Event
Summary
In March Navision Software a/s, a Danish provider of financial and business
management software solutions for the small-to-medium enterprises (SME)
market, announced it has signed a global sales and distribution agreement
with Microsoft Corporation Inc. that enables the company's partner network
of more than 900 Navision Solution Centers to sell and distribute Microsoft
BackOffice products integrated with Navision solutions.
"For many years now, we have worked closely with Microsoft to ensure that
our offerings leverage the latest Microsoft technology," said Jesper Balser,
CEO of Navision Software. "Navision Software has led the way in securing
Microsoft logos and in delivering cutting-edge solutions. It is only natural
that our partner network benefits even more from this close relationship.
This is the first time Microsoft has granted a Denmark-based developer
of enterprise business solutions permission to sell its BackOffice products
in conjunction with other business software. Navision Software believes
this agreement will benefit Navision Software, its more than 900 Navision
Solution Centers and Microsoft worldwide."
"The
success of Navision Financials featuring the Microsoft SQL Server option
already proves that this is a winning combination. This new agreement
will only add to our already impressive sales." said Ren Stockner, Vice
President of Sales & Marketing for Navision Software. "This agreement
will give Navision Solution Centers even more selling power. This is just
another step in Navision Software's continued effort towards integrating
Microsoft technology and products with the company's enterprise business
solutions. Today, nearly 39,000 mid-market customers in more than 89 countries
around the world are running on a Navision solution. Navision Software's
current product line, Navision Financials, includes fully-integrated application
areas covering financials, distribution, manufacturing, e-commerce, project
costing, time and billing, human resources and, in certain countries,
payroll."
"Today's
announcement is a strong example of how business customers will be served
in the future," said Jeff Raikes, Group Vice President, Worldwide Sales
and Support, Microsoft Corporation. "This greatly simplifies the buying
and installation process. Now, Navision Solution Centers can act as the
single point of contact for customers seeking advanced solutions from
both Microsoft and Navision Software."
Earlier,
on March 8, Navision Software announced that it expects to release the
first enterprise business solution featuring complete Windows 2000 certification
on March 31. Navision Financials 2.60 was awarded the Microsoft Windows
2000 Professional certification earlier this year, and the Microsoft Windows
2000 Server certification completes the package. "We worked hard to earn
both these certifications because we wanted our customers to benefit as
much as possible from the new platform," said Ren Stockner, VP of Sales
& Marketing for Navision Software. According to Stockner, the new platform
can reduce system administration costs and improve IT security immediately.
The
worldwide version of Navision Financials 2.60 will be released to the
23 local Navision Software companies around the world for localization.
Market
Impact
The Danish company Navision Software has established strong branding and
penetration within the Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SME) segment of the
European and recently the U.S. ERP market, with a large customer base
and a developed partner channel within the industry. It has developed
the tightly integrated functionality breath of its product that matches
the SMEs' needs.
Its
flagship product, Navision Financials, offers the Web Storefront, HR/Payroll,
warehouse management system (WMS), and innate OLAP and date warehouse
(DW) functionality, in addition to traditional ERP modules. Furthermore,
the Company was one of the first vendors to achieve Euro compliance and
has also developed 23 localized, country-specific product versions. Navision
is very competitive in speed of implementation, feasibility of customization,
total cost of ownership (TCO), and price/performance ratio. The product
architecture has been devised entirely from scratch in-house within the
Microsoft context, which provides for flexibility and ongoing agility.
Navision
has been committed to the Microsoft platform and has recently collected
all of the new certifications associated with W2K, such as "Certified
for Windows 2000 Server" and "Certified for Windows 2000 Professional".
It has now taken its relationship with Microsoft one step further by signing
a global sales and distribution agreement allowing its Solution Centers
to sell BackOffice products with Navision systems. This will enable the
delivery of complete single source solutions to smaller companies.
This
idea of 'one-stop shop' is important to SMEs, as many of them do not have
the in-house resources necessary to cope with integrating and managing
multiple components from different vendors. Navision continues its march
into the ERP mid-market and through this latest move, demonstrates that
it understands the importance of total solutions in this space.
Users
should however be aware of some of challenges that the company is facing.
Its distribution and manufacturing modules are currently available only
in 5 country-specific versions, and there is no functionality for service-related
industries.
In
addition to the above product functionality gap, Navision does not exhibit
much of a vertical focus. Its distributors (NSCs) offer vertical solutions
on an opportunity-by-opportunity basis only. Navision has long depended
on its proprietary development (the Navision Server database and 4GL),
which is a drawback for the following reasons: 1) a need for a special
skill set (in spite of its user-friendliness) and 2) scalability and integration
difficulties for the higher end of the mid-market. While its recently
released MS SQL Server version of the product may mitigate the above concerns,
it is likely to exhibit problems related to its product immaturity.
User
Recommendations
We generally recommend including Navision Software in a long list of an
enterprise application selection to lower-end of the mid-market companies
(with $5M-$250M in revenue) and divisions of larger enterprises, which
have limited IT budget and smaller community of users (less than 75),
and have significant financial accounting, distribution, and discrete
manufacturing requirements, while currently not needing complex CRM and
B2B e-commerce functionality.
Global,
centrally managed organizations that need a single-code product for all
their international business units, enterprises in service-related industries,
and companies looking for a broader functionality and a particular industry
focus from a single vendor may benefit from evaluating other products
at this stage.
Current
and future users interested in running on the MS SQL Server database may
want to inquire Navision's strategy regarding the product's business intelligence
and data warehousing capabilities, bearing in mind that those are innate
within the proprietary Navision Server database.