Microsoft NAV Interview Questions: Unofficial Microsoft Navision Business Solution Certification Review

I. Introduction: Navision

Navision has gone through several name changes since 1995. Currently, it is marketed by Microsoft as Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Its previous names include Navision Financials, Navision Attain, and Microsoft Solutions Navision Edition". All these refer essentially to the same product.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning software intended to assist small and medium-sized enterprises with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce. Its cost-effective solution can easily be tailored for any company. It can support customization and add-in software to meet industry or other specific needs. Moreover, it can adapt as a growing business needs more power and functionality.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV addresses the following business needs:

Financial Management: Record and store financial records in a central general ledger that includes charts of accounts, balances, VAT reporting, and more. It allows you to define your preferred currency, create accounting periods based on your fiscal and business cycle, manage bank accounts and cash, and automate routines such as check-writing and bank statement reconciliation.

Manufacturing: Manufacturers can respond quickly to customer demands and improve manufacturing performance by automating and improving processes such as production-order management, supply and capacity planning, visibility into shop floor operations, and graphics-based production schedules.

Business Intelligence: Turn raw data into understanding of how a business is operating. It allows you to choose from basic to advanced analytics functionality, provide decision makers with a 360-degree view of performance, and set up graphical reports and displays using an interface similar to Microsoft Outlook 2003.

Sales and Marketing: Put customer information at the fingertips of managers and employees to help your people build better customer relations. It manages contact information, organize sales campaigns, identify sales opportunities, automate sales tasks, and set up automatic reminders.

Distribution: Microsoft Dynamics NAV gives businesses a flexible solution for solving distribution challenges. It can be used to track and manage inventory, including in multiple locations; get up-to-date information about in-stock quantities; implement better warehouse management, including tailored pick orders and stock replenishment by pre-set thresholds; and get real-time data regarding inventory and shipments

Integration with your systems: Microsoft Dynamics NAV is designed to work smoothly with other Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft SQL Server 2003, and Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP. Its commerce portal capabilities also allow a company to create a Web site to work easier with customers and partners. It can also be integrated with a wide range of other software products, so that even if a small business has already substantial IT infrastructure, it can be used with Microsoft Dynamics NAV so that a business makes the most of its IT investment.

II. Configurations & Customizations FAQs

Question 1: Client/server architecture

We are developing a customization to Navision and my research into Navision’s client/server options has produced mixed results. I know with Axapta that one can have a server that has all of the application objects, and the clients can just connect to the server and grab any of these objects to execute as needed.

Is there something similar to this in Navision? Or will our customers need to import our objects on every client machine?

A: No, you do not need to export the objects to your clients’ machine. All you have to do is to install one server and all your clients would have to connect to that server.

Question 2: Running Navision from command prompt

I want to run Navision upon signing in into a remote server with the remote desktop connection.

What is the executable command line I can use for this?

A: You can find the command line parameters by looking at the ‘Installation Section’ of the Configuration Manual. In there are the various parameters. It is in the DOC folder of NAV product CDs.

Question 3: Importing SIC codes

I have a comma delimited list (and excel file) of SIC codes and I want to import them to become Industry Groups.

Is there something that I can do get them in one batch rather than entering each one manually?

A: You will need to access Object Designer and then design a simple ‘Dataport’ to import your codes into the Industry Group table. Have a look at an existing Dataport (maybe 5901 - Import IRIS to Fault Codes) to see how they hang together.

Question 4: Navision slow in opening any process

I find Navision to be slow in opening any process even for just one user. And I have about 30 users on the system. It takes two to three minutes to move from screen to screen. I have deleted before the zup file and it worked fine for two days. Now, when I delete the zup file, it does not make it better. What else can do? Could anyone help me?

A: There are many things that you can look at, such as the following to mention a few:

1) How are your users connecting to the system, i.e., 10/100/1000 or citrix or rdc?

2) The SQL or native database and its size

3) The server specs, i.e., the RAM, number and type of disks and the type of raid your using.

4) Customizations with bad code

5) The version you are using and whether you have all the updates

6) SQL tweaking if that is what you use.

If you are using a Native database, you can check the Object Cache / DBMS Cache for the database on the server.

Question 5: Dataport crashing Navision 3.7

We utilize the dataport in Navision to import data on occasion. Recently, we are experiencing problems with some