In this article, we describe the basic information on Business Central, based on information from the Directions NA conference, which we were a silver sponsor.
Business Central – basic information
- Business Central is next version of the Dynamics NAV system, based on 32 years of experience of the Dynamics systems.
- The same functionality (as in NAV).
- The Polish location for the on-premise version is available. The PL location for the on-line version (SaaS) is semi-available.
- Currently, over 30 local versions are available in the world.
- The system is available in the new model – SaaS.
- Licenses are only available for named users.
- An AppSource store is available, where more than 300 applications created by partners are available. This, in a way, replaces what we now know as ISV.
- Modern tools – Visual Studio Code, AL programming language
- Modern Client (will replace Windows Client
Implementations models
• On-premises (local instalation)
• Hosting (Azure or another Data Center)
• Cloud (SaaS
Licenses
| SaaS (cloud) |
Perpetual (on premises) |
Subskrypcja (on premises) |
|
| Essentials | 60 EUR | Order quotation | Order quotation |
| Premium | 85 EUR | ||
| Team Members | 10 EUR | ||
| Polska Funkcjonalność | 10 EUR | ||
| Paczka obiektów | n/a |
- The Essentials user has access to functionalities corresponding to the Starter Pack in Dynamics NAV.
- The Premium User has access to the functionalities available in the Starter and Extended Pack in Dynamics NAV.
- Team Member is the equivalent of Limited User.
- In the cloud model, there is no need to buy objects because the object package is included in the SaaS price.
Transmission to Business Central from a Dynamics NAV subscription
There are 3 options:
a) Continue paying monthly subscription and use your existing NAV with unchanged lifecycle policy. Please note that, price will change from 1st October 2019.
b) Moving to SaaS (no additional benefits).
c) Moving to on-premise (no additional benefits).
Transmission to Business Central from a Dynamics NAV perpetual
There are 4 options:
a) Use your existing NAV with unchanged lifecycle policy.
b) Transition to Business Central on-premise (license transfer 1->3)*
c) Moving to the cloud (SaaS) – 40% discount; drop BREP.
d) Deploying a parallel SaaS Solution – 60/80% discount, continue paying BREP.
* You can receive 3 Business Central users for each NAV user.
- On 1st October 2019 – price changes will affect NAV Subscription, will be equal to the price of the Business Central subscription.
• Fall 2019 – discontinuation of local client.
• Fall 2019 – discontinuation of C/Side.
• No Mix & Match for Business Central. This means that either we buy essentials licenses for all users or extend for all users.
• No SQL Runtime on Business Central price list.
• No changes to lifecycle policy.
Support lifecycle
| Versions | Standard Support | Extended Support |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 | 2023-01 | 2028-01 |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 | 2022-01-11 | 2027-01-11 |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 | 2021-01 | 2026-01 |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 | 2020-01-20 | 2025-01-14 |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 | 2018-01-09 | 2023-01-10 |
| Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 | 2015-01-13 | 2020-01-14 |
| Dynamics 365 Business Central | On-prem Spring 2019 and before |
On-prem Autumn 2019 and after |
Cloud (May 2019) |
| Functionality | The same | ||
| Code | C/AL | AL | |
| Client | Windows & Modern | Modern | |
| Customizations | C/AL Customizations | Extenstions & AL Customizations | Extentsions |
| ISV Solutions | Add-on | Extension | App |
| Solution Access | Through Partner | AppSource | |
| Upgrades | You manage and phase upgrades | Automated, upfront testing | |
| Infrastructure | Per your choice (in-house, local hosting, hosted on Azure) | Microsoft hosted and managed | |
| DB | Limitation inherent to the environment you are using | UP to 80 GB | |
| Backups | Under your control | Available but with no direct access to SQL | |
| License | Buy to Subscription | Subscription | |
- The functionality in each version is the same.
- C / AL will be until the autumn update, when it will be replaced by AL. The AL version is cloud-based.
- The Windows client will be replaced by the Modern Client in the autumn update. The cloud version is Modern Client.
- Customizations is available via C / AL, and extensions will be available from autumn. In the cloud version, you should use the extensions.
- ISV solutions are available in the form of Add-on, since the autumn update they will be in the form of Extensions. In the cloud version in the form of an application.
- In the cloud version updates is automated.
- There are not many changes in the infrastructure management area in the on-premise version. The infrastructure takes the form of a local installation or Azure cloud. In the case of a cloud version, the infrastructure is managed by Micorosoft.
- For the cloud version, Microsoft mentions that a maximum capacity is 80 GB. This size may change over time. In addition, it will most likely be possible to extend the data limit for a fee.
- Local version back-ups do not change. In the cloud version, backups are possible, but there is no direct access to SQL.
Other informations:
- Business Central in the online version is not yet complete for the local version on the Polish market.
- In the case of an update in the Cloud version, it is worth using the Sandbox environment in order to check the impact of raising BC to the new version.
- You can contact Microsoft to request needed Events.
- A Cloud Team Member license will be created dedicated to users who use ISV solutions.
- From July 1, 2019, a new device license will appear.
- There are two free users for each Business Central instance: 1 accountant and 1 admin.
- You will be able to buy more storage space for the cloud version.
- It will be possible to buy additional sandboxes. There is one piece in the standard.
- Each major update has over 100 new functionalities. However, there are no revolutionary changes among them. The changes relate to improved performance, stability and security.
- 68% of revenues from Business Central come from North America. There are many more small online projects in America.