01 Feb Acumatica vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV

The popularity of ERP systems has become widespread in all industrial landscapes as it’s become easier to achieve broad benefits from fully a fully integrated business and a rich variety of ERP systems exist in the marketplace nowadays. The best way to identify which system fits your business needs best is to examine them carefully side by side. In this article, we compare functions and useful facts of Acumatica vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When comparing products you should examine their related advantages and assess their distinctive capabilities to gain a clearer picture of their respective value. Also, it’s very important to assess other factors such as security, backup, ease-of-use, and customer support. We have prepared a series of comparisons between Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics NAV showing you where they are similar and how they differ.

 About Acumatica

Acumatica is an integrated Financial, CRM, Distribution, Manufacturing solution that helps to manage a business more efficiently. Acumatica represents the best value based on price, performance, functionality, and award-winning usability of an ERP system available for small and medium-sized businesses. Modern thinking has been applied to its pricing to accommodate the new drive to extend ERP use to the entire supply chain, including customers and suppliers.

Acumatica is a comprehensive cloud-based ERP system that offers a variety of tools and features for businesses that has met the needs of over 20 different industry models. It is an all-in-one package which can automate business operations and improve work flow. The software is aimed at the needs of service industries, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, retail and commerce, not for profit and many others. It’s fully integrated software means that data is unified and supports cross departmental decision making.

Flexibility in End to End Applications

Acumatica is an exceptionally flexible software solution. Because of the range of industries being targeted, it can adapt to the challenges of both subtle and far-reaching change requirements. You can define your business data in a way that is far more visual than ERP users have been used to. Added to this is integral CRM, which, through its ‘designed from outset’ approach gives true end-to-end functionality. Leads can be managed all the way from very first contact to ongoing dialogue and then quote to eventual sales order. As well as this, the ability to integrate with software solutions is very high this means that automated connections to suppliers, customers and delivery partners becomes a relatively easy to manage.

Complex and Simple Business Models

Multifaceted inventory structures are supported within with Acumatica making it easy to manage and track all stock across modern, complex businesses. The constant aim here is to minimise stock and still offer strong customer service levels, particularly for retail and service companies.

True Cloud and Quicker/Better Decisions

Acumatica was designed in the cloud and works with all modern devices via latest browser technology. From the moment you create your cloud environment, you can access your business data from any remote location. This way, you can keep track of your major business operations 24 hours a day. With intuitive reports and analytics, you can monitor your business’s performance and make better-informed decisions based on these analytical data. Several flexible reporting tools make it easier to analyse operations that ultimately lead you to smoother workflows.

About Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is an ERP product from Microsoft Dynamics family, the former name of Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC). Dynamics NAV is focused on roles and their daily tasks and offers solutions in different functional areas including Financial, Manufacturing, Distribution, Reporting, HR, and BI. Dynamics NAV is targeted at small and medium-sized companies.

Originally, Microsoft Dynamics NAV was developed in the 1980s. Since then the core functionalities of Dynamics Nav have not dramatically changed. Although new functional areas have appeared, the existing ones still work as they did in the previous versions. Dynamics NAV still uses the same proprietary code, the same data structures, and the same client-server architecture. Microsoft Dynamics NAV’s much older system architecture becomes an issue in scenarios designed for the latest technologies, including cloud deployment options, customisations using current development tools, and integration with CRM.

 One of the best-selling points about Dynamics NAV is that the product is highly customisable, flexible and adaptable to fit specific needs in any industry. A new functional area can be created from scratch or new features can be added to the existing functional area. All the deployment is done with the programming language called C/AL.

One thing unique about Microsoft Dynamics NAV is that the entire code is located on a single layer. Therefore, if you want to customise an area, you must do it by modifying the standard code and adding code in the middle of the standard object definition.

Significant differentiators between Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics NAV

• Customisations using industry standard tools: Both ERP products are highly configurable, but Acumatica is built using industry standard C# and .NET. Microsoft Dynamics NAV uses a proprietary development language, making customisations more difficult and expensive with additional costs for development privileges.
• Flexible licensing: Acumatica is available with subscription or perpetual licensing while Dynamics NAV is only available through a perpetual license. Microsoft VAR can host the product for you and charge a monthly fee, but this is not a monthly subscription.
• Reporting: Acumatica comes with powerful reporting, KPIs, and dashboards built in; plus, using Power BI with Content Pack provides even more reporting capabilities. With NAV, reporting can be challenging, and upgrades can cause problems. The cost of upgrading from NAV 2009 can be high because there is no migration path for existing customised reports.
• Deployment options: Acumatica supports cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployment options and clients can easily move among these options without migrating between systems. Microsoft Dynamics NAV, being built using older technology, cannot run in a public cloud. The only choice with NAV is to run it on-premise or using a private hosting organisation. Also, because Dynamics NAV requires additional servers to enable a cloud configuration and that custom pages must be rebuilt to support phone and tablet access, the total cost of ownership increases for cloud options.
• Scalability: Both ERP products allow to scale resources to support a growing company. But because Acumatica only charges by the by computing power required and not by users, you can increase your resources during growth, allowing an unlimited number of users to access the system regardless of function. Microsoft Dynamics NAV, on the other hand, is licensed by user. So, as your company grows and more employees, customers, and suppliers need access to the system, the costs are rising rapidly.
• The total cost of ownership: Acumatica does not charge per user as a business grows. Acumatica charges by computing power used, while Dynamics NAV does charge per user. Besides, Microsoft Dynamics NAV requires a license for SQL Server to run, where Acumatica can work not only with SQL Server but also with less expensive databases, such as MySQL. In addition, Acumatica works natively in the cloud, Microsoft Dynamics NAV requires a separate license for IIS for it to work in the cloud.
• Mobile access: Acumatica is much better for mobile device access and responsive web pages. NAV supports a web client (with a web server front end), some UI features are disabled, custom pages need to be rebuilt for phone and tablet client, and more limited UI features when using the mobile app.

 

Conclusion

Although Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics NAV are both considered as solid ERP choices, we strongly believe that Acumatica cloud ERP provides the best price/value, performance, functionality, and ease of use of any ERP system available for SME market. Acumatica is now the fastest on sale all over the world, and companies are investing in the product due to its modern cloud capability as well as the inherent business agility that it offers. Its flexible dynamic business solutions have been applauded by some of the top companies in the world and speak highly of its credibility as well.