2015
Information Technology &
SMEs Challenges in Jordan Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Nermeen Asfour
2 | P a g e
Contents Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 3
Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4
Rationale of the Research ............................................................................................................... 5
Research Questions ......................................................................................................................... 6
Research Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 6
Research Theory .............................................................................................................................. 6
Research Methodology ................................................................................................................... 6
Data Collection Methods ............................................................................................................. 7
Results Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 8
Demographics .............................................................................................................................. 8
SMEs Challenges & Needs ......................................................................................................... 10
The Gap Description ...................................................................................................................... 14
Bridging the Gap ............................................................................................................................ 15
Available Solutions: Microsoft Dynamic NAV ................................................................................ 16
General Description ................................................................................................................... 16
Features and Advantages .......................................................................................................... 18
Local servers or on the cloud................................................................................................. 18
Packaged Functionality .......................................................................................................... 19
Maximum Availability and Accessibility of Information ........................................................ 19
Effective and Simple Reporting ............................................................................................. 19
Users ID & Passwords ............................................................................................................ 20
Full integration with Office 365 ............................................................................................. 20
Workflow Processing ............................................................................................................. 20
CRM Package ......................................................................................................................... 20
Financial Management .......................................................................................................... 21
Project Management ............................................................................................................. 21
References ..................................................................................................................................... 22
Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 22
3 | P a g e
Table of Figures Figure 1 - Companies by size ........................................................................................................... 8
Figure 2 - Companies by sector ....................................................................................................... 9
Figure 3 - Companies by distinct departments ............................................................................... 9
Figure 4 - Companies awareness vs. companies use of IS solutions ............................................. 10
Figure 5 - Difficult to Manage Departments from the perspective of Companies using and not
using any IS .................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 6 - Causes of Difficulty found in management from the perspective of Companies using
and not using IS solutions .............................................................................................................. 12
Figure 7 - Companies Perspective about IS Effectiveness ............................................................. 13
Figure 8 - Barriers for Adopting IS based Solutions ....................................................................... 14
Figure 9 -Microsoft Dynamics NAV Roadmap ............................................................................... 17
Figure 10 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV used on servers or on the cloud ......................................... 18
Figure 11 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Business Insights Dashboard ..................................... 19
Figure 12 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Universal App ............................................................ 19
Figure 13 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Workflow and Notification Scheme .......................... 20
Figure 14- Microsoft Dynamics NAV CRM 2016 ............................................................................ 20
Figure 15 - Financial Management from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 ..................................... 21
Figure 16 - Project Management from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 ........................................ 21
4 | P a g e
Executive Summary Information technology is one of the revolutionary solutions that resulted from the digital world
of today, the features that this technology has put out for the world has changed the way that
contemporary businesses are performed and hence had a remarkable impact on managing
businesses’ daily activities, enhance effectiveness and efficiency, drive people’s performance,
minimize risks through empowering decision making which has all contributed in enhancing
companies’ profitability and competitiveness in a time of intensified competition.
In Jordan, businesses are considered a primary source of GDP and contribute significantly in
supporting the national economy. Yet, the modern globalization trends has also introduced
some significant challenges especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which comprise
about 94% of the total companies in Jordan. Hence, increasing the competitiveness of such
enterprises is essential to enhance Jordan competitiveness as well.
Information Technologies (IT) are providing diversified solutions that can address some of the
major challenges that Jordanian SMEs are suffering of, such as the efficient utilization of
resources, the adequate flow of information among departments, customers relationship
management, strategic planning and decision making.
This research has been undertaken to shed more light on these operational challenges and
discuss the solutions that information technologies provides to overcome it them both
effectively and efficiently.
A good sum of SMEs has been surveyed to identify some of their most pressing needs and the
results analysis has shown that SMEs in Jordan are aware of the IS based solutions and believe in
the effectiveness of such solutions, However, some barriers stands in the way of the efficient
utilization of such technologies basically related to the available budget and the complexity of
such systems. Furthermore, the research has tackled the business difficulties suffered from by
Jordanian SMEs in running their crucial functions majorly relying in the sales and marketing,
operations/production and Finance and accounting.
