Fair consulting as an independent BC/Navision freelancer (freelancer) programmer
Is your Navision too old? Can your slow Navision only be sped up if you buy a new version or an even more expensive server? Do you urgently need to switch because your Navision will soon no longer work? Can a web shop connection or an app solution via Android or Apple iOS only be implemented if you change your Navision? Is your permanent Navision Financials Attain/Microsoft Business Central 365 developer/programmer telling you that only new hardware can solve a massive performance/speed problem? Then maybe now is the time to seek out an independent and experienced (since 1993 Navision!) freelancer to get a different perspective on your ERP. Because...
All this is usually no need. You will find e.g. a bank interface also for Navision down to 2.10,a shopware interface for technical Navision from 4.03 and 2009r2 and various other tips, that turn your supposedly outdated workhorse Navision into a modern racehorse again. This applies across all versions! OK, even I would describe Navision 3.56 as “old”... but it's far from outdated! The ingenious 2009R2 version, which I think will be sufficient “forever”... And also the Navision 2018/BC14 version. Debit and credit and stock and outstanding receivables don't change on a weekly basis. An enterprise resource planning system is not a printer driver or an action game, which should sometimes receive hourly updates. You pay a lot of money for what you hopefully get is a nearly error-free version... and it should or would have to work for 10 or 20 years. Why not? Well... Because now Microsoft is behind it. And they've been making banana software since the 90s – ripened at the customer.
With slow systems and/or long response times, correcting a few flow fields and database keys is often enough to get your system up and running again. And then you can get back to work quickly and without coffee breaks. 🙂 This doesn't even require advanced programming skills, just a deep understanding of how an (SQL) databaseworks. Unfortunately, this is something that very few programmers and freelancers on the market no need have. This may well have something to do with the background of these freelance or permanently employed Navision programmers: hardly anyone knows Navision from the ground up. I would guess that more than 80% are career changers who came across Navision Financials Attain/Microsoft Business Central 365 more or less by chance at some point in their professional careers as programmers.
This naturally leads to a lack of basic understanding of flow fields, SQL queries, and in some cases even physical hard disks, RAID configurations (I estimate that 80% of all Navision SQL server RAID configurations and hard disk partitions in the industry are incorrect!), and the actual Navision logic, e.g., differences between the two Navision server variants in terms of booking procedures, table locking, etc.
Navision and/or Business Central licenses
You can also activate licenses (users, objects, functions) via my partner. However, it is no need necessary that you leave or change your system house / Navision or Business Central partner! You can also use my consulting and programming services independent of a Navision system house change.. Ich betrachte es aber als meine Verantwortung als echter Freelancer, Ihnen beides aus einer Hand (oder aus 1,5 Händen) liefern zu können.
Not satisfied with your Navision and Business Central?
Are you not satisfied with your Navision? Is your Navision Financials Attain/ Microsoft Business Central 365 complicated or slow? Does it run slowly? Is it slow to respond? Does it produce erroneous results? It's not Navision or Business Central then! or Business Central! But rather a botched installation. If things have gotten really bad, I can also support you in court as a certified expert . Or, as a self-employed and freelance programmer, I can quickly conjure up a solution for you in Navision / SQL Server. Google is happy to provide such answers to the query" Navision Slow"sometimes even with AI (artificial intelligence) under Gemini:
Hello everyone, the item card opens extremely slowly (15 seconds) for us. It feels like this is the first time the problem has occurred.This can be found, for example, at MSDynamics, also with the response “Server too weak” or “Network too slow.”
The infrastructure is to blame when the system responds slowly. Either the server is too slow or the network is overloaded. That's the ... That's what Dynamicsproject writes on their website, for example.
That's, excuse my language, bullshit. Navision, and by that I mean DOS and the real legacy Navision Financials dynamics before it became RTC, already ran at lightning speed with an old 10Mb Ethernet or a 16Mbit token ring! I'm naming the versions explicitly because they still performed data processing on the client, meaning all data first had to come through the line to the client. With Business Central 365 (BC365) and the Navision Dynamics RTC versions, this changed radically: the data only ran to the Navision service, no longer to the client. Network speed or the performance of the local computer suddenly no longer mattered. Internet connections between the client and the Navision server were also suddenly possible without RDP.
All of these versions are extremely fast, even with the native database server. If something is stuck here, if a customer card or a vendor list takes a long time to open, if a report runs for 1 or 10 or 100 minutes, if an evaluation or the start menu or the item card takes a long time to open, then the programming is simply poor. There's no way to sugarcoat it! Usually, I only need to change two lines, and the menu opens again immediately without delay, or switching from one data record to another happens as quickly as pressing a key. This is what happens when a Visual Basic or Access programmer is left to Navision or BC365 after a week of retraining, without any background knowledge of database queries, keys, sorting, result sets, etc. And then the same developer calls for “cloud” and “faster server” and “more CPU” or “more RAM.” No, more brainpower is all that needs to be invested.
Navision Financials / Business Central is designed precisely for this purpose: to be adapted to your individual requirements (to be customized). But you should know how to do this.
Refactoring, replacement of old systems (legacy system)
But don't worry: Navision is THE system for internal Navision refactoring as well (resolving old design flaws, replacing old technical debt).
In general, Navision & Business Central is also the the extension development to replace old systems (legacy systems)! Especially the strictly procedural development environment with its straightforward focus on commercial processes is ideally suited to replace all forms of legacy systems with little programming work! If you want to port a comprehensive RPG (installment programming belief) solution from an AS/400; If you want to replace a Siemens Nixdorf Quattro Pro (8870) with Comet in Business Basic; If you have an old Cobol system; Or even if you have to deal with a failed ERP implementation:
With Business Central and Navision, an experienced programmer / freelancer can focus on exactly one thing: Solving the task!
