engagements that are crafted to solve a business problem or take advantage of a business opportunity for the client. Both have some form of value to a client, but they achieve very different goals.
Kyle Hardin on RTC database restores:
You should always make sure to enable the SQL Service Broker and the Object Change Listener for RTC database restores. These work together to make sure that RTC clients get object changes when we load objects with the Classic/Dev client without having to restart the NST. This is desirable for any and all databases, be they Dev, Test, or Live. Note: In order to enable the Service Broker for a database, you must be able to put it into single-user mode, meaning all users and connecting services (like NAS or NST) must be stopped.
Read the document from Microsoft: Enabling the Object Change Listener
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd568739.aspx
Faithie Robertson on background posting:
I came across a really good article today about the background posting that’s available in NAV 2013 & NAV 2013 R2. It’s found here:
The reason a lot of people are leery of background posting is because they feel like they’ve lost control – they won’t know if it posted.
However, the success is shown in the My Notifications fact box, so users don’t really lose control. This article talks about that. Here’s what I see on my Role Center (RapidStart Services).
This screenshot shows that it will tell you if it didn’t run and why.
Background processing allows users to post a high volume of sales and purchase documents without blocking other users. The process is similar to the process of printing a document, where the document is sent to a print server that waits until the printer is ready and then handles the request.
As the article points out, when the posting is occurring in the background, jobs will run with the permissions of the user who requested the posting, so no special security setup is required. This also makes it possible to track who did the posting.
In Dynamics NAV 2013, the job queue can run directly in the user session or through a dedicated NAS Service. Moreover, there can be more than one job queue running on the same server at the same time. Background posting can be performed for both the sales and purchase side, including Sales Order, Sales Invoice, Purchase Order, and Purchase Invoices.
You can even activate Notify On Success if you want users notified about the posting state. According to the article, “there will be a notification attached to the posted document as well as a notification in the My Notifications part on the role center.”
I think this feature in Dynamics NAV 2013 can be very useful for users.