It’s hard to believe that those who want to find out more about the ERP system, now officially called Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, will search the internet using the product’s full name. They will likely use a shortened version, most probably searching for “Business Central.” But they will surely encounter the terms “Navision” and “Dynamics NAV” in presentation materials, as well as in more or less formal communication, which can generate confusion. In fact, we are talking about the same product whose name has changed over time, and it’s instructive to see when and why it changed.
In the beginning, there was Navision
The story begins with a company from Denmark which, in 1985, launched an accounting program called PCPlus, a “single-user” type program. In 1987, the program was renamed Navision and incorporated client/server technology, which means that it could be accessed simultaneously by multiple users (it seems basic now, but at that time it was not). After 1990, Navision crossed national borders and began to be sold in other European countries. In 1995, a version appeared that could run on the Windows 95 operating system. The image below shows Navision running on the MS-DOS operating system.
In Romania, the first available version of Navision was Navision 3.6, in 2003.
Then, it became Dynamics NAV
In 2002, Microsoft acquired the product and included it in its suite of business applications, and in 2005 it decided to rename the product, which then took the official name of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The name was established with the idea of framing the product in a family of products, all including the word “Dynamics”: Dynamics AX, Dynamics GP, Dynamics CRM, etc. The problem with such a branding strategy is that confusions can easily arise, so most of the time, those who used the product, as well as implementers, continued to use the old name, shorter and easier to remember: Navision.
Now, it is Business Central
Starting in 2018, Dynamics NAV underwent a new rebranding process, becoming Dynamics 365 Business Central. The rationale was to include the product in the “Dynamics 365” family of products and at the same time to reflect the product’s orientation towards the Cloud, which is evident especially through the user interface accessible only via the Web client. Again, returning to terminology, using four words to designate a single product is not the most economical way of communicating, so the term “Navision” will still be used, at least for a while. We estimate that, gradually, the name “Business Central” will prevail.
What is the official name of the product I am using now?
If you are already a user of Navision/Dynamics NAV/Business Central and you are asking yourself this question, the answer is as follows: considering that “Navision” as an official product name was valid only till 2005, it’s hard to believe that you have Navision installed. Most likely, you have Dynamics NAV, whose interface looks like this:
If the product interface looks like the image below, it means that you have Business Central:
Regardless of which product version you use, you can be confident that you have a high-performance ERP system with a respectable past and a bright future. Below you will find an image with a chronological presentation of the main moments in the history of this remarkable product:
Elian Solutions is part of the Bittnet Group, active for over 15 years as an implementer of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system. With a team of over 70 employees and a portfolio of over 250 clients, Elian Solutions is one of the key Microsoft partners for ERP systems.
