The history of Dynamics NAV / Navision

1983 - The company PC&C was founded founded by Jesper Balser, Peter Bang and Torben Wind in Copenhagen, Denmark. 1984 - Launch of PCPlus in Denmark & Norway a character-based accounting solution for SOHO (small office/home office) market. 1984 - Beauty of Simplicity is the first company slogan. 1987 - Launch of the first version of Navision. This first character-based version Navision was basically an upgraded version of PCPlus. But the biggest change was that it was a able to run as client/server application over a LAN, where PCPlus was a single-user system. In the beginning it was only sold in Denmark and here it was distributed by IBM to their Erhvervscenters (business centers), who was required to fulfill a long number of certifications before they where allowed to sell the product. In Denmark Navision was called Navigator or most often IBM-Navigator. 1990 - Launch of Navision version 3.0. This was a big change to the previous versions, as it introduced AL (application language - very similar to C/AL) based on the Pascal development language. This allowed the user to do very advanced modifications, compared to both the previous versions (where only reports, tables and forms could be changed). In fact they where unique in the market at that time. Only a few years later Navision's biggest competitor at this time, the also Danish company Damgaard Data, introduced their XAL (extended application language). 1990 - Market expansion moves beyond Scandinavia into Germany. Spain and the United Kingdom. Here the name Navision was used for the first time. 1993 - Navision initiates a major development effort to create a new generation of Navision solutions based on Microsoft Windows 32-bit client/server platform. 1995 - Launch of Navision Financials 1.0, an accounting solution based on Microsoft Windows 32-bit client/server platform. 1995 - Launch of Navision Financials Windows 95 version and Windows NT. 1995 - The Navision Online User Group is started by Erik P. Ernst. 1997 - Launch of Navision Financials with simple Contact Management / CRM functionality. 1998 - Launch of Navision Manufacturing. 1999 - Launch of Navision Advanced Distribution. 2000 - Navision Financials receives Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Certification and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Certification.

2000 - Launch of Navision Commerce Gateway worlds first solution based on Microsofts BizTalk Server. 2000 - Launch of Navision User Portal worlds first solution based on Microsofts Digital Dashboard 2000 - The two big competitors from Denmark Navision Software a/s and Damgaard A/S (the developers of Concorde, C4, C5, XAL and Axapta) merge under the name Navision Damgaard A/S. 2001 - Launch of Navision Attain 3.0 which includes:

Re-branding of Navision Financials Integration of e-commerce applications, Commerce Gateway, Commerce Portal User Portal, browser-based access Supply chain collaboration functionality including manufacturing and distribution Extended financial management functionality Extended and new functionality within customer relationship management (CRM) Multicurrency Multilanguage

2001 - Navision Attain receives Designed for Microsoft XP logo Awards/Certifications 2001 - The name NavisionDamgaard A/S was changed to the more easy pronounceable Navision A/S. 2002 - It was not a big surprise when Microsoft Corporation acquires Navision A/S. Most people had seen it coming. In 2000 Microsoft had a acquired Great Plains, Navision's biggest competitor on the US market, but the rumors said that Microsoft had realized that GP was not good enough to base their whole strategy upon. Navision and Great Plains was put together in a group at Microsoft called Microsoft Business Solutions and the names changed accordingly to Microsoft Business Solutions Navision. The domain name of this website also changed from www.navision.net to www.mbsonline.org. 2003 - Microsoft first starts talking about Project Green. This was an initiative to merge the platforms of Navision, Axapta, Great Plains and Solomon into one system. It was first told that the first beta would be available in Q4 2004. But so far it has not happend and in 2007 Microsoft completely stopped talking about Project Green, as the they had realized that it would be a much bigger project and it also scared of a lot of potential customers, who would not invest in a software with no future. 2005 - Microsoft Business Solutions Navision 4.0 was released. NAV 4.01 released later the same year included Navision Employee Portal as a replacement for the Navision User Portal. 2005 - Navision version 5.0 was announced as the new big version with a completely new user interface to be released in late 2006. 2005 - Microsoft changes the names the applications from Microsoft Business Solutions to Microsoft Dynamics. At the same time the name Navision is changes to NAV (not nav but n.a.v. - with all letters pronounced).