The analysis performed has revealed the gap between the SMEs perspective and activities and
the commercially available IS based solutions and have attempted to bridge the gap by
introducing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, an effective IS solution addressing the challenges of
Jordanian SMEs affordably.
5 | P a g e
Rationale of the Research Jordan has been one of the pioneer countries in the region to realize the importance of the
information technology in enhancing the country overall competitiveness and thus it has been
one of the first countries to invest heavily in adopting information technologies since late sixties.
However, Jordan has always suffered from issues in providing sufficient resources to grow the
information and communication technologies (ICT) sector, and thus, major parts of the ICT
development has relied on the private sector to grow.
The ICT sector has drastically grown during 2000s and have been an essential contribute in the
national total exports’ revenue (about 23.68% of the total exports revenues)1 yet, the declining
growth in the IT domestic revenues has put one severe issue into the spot light by indicating
either an inability to absorb or to pay for new knowledge integration and/or innovation by ICT
companies into their products and services. The addition of new knowledge and/or innovation
assists in improving the efficiencies of company/corporate processes (manufacturing,
marketing, etc.) or developing new products and services to meet unmet needs or adding
additional features to existing products. Adding value to existing products and services and/or
creating new products and services based on new knowledge enables higher prices to be
charged (improved profitability) or helps in displacing competing products or services from the
market (local and export).2
According to a project paper owned by the World Bank in which it explains the rationale for
financing Jordan’s micro, small and medium enterprises MSMEs development, there are around
150,000 registered enterprises in Jordan and of which 94% are MSMEs employing around 71%
of the private sector’s employees and are a leading source of exports income in Jordan, and
produce about 40% of the national GDP.3
Jordan has a large opportunity that relies in the development of the ICT sector that can
significantly impact its economy. Yet, the SMEs are practically shaping the way businesses are
performed in Jordan being the largest category among registered companies in Jordan and
playing essential role in national GDP and job creations. Having said so, a person might instantly
think that growing the ICT sector requires growing SMEs which in turn shall drive the wheel of
ICT development; however, this might not be necessarily true.
Jordan National Agenda (2006-2015) has identified the non-competitive ICT end-use access
costs for SMEs which is limiting productivity gains as one of the challenges that needs to be
1 Jordan National ICT Strategy (2013-2017) pg.9
2 Jordan National ICT Strategy (2013-2017) pg.10
3 Project Paper: Micro, small and medium enterprise development for inclusive growth project, report no.:
PAD1364, pg. 2
6 | P a g e
addressed similar to the administrative hurdles, the access to finance and the unfavorable
taxation structure.4
This discussion brings in a dilemma. If SMEs are considered a prime source for growing the ICT
sector in Jordan up to its hoped level, and at the same time, ICT solutions are considered
essential to enhance SMEs’ performance and productivity, what would be the optimal approach
of achieving both targets?
This research shall focus its efforts on finding out how does ICT solutions can enhance the
performance of SMEs in Jordan in hopes for this to be enough to turn the wheel for the ICT
sector’s development in the future.
Research Questions 1- What are the major managerial issues which SMEs in Jordan are suffering from?
2- What are the information systems (IS) that are most likely solve these issues?
3- What are the challenges of implementing those IS solutions?
4- What systems commercially available that address the SMEs issues?
Research Objectives 1- Highlight some of the most pressing challenges of which Jordanian SMEs are suffering
from.
2- Match the SMEs challenges with solutions provided by the contemporary IS to bridge
the gap.
3- Provide a complete description of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and highlight its most
beneficial features to represent a commercially available solution for SMEs
4- Discuss How Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be used to solve the SMEs most pressing
needs.
Research Theory Contemporary information systems (IS) can offer affordable solutions to enhance the
competitiveness of SMEs in Jordan and support their daily business activities
Research Methodology This research is build to explore how would IS business solutions can enhance the activities of
the SMEs sector in Jordan and hence is adopted a deductive approach in which a quantitative
data collected via an online survey to test the research theory assuming that the contemporary
IS solutions offers an affordable solution that can enhance the sector’s competitiveness.
