As part of Microsoft’s efforts to reinforce Dynamics NAV 2016 awareness to the Asia Pacific partner community, a three-day training workshop was held at the Microsoft Philippines office on May 11-13.
The event was facilitated by Microsoft’s Frank Freitag, Dynamics SMB Lead Asia, Jesper Lachance Raebild Sr Product Marketing ERP and Freddy Kirstiansen NAV Technical Evangelist.
EBS Managing Director Paul Woods and EBS NAV consultants and developers Hayeen Palencia and Archie Morales attended the workshop that was mainly focused on new technical features and capabilities of NAV 2016, introduced at the EMEA Directions Conference in Germany last year.
What we found most interesting was the introduction of extension packages and events in NAV. “Extensions” used together with “Events” (modelled after Microsoft .NET Framework), will allow NAV customisations without the need to modify the raw source codes in the original application objects.
This is a very promising feature as it will make upgrades easier and will be great for ISVs to use for their vertical solutions. It may also lower NAV upgrade costs and can reduce implementation time for the customers. The possibility of this being used for localisations and other NAV add-ons is something that the technical community anticipates.
The most relevant takeaways for us were from the third day. Code design patterns and best practices were presented by the NAV guru himself, Mark Brummel, MVP Dynamics NAV. The expertise tidbits he shared were valuable for both new and experienced technical consultants and developers who wish to take C/AL development at a deeper level. Read informative blogs from Mark Brummel here https://nav-skills.com/
Highlights of the demo presentation and hands-on lab were:
- Setting up NAV 2016 demo environments on Azure
- Microsoft Managed Services
- Native CRM Integration
- Workflows
- Sizing and Performance
- Customising using extension packages and events
- Design Patterns and Coding Best Practices
- Preview on Project Madeira
It was a great learning experience and a good opportunity to hear about the global directions for NAV. The in depth training, great education and peer-to-peer networking has inspired us to want to deliver the best ERP solutions and support for our EBS customers.
Was this article helpful?
Hayeen Palencia is Customer Support Specialist at EBS. She is an experienced ERP Consultant specialising in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central / Dynamics NAV.