Axapta vs Navision

For those involved in MS Business Solutions, or those just wondering about the difference between two of Microsoft's important business solution products - Axapta and Navision, the following (annotated) post by Gerrit Combrink and Rene on the Microsoft.Public.Axapta newsgroup might be helpful:-

The focus areas of both products are around Manufacturing, Distribution and Services. The main differences are with functionality and technology.

(In Axapta, all this functionality is standard. There is no standard Services functionality in Navision. Such functionality needs to be built by ISVs.)

Axapta is aimed more towards the top end Mid market to corporate customers with complex requirements, while Navision looks after the lower to middle mid market segment with less complex requirements.

(Lower meaning: about 10 concurrent users. Above 20 users: Axapta)

Technology within Axapta also allows it to be a much stronger, more stable, higher performing competitor in a 3-tier environment as this is built into the existing architecture. You can also run a lot more concurrent users on a Axapta system than on Navision.

(Axapta's AOS technology (Axapta Object Server) provides scalability. Axapta has been tested from 1 user up to 3500 concurrent users.)

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions/default.mspx

Update: see also Business Solutions Roadmap 2004& MBS ERP Product Overview

10 Comments

  • I have been a Navision Developer for over 4 years and I would have to say that this is a very simplistic comparison. I have seen numerous Navision Attain installations with more than 50 concurrent users running without problems. A well implemented SQL server 2000 implementation can handle many more. It is not difficult to add web users either.



    Also, the development environment for Axapta is a nightmare compared to Attain. Attain may not be Object Oriented, but most business logic in the real world does not need to be as it is set based.



    It is also significantly cheaper to buy and implement!



  • Thanks for the quote, Alex!



    And just to remind everybody: when we first started implementing Axapta in 1997, we also thought it would be more difficult than XAL or Navision. But we turned away from this idea. They are just different systems: XAL and Navision are older, 4th generation 'ERP tools' and Axapta is a new Object Oriented (Xth generation) ERP2 / ERP+ system. Don't be fooled about the complexity! It is a beautiful system!

  • We evaluated both products and went with Navision simply becasue the care and feeding is much less expensive. It is much easier to customaize as well.



    Even the Pro-Axapta people must confess that the system is much more complex.



    As far as concurrent users, Navision can handle hundreds or more using the SQL Server Version.

  • Does anyone know what the average number of users for an Axapta installation is?

  • We implement Navision (320 installations) and Axapta (approx. 10 installations). With Navision our largest project has 500 conc. Users. So the number of Users is not the question. Most Axapta partners have not more than 20 to 40 people. So they are unable to run a project with more than 500 Users. Both products are in the same market. The differences are:

    1. If the customer is more a technology freak -> Axapta

    2. If the user need a vertical solutions -> Navision

    3. If you need web services -> Axapta

    4. If you have less than 30 Users -> Navision

    5. If you have more than 500 Users -> run Axapta

    The conclusion is that the use of Axapta or Navision is not decided on a rational basis, but on the basis emotions and sympathy for one of these products by the prospect.



    But we also have tendency. In our case more and more projects with more than 150.000,--€ sales volume are implemented with Axapta. Whereas the smaller projects 30.000,-- to 80.000,--€ are implemented with Navision.



    I think the problem of the Navision and Axapta Evangelist is that both think they have the best product. But both are on the wrong side, the product is not so important as the consulting is.



    Worldwide are 4900 Axapta Customers and about 60.000 Navision customers.

  • We are looking for Navision for our IT systems. It is going to be 50 user base. What is going to be the ongoing cost, if we implement Navision?
    How many full time employees (FTEs) required on going basis to support the system?

  • I've read the above and am still a bit confused. From my understanding, there was Damgaard Axapta, then this became Navision Axapta, then Microsoft Axapta / Dynamics Ax / etc.

    When people talk about Navision, or Microsoft Navision / Dynamics Nav / etc, am I right in assuming it is a completely different beast, formerly known as Navision Attain?

    I've got some hacking abilities in Axapta 3.0, are they any use for cross-training to the current Axapta, and even the current Navision, or are they all different?

    Thanks :-)

  • Some Microsoft consultant told me AX is supposed to be a product you can customize more in depth than NAV, but I haven't tested any. Did anybody?

  • I am an end user of Axapta while switching from ADP which is ancient. There was no phase in time. We went to a instant conversion w/o any traing and it is not possible to do this on Axapta. On statr up none of our equipent would function. I was left to research instruction on line myself. This is going to take at least a year to fully implement and I as an end user can see a mountain of lost revenue. If we can survive it it may be worthwhile but I have seen no help from Axapta on my end.

  • I went through all the valuable feedback about the comparison between both the MS ERP Apps and got to know a lot what exactly Microsoft has got to offer to small to Mid-size companies in the enterprise solutions space.

    I hope Microsoft keeps up the good work and will keep upgrading both the solutions to make them more efficient to help out SMEs to run their business more efficiently and make it strong enough to match up their steps with the big shot companies to scale up the ladder with the help of Miscrosoft solutions by making their business cut down on their operating costs(TCO) and maximising ROI in the Technology.

    Keep INOVATING & COMING UP WITH MORE & MORE SUCH SOLUTIONS.

    I wish you guys all the very good luck in all your future releases!!!!!


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