4 Jordan National Agenda (2006 – 2015), pg 6
7 | P a g e
Data Collection Methods The research has used a mixed method approach to collect the data required to reflect the
current state of the IS and SMEs in Jordan, the data collection methods included the following:
1- Secondary data:
Secondary data were searched online and sought physically from governmental sources
such as the Jordanian ministry of industry and trade. Those data have been utilized to
shape the general frame of the research and to reflect demographic information
reflecting the importance of enhancing the SMEs sector in Jordan being a major
contributor of turning the economy wheel in Jordan.5
2- Questionnaire6:
A questionnaire has been designed and published using Google Forms with an objective
to highlight the operational challenges which SMEs are facing which might be prime
obstacles for their growth and prosperity.
The questionnaire has also sought to get more insights about the local market’s
perspective of IS and the obstacles of adopting such business solutions.
The questionnaire designed has been divided into two sections based on a filter
question basically classifying companies to companies with Implemented IS and
companies without implemented IS companies.
Companies with Implemented IS has been asked for their perspective of the
implemented solutions and their experience and the benefits obtained, while on the
other hand, questions addressing companies without an implemented IS have focused
on the challenges they face in their daily activities and the reasons they believe are
causing those challenges and if IS can help in overcoming such difficulties. Yet and most
importantly, those companies were asked about the reason preventing them from
investing in IS.
The questionnaire consisted of three parts:
1- Demographics: this section included five questions designed to determine the
companies ‘demographics and answered by both companies with or without
implemented IS.
2- Companies with Implemented IS: this section includes seven questions designed for
companies with IS implemented
3- Companies without Implemented IS: this section includes five questions and
designed for companies without implemented IS.
Estimated time required to complete the questionnaire is 3 minutes.
The distribution of the questionnaire has been performed through two methods:
5 You can refer to the full list of references in the references section.
6 Questionnaire can be found in Appendix A for reference
8 | P a g e
32%
31%
31%
6%
Company's Size
1-9 Employees
10-49 employees
50-249 Employees
More than 250 Employees
1- Free link published to professional social network such as Linkedin; A professional
post through Linkedin with a link directly taking to the questionnaire
2- Direct mailing: the questionnaire’s link has been sent through a private email to a
random sample taken from Jordan Business Directory 2013 – a database of Jordan
businesses obtained ministry of industry and trade including about 10,490
registered companies working in different sectors such as trade, services and
manufacturing.
The random list of companies selected for this stage has been selected by the online
portal (Research Randomizer www.randomizer.org) a tool which provides the
researcher with a randomly selected numbers out of a predefined number of cases
and required number sets.
The randomly selected sample included 149 companies of different sectors and
sizes. 7
Results Discussion The total response rate to the distributed questionnaire was about 12% and since the
questionnaire was distributed through Google forms, the responses where anonymously
reviewed as Google Forms only creates a time stamp for each completed case which has helped
in eliminating any privacy concerns for the responding parties.
The questionnaire has been appropriately coded into 49 variables and analyzed for meaningful
information Using IBM SPSS statistics 20.
Demographics A simple percentage analysis to the
responses received has revealed a
mix that is very close to the real mix
as reported by the statistics about
the SMEs working in Jordan.
Figure 1 shows that about 94% of
companies responded are micro,
small or a medium enterprise with
employees’ number doesn’t exceed
250 employees, which enhance the
chances for this sample to reflect the
actual opinions and orientations of
7 A full list of contacted companies is in Appendix C. The full database is provided as a softcopy for
reference only in Appendix B
Figure 1 - Companies by size
9 | P a g e
6%
19%
0%
13%
6%
56%
Company's By Sector
Trade
Manufacturing
Healthcare
Hospitality
Banking and Financing
Services
7
5
9
11
2
4
7
11
5
4
12
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Procurement
Logistics
Sales & Marketing
Operations/ Production
Public Relations
Customers' Service
Human Resources
Finance & Accounting
IT Department
Inventory Management
General Administration
Distinct Departments
the SMEs in Jordan.
Furthermore, an analysis of the
industries mix has shown that
56% of companies’ works in the
services sector directly followed
by manufacturing sector (18.8%),
the hospitality sector, trade and
banking and financing sectors
while no companies working in
the healthcare sector responded
to this questionnaire.