Focus on the solution
Modern GUI, simple reporting, optimal database connection, state-of-the-art REST API data access, or web front ends? In Navision Financials Attain/Microsoft Business Central 365, all of this is already anchored in the development environment! As a programmer (whether you are a freelance developer or a consultant), you don't have to deal with classes, inheritance, garbage collection, or ever-changing framework hypes. Simple and high-performance database queries, integrated query optimizations such as lazy read, system-controlled transaction management: Everything that robs you of sleep in modern universal programming languages such as Java, C++, C#, Python, Pearl, and even older languages such as Visual Basic and Delphi with object orientation, side effects, race conditions, and exceptions is taken care of by Navision! This allows programmers to concentrate on the essentials: your solution . Of course, this was faster with the older versions of Navision, but even with AL and RDLC there is still -from my point of view- no better system than Business Central.
Note: Navision up to version 2009R2 was much better suited for this than Microsoft Business Central 365, but that is no longer available. However, this does not change the fact that its successor, BC365, is still a really cool development environment, albeit in a different way, and one that most (if not all) competitors can still learn a thing or two from.
Process of replacing legacy systems
In my opinion, this is what a classic replacement (“best practice”) of a legacy system looks like:
- Viewing of documents and evaluations (Result First or Bottom Up)
- Review the data sources/tables in the source system, e.g., by creating interfaces between the old and new systems at an early stage. Test them repeatedly throughout the project. This will save you sleepless nights on the day of the changeover!
- Watch some users doing regular work (order entry, purchase order transactions, warehouse processing & logistics) and learn from it
- Sleeves up and reprogramming. In most cases, re-implementation does NOT require access to the original code! With a little analytical mind and a pocket calculator, the old business logics can usually be easily reprogrammed, if you only divide them into small sub-steps. If the source code from e.g. RPG (AS/400), Cobol, Business Basic (e.g. Comet) is still available, it can usually be transferred very easily to Business Central or Navision by using similar variable types, program sequences (procedural language). Of course, many years of experience in the replacement of old commercial solutions and a comprehensive qualification also help here.Whether you're a freelancer (“independent developer”) like me or a full-time programmer.
- Do projects so that you don't fail?
Areas of operation as a Business Central/Navision freelancer / reviewer:
I programmed & trained & advised Navision in Kassel (Hesse) and Germany-wide since 1993. Since 2021 also on-site in Germany (on request), or from anywhere in the world. And in all these years I have come to the conclusion: "Can't do" does not exist in Navision. And I have remained true to this credo as a self-employed (freelancer) Navision consultant - until the current RDLC and AL programming under Business Central. Since my main residence is in the Philippines, of course even more international. Not only in Kassel/Hesse and the bordering states like Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia, but also in all German and English speaking countries. Projects in Austria and Switzerland are also welcome. Attention! If you are interested, please keep in mind when planning that I am usually booked up several weeks, usually even months in advance. But better planned for the future than suffer forever!
My strategic advantages as a Business Central 365/Navision Financials freelancer:
Everything from a single freelancer hand consulting and programming!
- Trained industrial manager
- Enthusiastic Navision programmer
- Dedicated database designer
- Experienced in bookkeeping & asset accounting
- Experienced logistics specialist
- Formerly a central location in Germany (North Hesse, Kassel). In the meantime even more willing to travel for the whole of Europe, Germany, Austria, and gladly also in English-speaking countries (England, America, Australia, Philippines, Singapore...).
- Experienced in refactoring old legacy solutions
- Experienced in reading and writing procedural languages, therefore also capable in reading and translating old Cobol / RPG / Turbopascal / Business Basic (Comet) programs
- Experienced in analyzing calculation paths in order to map classic commercial business logic anew in Navision / Business Central even without access to source codes.
So I can communicate directly with any of your department heads or employees: We speak one language. So I can talk to
- Your accountant about his debit / credit problems...
- Your warehouse manager about his supply issues....
- Your warehouse operator about his MDE or BDE difficulties...
- Your buyer about his order proposal deviation....
- Your salesperson about the complicated order entry...
- Your CEO about its missing or slow or faulty analyses....
Discuss it directly with me: There is no need to invest time and money in an additional consultant or translator With me, the user speaks directly to the programmer. And if I find errors in the database design, data backup, or performance, I can fix them myself. Without having to “wait for a colleague.”
Thanks to multiple fast and redundant internet connections, I can solve your problems quickly and expertly, even though I am working from the other side of the world. Not cheap, but qualified. This is very important, especially for a freelancer, not just a BC365/Navision freelancer! It is a significant advantage, especially during and after the coronavirus pandemic. However, on-site assignments are also possible. Whether I travel from the Philippines to Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, or to neighboring Thuringia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saxony-Anhalt, it makes practically no difference. I can also support existing customers from the rather distant Hamburg, Kiel, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from here as if I were “on site.”
Exclusive products
Bank interface for old Navision? A cool Business Central & Navision integrated ordering app for your sales force and end customers? A genuine REST api based Shopware interface? Automation of your invoice receipt with a GetMyInvoices interfaceYou can get numerous products for Navision exclusively from me - without gag contracts!
Contact
Risk-free initial contact with your Navision & Business Central Freelancer Consultant and Programmer for Worldwide, Germany, Austria and Switzerland:
You can contact me right away, initial consultations are usually free of charge. Attention! If you are interested, please note in your planning that I am usually booked several weeks, usually even months in advance. Better planned for the future than suffer forever!
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes