Event
Summary
On November 1, Navision (CSE: NAVI), a Danish provider of enterprise
business solutions for mid-sized companies, extended its business-to-business
(B2B) solution, Commerce Gateway, to the Navision
Axapta product line, giving Navision Axapta customers the opportunity
to save time, lower costs and orchestrate business processes more effectively.
With Commerce Gateway, Navision Axapta customers should supposedly be
able to work more proactively with customers, partners and vendors. They
join the Navision Attain and Navision Financials
customers who were introduced to Commerce Gateway earlier this year.
Recent
Navision developments include:
- Navision
Axapta Line Extended
- Navision
Financials Expanded
- Navision/Damgaard
Merger Financial Results
- Other
Developments
This is
Part One of a three-part note on Navision. Part Two will discuss the Market
Impact and Part Three will contain User Recommendations.
Navision
Axapta Line Extended
Commerce Gateway is an integrated solution, which opens up Navision Axapta
to the electronic exchange of trading documents, including sales and purchase
orders, with other enterprise systems. Navision touts that by using Commerce
Gateway, Navision Axapta customers have the flexibility to meet the demands
of partners regardless of the industry they are in, the program they use,
or the standards they require. It uses Microsoft BizTalk technology,
which is based on the industry standard extensible markup language (XML).
This means that vital business information, such as stock availability,
should supposedly be exchanged in a quick, easy and reliable manner via
the automated processing of XML schemas. Commerce Gateway is reportedly
the first global solution based on Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000.
Commerce
Gateway is among several improvements announced for Navision Axapta. New
to the customer relationship management (CRM) offering is a range of capabilities
including a new marketing automation module, which helps marketing and
sales personnel share useful product and customer information. Navision
Axapta Product Builder is another new module, which enables companies
to configure product offerings online with greater precision. Product
Builder also gives a company's customers and vendors the ability to configure
their own products, submit orders and view an expected date of delivery
via the Product Builder Web application.
Navision
Axapta is touted as a scalable business management solution for growing,
medium-sized companies. The above new functionality lays the groundwork
for the next major Navision Axapta release scheduled for 2002. Earlier,
on October 8, Navision announced the result of a benchmark that an international
test center has carried out on Navision Axapta 2.5. The benchmark reportedly
shows that Navision Axapta is capable of handling transactions for both
small and large enterprises on the mid-market. The benchmark showed 3,600
simultaneous standard users of Navision Axapta with an average response
time of 0.08 seconds. Simultaneously, a record high number of sales order
transactions were carried out. In one hour more than 315,000 sales order
lines were completed. The company cites that while it and its partners
still focus on mid-sized enterprises, the results of this test show strong
scalability and performance and that enterprises can grow together with
Navision. The test was carried out in collaboration with Compaq and Oracle,
with all hardware and software having been considered standard and already
available on the market.
Navision
Financials Expanded
Further, on October 23, Navision announced the release of Navision Connector
for Navision Financials and Siebel eBusiness 2000, MidMarket Edition
for localization in local Navision offices around the world. The Navision
Connector for Siebel eBusiness reportedly links all the sales, marketing
and customer data in Siebel eBusiness 2000, MidMarket Edition with the
critical business information in Navision Financials.
The
Navision Siebel solution should give medium-sized companies the information
they need to identify, attract and retain profitable customers. The Navision
Siebel solution also supposedly gives companies the overview they need
to identify their most profitable customers and quickly categorize their
key accounts. The Navision Siebel solution will be distributed through
35 certified Navision Siebel partners.
Navision/
Damgaard Merger Financial Results
On August 20, the board of Directors of Navision a/s adopted the financial
statements for fiscal year 2000/2001 ending June 30, 2001. The most significant
event in fiscal year was the merger of Navision Software and Damgaard
in December 2000 Damgaard (see Does
NavisionDamgaard Merger Mark Further Mid-Market Consolidation?). The
merger has reportedly progressed faster than planned. In March, the company
name was changed from NavisionDamgaard to Navision in an effort to build
a new global brand (see NavisionDamgaard
Reverts To Navision, But In Name Only).
For
many recent years, the company achieved a rapid growth. In fiscal 2000/2001,
this growth was, however, modest. Net revenues grew by ~19% to DKK 1,496
million (~$ 179 million). Operating income before amortization of goodwill
(EBITA) amounted to DKK 229 million (~$28.6 million), corresponding to
15.3% of revenues. Navision has seen growth in all markets except in its
domestic Danish market, where revenues were 6% lower compared to a year
ago. Despite fierce competition and difficult market conditions, the company
sustained 15% growth in the US market after adjusting the exchange rate
factor.
The
revenues from Navision Attain showed a strong increase of 32%,
while revenues from Navision Axapta (formerly Damgaard
Axapta) product showed a whopping 98% increase, making the combined
revenue of these products 40%. However, the other former Damgaard product
lines, Navision C4/C5 (marketed solely in Denmark) and Navision
XAL continued to decline 28% and 16% respectively. Encouraging,
however, is that license revenue for Q4 2001 reached DKK 358 million (~$42.8
million), which is a 61% growth compared to DKK 223 million (~$29.7 million)
a year ago. Net income was DKK 158 million, compared to DKK 65 million
in fiscal 1999/2000.
Other
Developments
New product releases included a new version of Navision Axapta, a comprehensive
new version of Navision Attain (that aggregates earlier Navision Financials,
Navision Manufacturing and Navision Distribution), and several e-business
solutions, including the above Commerce Gateway and User Portal and Commerce
Portal. New local Navision companies opened in Russia and India bringing
the total number to 26, and Navision signed a distribution agreement for
Latin America.
Navision's
solutions are sold exclusively through a worldwide network of close to
2,200 partners. The company currently has close to 128,000 installations
worldwide, and derives 76% of its revenue from the international market
outside of Denmark. Despite challenging market conditions, Navision expects
to achieve a growth of approximately 18% in net revenues for the fiscal
year 2001/2002 compared to 2000/2001. The EBITA margin is expected to
be in the region of 17% compared to the 15% achieved in fiscal year 2000/2001.
This
concludes Part One of a three-part note on Navision. Part Two will discuss
the Market Impact and Part Three will contain User Recommendations.