The questionnaire had looked
deeper into the details of the
companies operation and hence
has asked for the distinct
departments working in each
company to better understand
the nature of the challenges they
face in their everyday activities.
The lack of resources usually force SMEs to combine functionalities together into a few number
of departments which add more challenges in terms of managing those functionalities efficiently
and effectively. Figure 3 sheds light on the most essential departments that usually exists
distinctly in Jordanian SMEs. The figure shows ‘General Administration’ is the distinct
Figure 2 - Companies by sector
Figure 3 - Companies by distinct departments
10 | P a g e
Aware81%
Unaware19%
Awareness of IS
Using69%
Not Using31%
Use of IS
department that is usually available in the SMEs structure directly followed by the ‘Finance &
Accounting’ and the ‘Operations/Production’ followed in the third place comes the ‘Sales &
Marketing’, this might stand as a clear evidence that those four functions are crucial to SMEs
businesses while other functionalities such as human resources, customers’ service,
procurements, …etc can be included in the activities of those four departments.
This analysis wanted to shed more light on the SMEs perception of Information Systems (IS) and
hence had differentiated between the companies that are aware of IS and it applications and
companies who moved from only being aware towards investing into implementing IS in their
activities.
Figure 4 clearly shows that despite the fact the IS solutions are known to a grand majority
reaching to 81% of the surveyed companies, this percentage drops to about 69% when asked if
IS solutions is actually implemented in their activities.
SMEs Challenges & Needs The second and third sections of the questionnaire has deliberately been divided to discriminate
between the opinions of the SMEs that are using IS solutions from SMEs who aren’t.
The first contrast between the perspectives of those two clusters of companies is in terms of the
departments/ functionalities that are considered most challenging to manage.
Figure 4 - Companies awareness vs. companies use of IS solutions
11 | P a g e
Figure 5 - Difficult to Manage Departments from the perspective of Companies using and not using any IS
Figure 5 can clearly highlight the difference in perspectives between companies that are using IS
in their activities and those that are not.
As companies that uses IS considers the ‘Operation/Production’ department as the most
challenging department to run, closely followed by the ‘Sales & Marketing” department,
companies that are not utilizing IS considers the ‘Sales & Marketing” department to be the most
challenging followed by the “Finance & Accounting”.
Despite the conflict, the companies have indeed highlighted the most demanding and crucial
departments upon which the SMEs competitiveness highly depends on:
1- Sales & Marketing
2- Operations/ Production
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Procurement
Logistics
Sales & Marketing
Operations/ Production
Public Relations
Customers' Service
Human Resources
Finance & Accounting
IT Department
Inventory Management
General Administration
Difficult to Manage Departments
Companies Not Using IS Companies Using IS
12 | P a g e
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Lack of resources (cash/people)
Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
Lack of structured systems & procedures to govern activities
Lack of responsibility and/or accountability
Difficulties in collecting external and/or internal data/ information
Lack of proper communication among involved employees
Lack of monitoring & evaluation methods
Uncertainty slows down decision making
Causes of Difficult Operations
Companies Not Using IS Companies Using IS
3- Finance & Accounting
Digging Deeper into this aspect, both types of companies have been asked about the reasons
they think are behind the difficulties found in managing these departments
The reasons nominated for this purpose were as follows, in an attempt to address the most
common challenges faced in the working environment:
1- Lack of Resources (Cash/people)
2- Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
3- Lack of structured systems & procedures to govern activities
4- Lack of responsibility and/or accountability
5- Difficulties in collecting external and/or internal data/ information
6- Lack of proper communication among involved employees
7- Lack of monitoring & evaluation methods
8- Uncertainty slows down decision making
Figure 6 - Causes of Difficulty found in management from the perspective of Companies using and not using IS solutions
13 | P a g e
81.80%
18.20%
66.70% 33.30%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Companies Believe IS are effective tools
Companies Believe IS might be effective tools
Companies perspective about IS effectiveness
Companies Not Using IS
Companies using IS
According to figure 6 above, companies using IS solutions refers the difficulty in managing their
most challenging departments to three main factors:
1- Difficulties in collecting external and/or internal data/ information
2- Lack of structured systems & procedures to govern activities
3- Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
Directly followed by lack of resources such as people and cash
While on the other hand, companies with no IS solutions utilized refers those difficulties to three
main reasons:
1- Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
2- Lack of responsibility and/or accountability
3- Lack of proper communication among involved employees
Directly followed by:
1- Lack of resources (cash/people)
2- Lack of monitoring & evaluation methods
Now companies from both groups have been asked if IS based solutions are effective methods
to overcome the challenges they are facing in running their businesses, and the answers have
been around ‘Yes, they are’ and ‘they might be’. However, the percentages might be more
indicative considering the state of each group.
