Event
Summary
On June 19, Navision Canada, a subsidiary of Navision (CSE: NAVI),
a Danish provider of enterprise business solutions for mid-sized companies,
announced the planned release of multi-language versions 2.60 for Navision
Manufacturing, Navision Financials and Navision Advanced
Distribution. Navision 2.60 includes both English and Canadian French
language versions, allowing users to conduct business in the language
of their choice. Users can switch languages "on-the-fly," providing greater
flexibility and interoperability. Customers also gain simultaneous access
to business processes in different languages.
"The
new multi-lingual English/Canadian French functionality of Navision 2.60
gives Navision, our Navision Solution Centres and our customers a true
competitive advantage," said Dawson Lane, President, Navision Canada.
"This product strengthens our overall offering to mid-sized companies,
particularly those in Quebec looking to implement an enterprise management
solution in the language of their choice."
The
company touts that its latest version of Navision Manufacturing 2.60 is
a modern ERP solution based on the concepts of agility and flexibility
that should enable manufacturers to manage change and realize new revenue
opportunities. In addition, Navision Manufacturing's reservation, tracking
and action messaging functionality, combined with the closed-loop manufacturing
resource planning (MRP) functionality, offers an alternative to traditional
planning systems while adhering to the accepted industry standards. These
innovative tools are fully integrated with MRP, MPS (Master Production
Schedule), and Forecasting.
The
most significant enhancement to Navision Financials is the addition of
XBRL coding (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), which will be used
to exchange financial reports across all software, including the Web.
Navision claims XBRL is now standard and will allow customers to more
easily and efficiently connect and communicate with all types of products
in the ERP space.
Navision
Advanced Distribution 2.60, as its part, is optimized to manage the physical
inventory for companies that require high levels of inventory control.
It allows wholesalers to process orders along the entire delivery chain,
thereby strengthening overall business partner loyalties. For example,
with the new enhancements, a salesperson can select which customers to
call based on entered criteria, and determine from past history what they
are most likely to need now. Tele-sales representatives can then guide
customers through the process of selecting items to purchase, suggesting
alternatives, negotiating the price and scheduling delivery. Customer
service representatives can also check the status of an order and expedite
delivery if necessary.
The
products are slated for general availability release to its resellers
called Navision Solution Centres (NSCs) in July 2001. The product release
follows shortly after the company released satisfactory quarterly results.
In May, Navision released financial results for Q3 2001 that ended on
March 31, 2001. The merger of Navision Software and Damgaard (for more
information, see Does
NavisionDamgaard Merger Mark Further Mid-Market Consolidation?) is
reportedly proceeding according to the plans. In March, the company name
was changed from NavisionDamgaard to Navision in an effort to build a
new global brand.
Navision
achieved a 20% combined quarterly revenue growth to DKK 326 million (~$40.3
million) compared to the combined last year's results of then separate
companies. Navision has seen growth in all markets except in its domestic
Danish market. Despite fierce competition and difficult market conditions,
the company sustained 12% growth in the US market. While, for the first
nine months to date, revenues from Navision Financials showed
a fair increase of 15%, revenues from Navision Axapta (formerly
Damgaard Axapta) flagship product showed a whopping 122%
increase. However, the other former Damgaard product lines, Navision
C4/C5 (marketed solely in Denmark) and Navision XAL continued
to decline. Combined income before tax was DKK 46 million (~$5.7 million),
compared to the combined last year's loss of DKK 10 million of then separate
companies. Navision's solutions are sold exclusively through a worldwide
network of close to 2100 partners. The company currently has close to
125,000 installations worldwide, and derives 74% of its revenue from the
international market outside of Denmark.
In
the second half of calendar 2000, Navision released a number of new versions
and products specifically targeted to customers' needs for e-business
and CRM functionality. It introduced new versions of Navision Axapta (2.5)
and Navision XAL (3.1), both with notable enhancements. In April, the
B2B e-commerce application, Commerce Gateway, for Navision Financials
was released, and it will soon be available also for Navision Axapta.
The company plans to introduce in the remainder of fiscal 2001 the integrated
Navision Financials/Siebel eBusiness MidMarket Edition, and the new version
of Navision Solutions 3.0, which is a new substantially enhanced version
of Navision Financials. An early adopter program, which included five
customers, for Navision Solutions 3.0 was initiated in March.
Market
Impact
Reverting
to the Navision brand name could be seen as a backward move only to the
uninformed. In fact, the merger of former fellow Danish competitors has
been moving forward ever since. Former Navision Software brought to the
merger a strong international presence, proven execution and a profitable
business model, whereas Damgaard contributed a more scalable and functionally
stronger product for the higher end of the market, Axapta. Both product
lines are technologically compatible (Microsoft-centric) and have
been maintained concurrently. While the idea is to enable the Research
and Development (R&D) team to gain economies of scale by building common
application components that can be deployed within the entire product
portfolio, the products are still mainly on separate tracks. However,
leveraging additional e-business and e-collaboration initiatives for both
flagship products should be expected, Commerce Gateway being a good example.
But
it was the closeness of corporate cultures and business models that facilitated
the merger success. Navision's current focus is to quickly integrate the
two former R&D and sales organizations. The company will have to leverage
its combined partner network of close to 2,100 resellers (NSCs) to create
brand awareness in the global market. Despite the complementary nature
and different target markets of the main product lines, the growing pains
in appropriate positioning of these remains.
While
forsaking Damgaard brand will have inevitably caused emotional reactions
and internal competition/politics, promoting Navision brand should help
the cause of showing 'one face' to customers and by preempting the possibility
of brand recognition/confusion, which was likely with the cumbersome NavisionDamgaard
brand name.
Leveraging
the NSC network should be of key importance for global expansion too.
The practice of allowing end users to partner with the local representative
(NSC) to develop locally endemic functionality, as is the above case of
bilingual system in Quebec, has long been one of Navision's keys of success.
This practice proves particularly useful when product time-to-market is
critical.
User
Recommendations
While the M&A activity in the mid-market continues (for more information,
see The
Mid-Market Is Consolidating, Lo And Behold), not all the mergers are
slated for success. The current market trend is towards vendors that can
provide comprehensive solutions for medium-sized companies. Navision seems
to have a fair shot at delivering that. The merger outline was sound,
the common groundwork has been identified, and now the time has come to
build upon it.
Potential
and existing Navision and/or Damgaard customers should certainly consider
the offered product lines, bearing in mind what the competitors have to
offer. As with all new releases, users should employ a critical approach
in their evaluation of Navision, and require the company representative
to demonstrate specific technological and functional capabilities. As
a general rule of thumb, consider Navision Financials if you are a rapidly
changing small or medium enterprise. The product is open-source and customizable;
it features a proprietary integrated development environment, which is
very user-friendly and easy to learn. Navision also has great ODBC connectivity
features. On the other hand, Navision Axapta (formerly Damgaard Axapta)
should be evaluated in less aggressive and changing medium and large enterprises
where the traditional product feature-functions and scalability still
play a very important part of the selection.
More
comprehensive recommendations for both current and potential Navision
users can be found in Navision
Software a/s: Mid-market iNvasion and Does
NavisionDamgaard Merger Mark Further Mid-Market Consolidation?