Note
This page is also displayed by Google if you google for “Yaveon Problems” or “Yaveon ProBatch” or “Yaveon ProESCM” - even before this information is added here. Addendum: This page also appeared for "NAPA Problems" and "OPplus Propleme".
This was obviously done through context analysis, since the search terms shown did NOT exist in direct context / related sentences on this page before 1.3.21. As a result, I was contacted about questions and problems for which I can only provide limited assistance with problems with the NAPA or Yaveon products.
Please keep in mind:
I am no official or unofficial partner of NAPA and YAVEON.
Neither can I directly support you with problems with YAVEON or NAPA.
On the other hand, I can:
– NAPA Support in the sense that I can import current versions for you - assuming an ongoing maintenance contract
– YAVEON: I can NOT support you in many parts of YAVEON, as many Yaveon objects cannot be edited by me (or other system houses).
If you have problems with Yaveon, often only Yaveon can help you.
But I can support you with the demarcation.This means that I can work with you to determine whether a problem is directly related to the Yaveon adjustments, or whether it is more like "normal Navision" or even an operator error.
And: I can support you in setting up your Navision from scratch (without the ProESCM EDI solutions and without ProBATCH). In my experience, many companies, including those in the chemical products and food sector, often do not need these special solutions at all, or at least no longer need them.
The closer you stay to the standard of Navision or Business Central, the sooner you will work without problems with this wonderful ERP!
What are the consequences of canceling a maintenance contract?
That depends on the type of maintenance contract. Therefore only the most important Navision and Business Central maintenance contracts here.
Navision & Business Central maintenance contract with Microsoft
This is the core maintenance contract. This is practically a hidden rent or annual usage fee from Navision, in addition to the once established purchase price. This fee enables a provider (regardless of whether it is software or cars such as VW or machines or Microsoft) to continue to work actively on the further development of a product even when the market begins to saturate.
Your Navision or Business Central system house partner only retains a very small portion of this fee as a flat-rate fee. This fee is passed on almost 1: 1 to Microsoft.
If you cancel this maintenance contract, you will get the following problem: You can no longer change your Business Central or Navision license!
You cannot
- Activate new user
- Enable further objects (tables, forms or pages, reports, code units) - not even if you still have paid but unused objects free, but these have not yet been assigned a number!
- Use the newer Business Central and Navision version.
- Do not have a new NAS (Navision Application Server) activated. That would be an insurmountable hurdle for my scheduler or your Infocenter with the "old" Navision versions!
Regardless of whether you are located near Kassel (North Hesse) or further away: We should talk on the phone before taking this step. There are good reasons (including financial ones!) for canceling this maintenance contract.
You should consider this step carefully. If you have canceled it once, but need it again later for the above reasons, for example, you will pay a penalty fee ("processing fee") of 3% per year for the past maintenance-free period - in addition to the maintenance fee to be paid in full!
Please make sure that every year - together with the invoice for your Microsoft Business Central & Navision maintenance - you also receive your current license (* .flf in file form) activated with all newer Navision versions.
Be careful when changing the license model! Your system house will warn you in good time, anything else would be gross negligence and may entitle you to claim damages from your Business Central or Navision partner.
But... If you want to cancel your maintenance, which - depending on the size of your license - can save you tens of thousands of euros a year in maintenance fees: Please make very sure BEFORE you terminate this contract that you
– See a little into the futureIt is better to have a few users, tables, code units, reports etc. activated "in advance". If you have problems with your current system house, you can also have this contract transferred to another Navision or Business Central system house before canceling, buy your objects there in advance, have them activated and then cancel. That would even be my recommendation: Invest about 50% - 100% of your annual maintenance in new Navision objects and 1,2,3 additional users, make sure you also have the objects activated in meaningful number ranges, test the new license extensively in live operation in your company and only then cancel the maintenance. From this point onwards, you will probably save a good 4-5 figures per year for a very long time. Depending on the license, a DB extension (or a "Early year cleaning") or more clients could also be recommended. Just orientate yourself on your last 2-3 years, what you have purchased, together with the above recommendation, you will certainly be well advised for years to come with your then free Navision version. Don't forget to keep one or even two additional NAS (Navision Application Server) "in stock". Perhaps you would like to use my scheduler or my innocenter or a Shopware connection later on?
Also check wether...
– All of the objects you have already paid for have also been unlocked by you
– You receive a current license ("Fin.flf") with all Business Central or Navision versions released during the maintenance period.
These steps all belong together, as none of these steps can be performed after the maintenance has been canceled.
By the way: The Microsoft Navision & Business Central maintenance contract is mandatory for the first year after purchase (i.e., to be precise, a 16% surcharge on the purchase price).
What you get...in return: The right to update to a newer Navision version at any time.
But what you don't getA new Navision version! As a rule, you cannot simply import a new Navision like a new Excel or Word. And everything continues to work just like that. This is only possible (and even then not completely) with extension/AL programming. As of 2021, this was not yet the case. The Extension/AL versions change a lot here! Not everything, but most of it for the better! You still have to have the actual update carried out by your partner (except in the Azure Cloud) - and then pay extra for this service.