81.8% of companies using IS based solutions were certain that IS are indeed an effective tools
that can support their activities while the remaining balance were a bit doubtful saying that IS
might be an effective tools. While on the other hand, only 66.7% of companies were as certain
of the IS based solutions while the remaining balance also more doubtful by stating that IS
‘might be effective’.
Figure 7 - Companies Perspective about IS Effectiveness
14 | P a g e
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Budget
Awareness
Lack of solutions providers
Bad support services from solutions providers
Complexity of systems and poor training capabilities
Barriers for adopting IS Based Solutions
Companies Using IS
Companies Not Using IS
This might lead the discussions towards exploring the reasons which are standing as barriers for
utilizing IS based solutions despite the fact that the majority do believe in the effectiveness of
such solutions, and hence, companies of both groups have been asked to pin point those
barriers from the list below:
1- Budget
2- Awareness
3- Lack of solutions providers
4- Bad support services from solutions providers
5- Complexity of systems and poor training capabilities
Figure 8 summarizes the companies’ responses to this question:
While the systems complexity stands as the main barrier from the perspective of companies
already utilizing the IS based solutions, the budget comes as the main barrier for utilizing IS
based solutions from the perspective of companies that are not using such solutions.
The Gap Description The analysis above has pinpointed some of the major issues that SMEs in Jordan suffers from
which can be summarized as follows:
1- SMEs in Jordan believe in the solutions offered by the contemporary IS based solutions
and have sufficient awareness of the value of utilizing such solutions
Figure 8 - Barriers for Adopting IS based Solutions
15 | P a g e
2- SMEs utilization of IS based solutions are associated to two main barriers; the systems
complexity and the budget associated with adopting such solutions.
3- IS based solutions would best support SMEs by enhancing the activities in the following
departments:
a. Sales & Marketing
b. Operation/ Production
c. Finance & Accounting
4- IS solutions sought by SMEs in Jordan are required to overcome the following
challenges:
a. Difficulties in collecting external and/or internal data/ information
b. Lack of structured systems & procedures to govern activities
c. Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
d. Lack of responsibility and/or accountability
e. Lack of proper communication among involved employees
Bridging the Gap Since SMEs in Jordan do believe that IS based solutions can be effective tools to manage their
businesses, then bridging the gap would start by finding the IS based solution that best works
out for SMEs and address their concerns.
Table 1 - Gap Bridging features of IS solutions
SMEs Gap IS solution ‘Gap Bridging’ features
SMEs are usually short in cash and hence Budget are common barrier
Economical IS solution that works on the capital and operational costs
Systems Complexity is a major barrier since SMEs lack the time needed to decode the complexity and the cash required to train people
Simple and straight forward solution backed with ready resources supporting the operation
SMEs Operational Challenges are as follows: Difficulties in collecting external and/or internal data/ information
1- Capturing events 2- Data analysis 3- Reporting 4- Ease of access 5- Simplicity of data logging
Lack of structured systems & procedures to govern activities
1- Takes into consideration the appropriate flow of information and activities
2- Connect each event with the appropriate documentation
3- Graduate with the appropriate approvals at each stage of the process
Lack of responsibility and/or accountability
1- Multiple users with credential for each user
2- Maintain a track record of changes performed by each users
3- Definition of authorities and responsibilities
16 | P a g e
SMEs Gap IS solution ‘Gap Bridging’ features Lack of proper communication among involved employees
1- Connecting to users to deliver reports and alerts
2- Communicating through most convenient and easy to use means
Lack of related skills and/or knowledge
1- Effective reporting tools highlighting areas of weaknesses.
