The names are now almost the same, but the products are significantly different. Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 (Enterprise Edition) have grown on different platforms, but from 2018 both will sit under the same Dynamics 365 umbrella brand.
Often, the two solutions are differentiated purely on the number of users they can handle, yet their suitability for a business should rather be based on how well they complement the objectives and growth plans for the individual organisation.
Here are some of the main differences between the two solutions
D365 for Finance and Operations Enterprise Edition (EE) – formerly known as Dynamics AX – was developed primarily for large international organisations deploying across multiple locations and, possibly, geographies. When a business has different accounting groups in different companies within a consolidated corporate structure the robust functionality of EE will overpower that of NAV.
EE supports centralised Master Data Management (MDM) and a range of services able to manage businesses with a complex organisational structure, as well as allowing the management of various financial standards. EE offers transparency into inventory across international locations and visibility into all areas of a business.
As well as comprehensive core functionality, EE delivers industry specific processes for manufacturing, distribution, retail, professional services and public sector. NAV is more a one-size-fits-all solution.
Indeed, EE was designed and developed to be a complete solution for the majority of manufacturing companies, from process manufacturin to engineer-to-order, with a rich feature set and the flexibility to customise for unique business process requirements.
It is natural that EE, as the more complex solution, comes with more complex business intelligence and AI capabilities. Through the integration of Power BI, Cortana intelligence and Azure machine learning, EE benefits from the industry’s most advanced analytics and reporting tools. Moreover, it can handle great volumes of data without a degradation of performance.
These are just some of the differences between the two Microsoft ERP system. For more information see Enterprise Resource Planning.