2006 - Microsoft announces that the new user interface will not be part of Navision 5.0, but instead it will be released 6-12 months later as Dynamics NAV 5.1. 2007 - Navision version 5.0 was released. But without the new user interface, but with many new application features such as a completely redesigned Job module. The job module had basically not changed since the release of Navision 3.01 (the character based version in 1990). 2008 - First Microsoft announced that the name of the next version of Navision would not be called Navision 5.1, but Dynamics NAV 6.0. Just a few months later they changed it so that it would be Dynamics NAV 2009 and it would be released in Q4 2008. 2008 - At Microsoft Convergence in Copenhagen in November 2008 Dynamics NAV 2009 was finally released. Included in the new version was:

The new client is released as the RoleTailored Client and from now on the old is called the Classic client. Also introduced with NAV 2009 is the new form object called Pages and the new RoleTailored reports that you must design using the Visual Studio Report Designer.

2009 - Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1/Service Pack 1 was released on September 1st. 2010 - Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 was released on December 15th. 2010. The new version included many changes, also some which had not been planed until version 7.0:

The long awaited integration between Dynamics CRM and Dynamics NAV Support for Microsoft's application virtualization V-app

2012 - Dynamics NAV 2013 was released on September 28th, 2012. This was a landmark release, building on a strong product foundation to deliver new levels of customer and partner value through faster, more efficient implementations, compelling new and enhanced application functionality, and unparalleled levels of customer choice on how to deploy and access the solution. It also marked the end of the native database and the classic client.

What is PC&C?

PC&C or Personal Computing and Consulting ApS was founded in 1984 by Jesper Balser, Peter Bang and Torben Wind in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their first major product was the accounting package PCPlus targed at small companies and released in 1985. PC&C changed its name to Navision Software in 1992. In 2000 they merged with their biggest competitor also Danish company Damgaard Data A/S to form NavisionDamgaard A/S.

What is PCPlus?
PC-Plus was the name of the character-based (MS-DOS) accounting solution for SOHO (small office/home office) market that was released by PC&C ApS in 1984, three years before the release of the first version of Navision. A small Danish VAR bought the rights to the PCPlus program before Microsoft acquired Navision, so they were able to continue to support and sell the system, as it not longer worked on new version of Windows. And until a few years ago it has been possible to buy this system, who still today have a lot of users in Denmark. There was even stories that they got a lot of new customers when Microsoft decided to stop support the Concorde C4 application, to get the users to move to the newer Dynamics C5 application.

Navision Attain
Filed under: Navision, Navision Financials [Edit Tags]

Navision Attain was the name of the 3rd version of the windows based Navision released in 2001 as Attain 3.01. Version 3.00 was released as Navision Solutions, but this name was changed even version 3 was out in all countries. Navision Attain included:

Integration of e-commerce applications: Navision Commerce Gateway and Navision Commerce Portal User Portal, browser-based access Supply chain collaboration functionality including manufacturing and distribution Extended financial management functionality Extended and new functionality within customer relationship management (CRM">CRM) Multicurrency Multilanguage

Navision Financials
Filed under: Navision, Navision Financials [Edit Tags]

Navision Financials was the first version of Navision which was based on Microsoft Windows. It was released in 1995 together with Windows 95. When Navision Financials was released it was perhaps the only financial application which lived 100% up to the requirements in Microsoft's design guidelines made especially for Windows 95. In fact Navision made a long list of areas where Microsoft didn't apply to their own design requirements. Navision tried to apply the same and very strong requirements to their new add-on certifications program. In the period the program officially was in effect in Denmark they only got one program certified, a Danish payroll application, that after only one year had to shut down. The requirement was too difficult to fulfil. The name Navision Financials was used until 2001 with the release of Navision Solutions which even before it was released in most countries had it's name changed to Navision Attain.

Navision
Navision is the name of software originally developed by the Danish company PC&C in 1987. In 2002 the company was sold to Microsoft. For a short while after the release of Navision 3.01 aka Navision Attain, Axapta was also called Navision Axapta. In 2006 Microsoft changed the name of Navision to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The latest version of Navision is Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 service pack 1 released on September 1st 2009.