2- Managing employees growth and motivating striving
3- Knowledge management SMEs Crucial Functions:
Sales & Marketing 1- Managing sales leads 2- Managing Customers profiles 3- Enriching sales planning 4- Real-time stats reports 5- Managing sales teams 6- Tracking sales cycle 7- facilitate relationship maintaining with
customers Operation/ Production 1- Project Management
2- Resource planning 3- Supply chain/ Inventory management 4- Progress reporting 5- Simple and easy-to-use dashboards
Finance & Accounting 1- Real-time financial reporting 2- Enriching Budgeting 3- Simple and easy entries 4- Invoicing 5- Transactions 6- Accounts management
Available Solutions: Microsoft Dynamic NAV
General Description Microsoft Dynamic NAV is one of the most known information
systems in the world, hosted by Microsoft and offers business
solutions designed specifically for small and mid size
enterprises through multiple modules each designed to
address different areas and functionalities within the
enterprises such as sales and marketing, financing and
accounting, project management, and resource planning.
Navision originated at PC&C A/S (Personal Computing and Consulting), a company founded in
Denmark in 1983. PC&C released its first accounting package, PCPlus, in 1984 a single-user
application with basic accounting functionality. There followed in 1987 the first version of
Navision, a client/server based accounting application that allowed multiple users to access the
system simultaneously. Navision’s success prompted PC&C to rename the company Navision
Software A/S.
17 | P a g e
Navision was sold primarily in Scandinavia up until 1990 and then began branching out to other
European countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. The success of Navision
throughout Europe prompted Navision Software A/S to release its first version of Navision based
on Microsoft Windows 95.
In the year 2000, Navision Software A/S merged with fellow Danish firm Damgaard A/S to form
Navision Damgard A/S. In 2001 the company changed its name to Navision A/S.
On July 11, 2002 Microsoft bought Navision A/S to go with its previous acquisitions of Great
Plains. Together with Microsoft CRM a new division in Microsoft was formed called Microsoft
Business Solutions.
In 2003 Microsoft announced plans to develop an entirely new ERP system which caused rumors
to begin that Navision was coming to an end. However, Microsoft ultimately decided to
continue development on Navision and launched the system with the same new role-based
user-interface, SQL based reporting and analysis, SharePoint based portal, Pocket PC based
mobile clients and integration with Microsoft Office.
In September 2005 Microsoft re-branded the Navision and re-released it as Microsoft Dynamics
NAV and in December 2008 Microsoft released Dynamics NAV 2009, which contains both the
original “classic” client, as well as the new three-tier GUI called the Role Tailored Client (RTC),
effectively making NAV 2009 the only hybrid version.
Figure 9 -Microsoft Dynamics NAV Roadmap
18 | P a g e
The RTC allows tailoring the NAV experience by individual users, based on their job
responsibilities. RTC can only be set up by an individual user, not company roles and multiple
setups per user are not supported.
In October 2012, Microsoft released NAV 2013, which discontinued support for the Classic Client
and renamed the Role Tailor Client to the Windows Client. Additionally, a built-in Web Client
and SharePoint client were added. The report-building and database access that had been
previously available with the Classic Client is still available and used as a development tool to
modify the system by customers and by a reseller (consultant).
In October of 2015 Microsoft released their most powerful version to date of NAV—Microsoft
Dynamics NAV 2016. This version of NAV included Power BI, the ability to download exchange
rates, OCR Service (Lexmark), integration with CRM, improved web client, universal app, and
workflow.8
Features and Advantages The new Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 offers small and midsize enterprises a unique package of
solutions that guarantee efficient operations in a very affordable price through the following set
of features:
Local servers or on the cloud
Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers enterprises the convenience of two options:
1- To use the software on their local servers
2- Using the software through perpetual licenses and on the cloud
This might be an interesting features for SMEs in Jordan as the cloud based model usually
provide a cost effective experience and hence saving on the software capital and at the same
time save on the operational expenditure due to the minimized investments put into managing
the network, storage, and maintenance of the system.
