I am excited by the Role Tailored Client the new user interface for users of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009; it really does have some brilliant features for the end clients to get to grips with ERP and to be able to work in a more simplified way.

 

The chance to allow end clients to work in such a way as to be based around the individuals within an organisation, their role and the tasks they perform, or at least that is what the introduction material I have been provided with says. Given that I am currently the lead developer on a new install of NAV 2009 for a furniture retailer who are switching from Agresso, this is clearly something that has been sold to the IT department here, however we are yet to discover a single role that they carry out in the way that NAV 2009 has suggested.

 

We are hoping once we get into it further that the other departments are more uniform, but it does begin to make a worry that there is no role for IT Developer who wants to do ERP Implementations. This is only a minor issue though and has been more a cause for amusement as we watch the senior management trying to work out if they have spent 20 years running the IT department in the wrong way.

 

More of a concern has been the amount of issues that we have had in maintaining the access to the RTC. It has been a problem that has plagued the end client, the VAR (who have been manful in their efforts, we have had test environments set up on standalone servers, vpc’s and even individual laptops).

 

The problem has been that on installing SQL Classic we are offered the chance to connect by using PC/DYNAMICSNAV or PC/DYNAMICSNAV1 well we have not configured anything that would relate to PC/DYNAMICSNAV and so we have tried through PC/DYNAMICSNAV but we are somehow prevented from registering this and then connecting, we have even had the frustration of being booted out by task manager.

 

So frustrating was this after 2 days and NINE people working on this that the Project Manager from the VAR and the IT Director from the customer agreed to a rebuild of one server, which has rectified the problem, it took most of the weekend to get us back on track, which has all been done with a great team spirit.

 

Most customers would not give you the flexibility to do this without more of a fuss, but I have to say how refreshing it is to have a customer back your VAR, it just goes to show that the relationship between the VAR and the customer is, and this means this install has every chance of being a huge success.