What is an implementation?

If you look for the definition of implementation, you will end up with something similar to the following, which has been taken from http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/implementation:

"Implementation is the carrying out, execution, or practice of a plan, a method, or any design for doing something. As such, implementation is the action that must follow any preliminary thinking in order for something to actually happen.

In an information technology context, implementation encompasses all the processes involved in getting new software or hardware operating properly in its environment, including installation, configuration, running, testing, and making necessary changes. The word deployment is sometimes used to mean the same thing."

I especially like the part where it says: getting new software operating properly in its environment.

That is what needs to be done in a Dynamics NAV implementation process. Get the software (Dynamics NAV) to operate properly in its environment (the company that will use Dynamics NAV as their business management software).

One of the strongest selling points in Dynamics NAV is the ability to set it up any way you like. Often times, people take this flexibility to the extreme to the point of diminishing (or negative) return.

Companies are completely different from one another. They work completely differently as they have different processes and ways of doing business. Dynamics NAV, just as companies, can work in many different ways. Each company has to find its own way. And that is actually what will be done in the implementation process where you choose the way in which you want Dynamics NAV to work.

Dynamics NAV is a software product that requires you to set it up properly before you can start working with it. There are some areas that have to be configured, many others that have to be decided, master data that has to be introduced in the system, and a host of other decisions that have to be taken before a company can start using Dynamics NAV as their business software. Taking shortcuts in order to "save" on implementation cost will guarantee to cost the clients more in the long run.

Dynamics NAV, as many other business software products, provides a large stack of what is called horizontal functionality that may be useful for any company using Dynamics NAV, regardless of the business sector in which they work. It also provides the needed flexibility to adapt to any specific vertical requirement.

Tip

Vertical and horizontal solutions

A vertical solution is a stack of functionalities thought of and developed to cover industry-specific requirements of a business sector. Manufacturing companies need software solutions different from what a health care company needs, for example.

A horizontal solution is a stack of functionalities that every single company needs or can use, such as word processing or spreadsheet applications. In Dynamics NAV, application modules such as Financial Management are part of the horizontal solution, as they are useful and needed for every single company.

Apart from a host of horizontal functionalities, Dynamics NAV offers some out-of-the-box vertical application modules, such as the Manufacturing module, that will probably be used by manufacturing companies but not by retail companies, for instance.

All the out-of-the box application modules and functionalities that Dynamics NAV offers can be put together in what is called the Standard Solution or standard software. Don't take the word standard as something standardized by an international standards authority. That is not what standard means in this context. It actually refers to how Microsoft, based on the feedback of how companies use an ERP application of the necessary functionalities, that can be applied across most of the companies that uses Dynamics NAV.

If standard Dynamics NAV does not meet the specific requirements that a company needs, a large channel of Dynamics NAV partners exists, which may have developed a vertical solution. The solution probably complies with many of the requirements of what your client's industry needs.

You will find vertical solutions for as many business sectors as you may think of—retail, real estate, education, health care, non-profit— just to name a few. Custom development can also be done for a specific company to modify or extend Dynamics NAV functionality to meet the unique demands of your client's requirements.

In an implementation process of Dynamics NAV, you have to choose whether you will implement standard Dynamics NAV and/or a vertical solution offered by yourself or by any other company. You will have to choose which functionalities will be used, how they will be used, and know if development will be required, and then you will have to implement all of this by installing the product, develop what needs to be developed, and configure what's required.

After figuring out the framework that's needed for an implementation, you also need to load the initial data the company needs to start working with (primarily, their master data, such as their database consisting of customers, vendors, or items). Finally, you have to train the end users who will use Dynamics NAV, as they have to know how everything works and which tasks they are expected to perform in the system.