8 Presentation published by Solution Systems, inc. http://goo.gl/aDLsO9
Figure 10 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV used on servers or on the cloud
19 | P a g e
Packaged Functionality
Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers enterprises a package of their concerning functionalities for one
price:
Basic Financials Management (General Ledger & Fixed Assets)
Basic Supply Chain Management (Including Purchasing & Inventory)
Basic Sales management
Project Management
Wide range of tools for customization purposes
Business Insights and reporting
Integration opportunities through web services9
Maximum Availability and Accessibility of Information
Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers its clients the ultimate availability and accessibility through a
universal application designed to operate on all the different users’ devices starting from
computers to tablets and all the way to mobile phones.
Users will not miss the chance of obtaining the needed information whenever and wherever.
Effective and Simple Reporting
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 offers
a customizable easy-to-use business
dashboards that transform all
business insights into simple to read
graphs reflecting the business
performance on real-time.
The dashboards summarizes all
information required to empower
managers and facilitate the decision
making process.
9 Product Overview and Capability Guide Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 by Microsoft
Figure 12 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Universal App
Figure 11 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Business Insights Dashboard
20 | P a g e
Users ID & Passwords
The system offers the flexibility of customizing the authorities for each users and hence
enhancing the system security, maintain structured amendments and changes to the systems
performed when needed and by authorized personnel only tracked by time and user.
Full integration with Office 365
The integration with Microsoft office 365 open the way for even more flexibility through
importing and exporting data/reports to office formats widely used and eliminate the
duplication in sending or receiving emails or booking a certain appointment to two calendars.
Workflow Processing
Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers a
structure and well managed
workflow through an algorithm
build routine automating the
notification and approvals schemes
to make sure the routine
procedures are being completed in
a timely manner, utilizing minimal
resources and are not standing in
the way of more crucial processes.
CRM Package
Microsoft Dynamics NAV also introduces
powerful CRM packages that efficiently and
effectively manage the sales and marketing
activities such as managing the sales pipeline,
following out marketing campaigns or even
integrate social media content.
The CRM package also offer enterprises mean
for knowledge management by creating a single
source of knowledge open to the whole
enterprise.
The CRM package is also integrated to Microsoft outlook and Microsoft excels for maximum
flexibility.10
10
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, Release Preview Guide, Releases: September 2015, Revised: December 2015
Figure 13 - Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Workflow and Notification Scheme
Figure 14- Microsoft Dynamics NAV CRM 2016
21 | P a g e
Financial Management
The Financial Management from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 offers users comprehensive
features that reflect directly to the everyday operations of the SMEs finance and accounting
department performance.
The system include advances
financial reporting and
analyzing, automatic
scheduling of accounts,
allocate general ledger
entries, maintain a track of
cash flow and provide
complete cash flow
predictions, managing
budgets, maintain logs of all
users changes, multiple
currencies, bank accounts
management, and bank
accounts reconciliation
Project Management
The project management from Microsoft
Dynamics NAV 2016 provides users with an
easy to use resource management and
allocation tool. The systems also introduce
an analysis of resources profitability and
utilization rates. Keep track of job progress,
clients invoicing, and time registration.
Managing multiple costs related to work in
progress such as the alternative costs for
resources, fixed costs and additional
percentages or fixed charges.
Figure 15 - Financial Management from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
Figure 16 - Project Management from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
22 | P a g e
References Jordan National Information & Communications Technology Strategy (2013-2017),
http://goo.gl/Q4MEVr
Project Paper: Micro, small and medium enterprise development for inclusive growth
project, report no.: PAD1364
Jordan National Agenda (2006 – 2015), http://goo.gl/3HtS1M
Presentation published by Solution Systems, inc. http://goo.gl/aDLsO9
Product Overview and Capability Guide Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 by Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, Release Preview Guide, Releases: September 2015,
Revised: December 2015
Appendices Appendix A: Small and Medium Enterprises Challenges and IS solutions – Survey
Appendix B: Jordan Businesses Directory 2013 – Database (Softcopy)
Appendix C: Random Samples of SMEs
Appendix D: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 – Product overview and capability guide