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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Dynamics 365 general forum / Navision vs Great Plai...
Dynamics 365 general forum

Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

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Posted on by sgsmith 75

This seemed the appropriate category for posting this, so here goes. 

We have been investigating moving away from quickbooks into the Microsoft Dynamics line of products. So far from referrals provided by Microsoft, the two products which seem to fit our needs would be either NAV or GP. 

From a high level perspective of managing and maintaining the products, I was wondering if anyone might be able to provide feedback on the pro's vs con's of these two. I've met with multiple solutions providers now, guys who implement NAV and guys who implement GP and it really seems like both can offer all the functionality and modules that will fit our business needs. My concern is that since these guys are implementers, they will obviously be biased towards the product they implement. Does anyone have suggestions or experience they may be able to share with regard to the two and if one may be more favorable over the other?

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

    Hi, just one thing in your post caught my eye...'So due to the heavy financial nature of integrating with our existing platform to be able to automatically import order and invoice information into the new software, the main recommendation was to go with NAV. '

    Ron has already spoken about two third party integration products. Both are based on eConnect for GP - which is a really great product for integrating documents in to GP. The technology is great, very good error rapping and handling, and you can integrate sale orders, invoices, returns, new customers, new suppliers, new items, purchase orders / receipts / invoices etc. etc. I know I am biased, but for integrations, I wouldn't see any reason why NAV would be recommended over GP.

    Best of luck with your selection process. This community can be a realy great place to reality test what you have been told during the sales cycle.

    Best regards,

    Ian.

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?
    No problem. Let me know if you want to discuss GP further.
  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations

    sgsmith,
    If you want to do some more research around these two products I would recommend going to the following links:

    Microsoft Dynamics GP: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/products/gp-overview.aspx 

    Microsoft Dynamics NAV: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/products/nav-overview.aspx 

    I hope this information helps.

  • sgsmith Profile Picture
    sgsmith 75 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

     Ron,

    Thanks for the info, definitely gives me a bit of insight. I have been noticing GP seems to have a larger community base out there. Good to also know on the availability of third party addon's too.

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

    Oh and one other thing to note is to take a look at the resources out in the vast WWW and see which one has the biggest community.  I think you will find that even on these forums GP is quite a bit more active than NAV.  I really don't think that would make GP more suitable or not for your situation, however, it is quite the testament to how flexible GP is.

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

    sgsmith,

    I have not had much experience with NAV.  I have been using Dynamics GP for around 5 years now, so I will not try to speak to NAV's capabilities.  I do know that GP has quite a bigger ISV (3rd part addon's) market that NAV appears to have.  It seems that there are quite a bit more companies developing for GP.  We have been very pleased with our decision to go with Dynamics GP and have not had any instances where something couldn't be modified, integrated, etc. with GP. 

    One of the biggest things I like about GP is Salespad (http://www.salespad.net).  Now I do not receive anything from them for plugging their name.  There product basically sits on top of GP and allows a full blown workflow/audit/rules based holds/intuitive interface for managing the quote->order->invoice process.  All of that and more coming in at under half the price of a GP license.  We currently are running all of our folks who have to be in GP (mainly accounting types) in GP, but everyone else in Salespad and it has saved us a ton!

    As far as integrations go, you have several options in the GP world for integration pieces.  Scribe and eOne's Smart Connect are the two most popular.  We use Scribe, but are currently evaluating SmartConnect because we perceive it to be easier to use to create integrations.

    Again, I will not try and persuade you in any one direction, but I am more than willing to talk about my experiences with Dynamics GP.  Shoot me a message if you would like and I will give you my contact info.  If you have any more questions, I will be more than happy to try and answer.

    Ron

  • sgsmith Profile Picture
    sgsmith 75 on at
    Re: Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

     We are in an odd sort of market. Our company is a digital printer that creates postcards, business cards, brochures, etc, generally marketing material. We have an in-house design team which also provides contract services for our customers. In addition to this, we provide direct mailing of our printed materials as well as store small amounts of inventory for another portion of the business. The primary goals in looking for a higher grade product are to add enhanced accounting functionality beyond that which quickbooks provides, integrate with our existing custom application which drives all aspects of our business from the customer facing side to backend management of orders. In addition, having the capabilities to perform quoted jobs for the design work and the ability to manage and maintain inventory of finished products.

    So due to the heavy financial nature of integrating with our existing platform to be able to automatically import order and invoice information into the new software, the main recommendation was to go with NAV. But due to the semi-manufacturing/inventory portion of the business GP was recommended. 

     From the information I've gotten from vendors, both products seem to be able to equally serve all of the needs, albeit some custom development work will be necessary on our and the solution providers side to perform the integration.  I guess the decision now really comes to which software people have had more long term difficulties with, such as laterally migrating down the road to AX if necessary, maintaining the product itself in so much as updates and changes to business processes, etc. Basically, is one more friendly to modifications after the initial configuration? Hopefully this wasn't too confusing of an explanation :)

  • Ron Wilson Profile Picture
    Ron Wilson 6,010 on at
    Re: Navision vs Great Plains - Recommendations?

     sgsmith,

     Can you tell me what kind of business you are in?

     Ron

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