One of the most frequent questions about Microsoft Navision that
comes from forum and newsgroups is extremely .NET-related: what will be the
Navision future? Will Navision be transformed on a totally .NET product? Will be
able to program Navision directly into managed code?
The answer is not so simple (expecially because the future product's
improvements are not available to the general public), but I think we can
say something about the future Navision 5.0 release (code-name
Corsica) that is quite sure: the new release will be totally .NET
compliant and the platform will be n-tiered and managed.
Comet-IT has recently published some
of this "private" news and they are resumable as follow:
- The new release will have a big improvement on the user interface
(obvious) to increase productivity and to become more similar to the common
Office interface.
- The new release will have an improved integration with MS Office tools,
such as Excel, Word and Outlook.
- The new release will have a new
three-tier architecture consisting of a new .NET-based middle tier (or
“service tier”) and a new client based on the Microsoft Business Framework
(MBF) that will co-exist with and run in the same installation as the current
Microsoft Navision Win32 client
- The new release will be totally .NET compliant. This means
that Microsoft Navision will be based on managed code run-time and will
be easier to integrate with programs developed in Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET.
- The new release will have a web service-enabled
architecture.
- Corsica will include a new client for Microsoft
Navision by leveraging Microsoft Business Framework (MBF) technology to
prepare for Project Green Wave 2. With the release of Corsica, Microsoft Navision will be the first Microsoft
Business Solutions product with a client based on the Microsoft Business
Framework (MBF). MBF will enable us to accelerate development breakthroughs
for subsequent product releases and will empower our partners to build their
own solutions faster and more efficiently.
- The new client based on MBF and the
existing Microsoft Navision Win32 client will run in the same installation
giving existing partners and customers the opportunity to take advantage of
the new architecture benefits and the flexibility to migrate to the new client
at their own pace.
- The Microsoft Navision C/SIDE development tools will
not change so partners and customers can continue to code, administer and
customize the application as they normally do.
- The existing forms will be transformed into objects
that can run on the new architecture. This process will be automated where
possible and where it’s not possible conversion tools will be made
available.
- Partner add-on solutions can be released in the current
Win32 client. Partners will not be forced to switch their add-on solutions to
the new client until they are ready to do so.
I think that these changements will be the first big step
on a direction where we'll have a unique ERP products based on .NET and totally
Object-Oriented, web-oriented and totally integrated into the Microsoft future
platform. The revolution will be step by step and investments on upgrades will
be preserved.
This will be sure a new dimension for the future
Microsoft Business Solutions (or MS Dynamics) platform...
