At Dave Shah Solutions, we specialize in helping businesses successfully transition from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Business Central. Our comprehensive upgrade services ensure a smooth migration with minimal disruption to your business operations.
While NAV has served businesses well for many years, Business Central offers significant advantages including cloud capabilities, modern user interface, enhanced functionality, and ongoing Microsoft support and updates. Our team of experts guides you through every step of the upgrade process, from initial assessment to post-implementation support.
Thorough evaluation of your current NAV system, customizations, and business processes.
Detailed upgrade plan tailored to your specific business requirements and timeline.
Expert conversion of NAV customizations to Business Central extensions and apps.
Secure and accurate transfer of your business data to the new Business Central environment.
Why businesses are making the transition from NAV to Business Central
Business Central offers cloud deployment options, providing accessibility from anywhere, automatic updates, and reduced IT infrastructure costs. You can choose between cloud, on-premises, or hybrid deployment based on your business needs.
Business Central features a modern, intuitive user interface designed for productivity. The role-tailored experience provides users with the information and tools they need based on their specific job functions.
Access your business data and perform tasks from smartphones and tablets with Business Central's mobile apps. This enables your team to stay productive while on the go, with secure access to critical information.
Business Central receives regular updates from Microsoft, ensuring you always have access to the latest features, security enhancements, and performance improvements without disruptive major upgrades.
Business Central uses a modern extension model for customizations, making it easier to maintain and upgrade custom functionality without affecting the core system. This reduces upgrade complexity and costs.
Business Central integrates with Microsoft's AI and analytics capabilities, providing intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision support to help optimize your business operations.
Seamless integration with Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and other Microsoft services, creating a unified business solution that enhances productivity and collaboration across your organization.
Business Central includes modern security features and compliance capabilities to protect your business data. Microsoft's cloud security investments provide enterprise-grade protection for your critical information.
A systematic approach to ensure a successful transition
We begin with a comprehensive assessment of your current NAV system, including version, customizations, integrations, data volume, and business processes. This assessment helps us understand your specific requirements and identify potential challenges in the upgrade process.
Based on the assessment, we develop a detailed upgrade strategy tailored to your business needs. This includes determining the optimal upgrade path, deployment model (cloud, on-premises, or hybrid), and approach to handling customizations and integrations.
We conduct a thorough gap analysis to identify differences between your current NAV functionality and Business Central. This helps us determine what customizations need to be migrated, what standard Business Central features can replace custom functionality, and what new features you can leverage.
We convert your NAV customizations to Business Central extensions using the modern AL language and extension framework. This ensures your custom functionality works seamlessly in the new environment while maintaining compatibility with future updates.
We develop and execute a comprehensive data migration plan to transfer your business data from NAV to Business Central. This includes data cleaning, transformation, and validation to ensure data integrity in the new system.
We conduct thorough testing of the new Business Central environment, including functionality testing, integration testing, performance testing, and user acceptance testing. This ensures the system works correctly and meets your business requirements.
We provide comprehensive training for your team on the new Business Central system, focusing on both standard functionality and your specific customizations. This ensures your users can effectively use the new system from day one.
We manage the go-live process, including final data migration, system cutover, and initial production support. Our careful planning and execution minimize disruption to your business operations during the transition.
We provide ongoing support after go-live to address any issues, answer questions, and help your team adapt to the new system. This ensures a smooth transition and helps you quickly realize the benefits of Business Central.
Flexible options to meet your business needs
A direct upgrade involves upgrading your existing NAV database directly to Business Central, maintaining your historical data and customizations. This approach is suitable for relatively recent NAV versions with moderate customizations.
A fresh implementation involves setting up a new Business Central environment and migrating master data and open transactions from your NAV system. This approach allows you to redesign processes and take full advantage of Business Central's capabilities.
A hybrid approach combines elements of both direct upgrade and fresh implementation. This might involve a fresh implementation with comprehensive data migration or a direct upgrade with process redesign in key areas.
The optimal upgrade approach depends on your specific business requirements, current NAV version, level of customization, and strategic objectives. Our team will work with you to determine the most appropriate approach based on a thorough assessment of your current system and business needs.
Request AssessmentSee how we've helped businesses successfully upgrade to Business Central
A distribution company with complex inventory management and order processing requirements needed to upgrade from NAV 2016 to Business Central. They had significant customizations and integrations with their e-commerce platform and warehouse management system.
Flexible deployment to meet your specific requirements
The optimal deployment option depends on your specific business requirements, IT strategy, regulatory constraints, and budget considerations. Our team will help you evaluate the options and determine the most appropriate deployment model for your business.
Discuss Deployment OptionsCommon questions about upgrading from NAV to Business Central
The timeline for upgrading from NAV to Business Central varies depending on several factors, including your current NAV version, the complexity of your customizations, the volume of data, the number of integrations, and the chosen upgrade approach. A typical upgrade project can take anywhere from 2-6 months from initial assessment to go-live. Direct upgrades from older NAV versions with significant customizations tend to take longer, while fresh implementations with limited data migration can be completed more quickly. During our initial assessment, we'll provide a more accurate timeline based on your specific situation and requirements.
When upgrading to Business Central, your NAV customizations need to be converted from the traditional C/AL code to the new AL language and extension model used in Business Central. This conversion process involves analyzing your existing customizations, determining which ones are still needed (as some may be replaced by standard Business Central functionality), and then redeveloping them as extensions. The extension model in Business Central provides a cleaner separation between your customizations and the core system, making future upgrades easier. Our team has extensive experience in this conversion process and will ensure your critical customizations are properly migrated to the new environment.
Yes, you can keep your historical data when upgrading to Business Central, though the approach depends on your upgrade method. With a direct upgrade, most historical data is automatically migrated to the new system as part of the database upgrade process. With a fresh implementation, you can choose how much historical data to migrate, with options ranging from just master data and open transactions to comprehensive historical data migration. Many businesses take the opportunity to clean up their data during the upgrade, archiving or purging old, unnecessary data while migrating the important historical information. We'll work with you to develop a data migration strategy that balances your historical data needs with system performance considerations.
Our goal is to minimize disruption to your daily operations during the upgrade process. Most of the upgrade work, including development, testing, and data migration preparation, is done in parallel with your continued use of the NAV system. The actual cutover to Business Central typically requires a short period of system downtime, usually over a weekend or during a slower business period. With proper planning and preparation, this downtime can be limited to 1-3 days. We work closely with your team to schedule the cutover at the most convenient time and to develop detailed cutover plans that minimize business impact. Additionally, our comprehensive training and post-implementation support ensure your team can quickly adapt to the new system.
While Business Central builds on the functionality of NAV, it features a more modern user interface and some differences in navigation and processes. Most users will need training to effectively use the new system. We provide comprehensive training tailored to different user roles, focusing on the specific functionality each group needs. This includes both standard Business Central features and your custom functionality. Our training approach combines classroom-style sessions, hands-on workshops, and reference materials to ensure users are comfortable with the new system. We also offer post-implementation support to address questions and provide additional guidance as users become more familiar with Business Central. Many users find the transition relatively smooth due to Business Central's intuitive interface and familiar functionality.
Contact us today to discuss your upgrade requirements and how Dave Shah Solutions can help you successfully transition from NAV to Business Central.