The good news: Navision and Business Central is like the famous Beetle: It runs and runs and runs ... There is almost never a reason to run after the current Business Central or Navision version. Your current system is doing its job, isn't it?
Hotline maintenance contract
As a rule, this is a more or less well-hidden attempt by your Navision or Business Central partner to collect some of the maintenance fee. They regularly take money from you for allowing you to call them to get advice or new functions (usually for a fee).
If you found this page here via Google or Bing, then my advice is, based on my experience: Cancel.
Update contract
This contract also sails under the mask of the Microsoft maintenance contract. This often promises that you will receive the new version from your Business Central & Navision partner free of charge - however, you will have to pay for the implementation of the update based on the effort.
I consider these contracts to be dubious. Because you already pay this service to Microsoft, see first maintenance contract!
Other maintenance contracts
You have to check them more closely. For example, if you have NAPA with payroll & accounting in your house, then you cannot do without this contract.
My suggestion: think about whether you would prefer to switch to Datev or Sage with wages and salaries. In my opinion, these systems are much easier to use. There are many good reasons to keep all company data in Navision. But there are more reasons to make wages and salaries as simple as possible. That's where NAPA counts. more generally - a payroll that is deeply integrated in Navision is not.
I myself used to sell NAPA at IMA Systemhaus Kassel - after 2 years we gradually switched all of our customers back to external payroll accounting.
Also Terminations of Yaveon with the extended production and EDI connection (Yaveon PRO-escm, Yaveon PROescm, Yaveon PRO-batch, Yaveon PRObatch) also require an intensive preliminary check. From my point of view, it was practically mandatory in the last century to map EDI directly in Navision (Business Central did not exist at the time).
The X.400 connector in the basement was just as necessary back then. Those days are long gone now. A dedicated IT specialist who only takes care of keeping EDI running every day: I wouldn't solve it like that anymore, even if I was promoting it at the Bechtle Business Central or Navision Systemhaus in Kassel. There are more elegant solutions today (just like with wages and salaries) that simply run stably. Without bending Business Central and Navision, without X.400 in the basement.
In my opinion, the same applies to the PRObatch manufacturing solution from Yaveon, or more generally to the entire manufacturing solution from Business Central & Navision. I have already supported some manufacturing companies with Navision, not only in Kassel, but far beyond the borders of Hesse and Lower Saxony.
My conclusion: Often the use of the manufacturing solution from Navision or Business Central (“Business Central Premium”) is generally “oversized”.
Rule of thumb: If you do not have a multi-level production that builds on one another with clearly separable production areas, you can usually get by with the parts list function from the Essential - and you do not need any extended production functions based on it.
In some cases, capacity control is a reason for using the manufacturing solution - but here, too, the parts list is often a much simpler solution with very few adjustments.
BUT! What must be taken into account especially in this case:
These systems often intervene very deeply in your existing Business Central or Navision!
You cannot simply remove such systems from your Navision overnight if there are problems of any kind (e.g. PRObatch from Yaveon, NAPA, OP + ...). This is often simply not possible retrospectively. In this case you have to assume that you will have to set up your Navision from scratch. With all the disadvantages such as data conversion, new setup, new training, new installations, etc.
But also with all the advantages: You have learned so much about your Navision and Business Central in the past and use this new beginning for a slim, easy-to-understand and stable, low-maintenance Business Central & Navision.
The last paragraph about Yaveon Probatch and Proescm also applies a little to OP+ (OPPlus), the payment module for Navision. However, here is my recommendation: keep it.
Microsoft (and already Navision Denmark) never managed to integrate usable payment transactions into Navision. Payment transactions for Navision in Europe have always been the domain of add-ons.
You have to know that in America, the home of Navision today, checks are still a common form of payment.And online transfers, like in Europe, are still a foreign word.
OPPlus also intervenes deeply in a standard Navision & Business Central, but here - in my opinion - there is no alternative to OP + (OPPlus). "Do not use" is also no alternative. OP + is a real Swiss Army Knife for electronic payments. For an older Navision, I recommend my own solution, especially for the labor-saving import of payments. But for an up-to-date Business Central, OPPlus is also my choice of payment transactions.
What do I have to keep in mind when canceling a maintenance contract?
It is IMPERATIVE to get a current Navision license with all current versions from your current Navision or Business Central system house partner before canceling.
This was the biggest mistake of all the new clients I took care of. This experience has also been my main reason for writing this guide.
Both in Kassel, but also in all other areas of Germany: You can quickly get to 180, maybe annoyed for months or years about bad service, wondering what you actually pay this fee for every year if you don't have anything anyway for that gets ...
And that's how you quickly terminate all contracts. From this point on, your license can no longer be updated…. It cannot even be issued in its current version! This is the most important point when considering terminating your maintenance contracts! See also above.
Check which partial solutions in your inventory management you are directly dependent on. Do not forget inconspicuous automatic functions, such as the EDI connection via Yaveon Probatch and X.400 and other special solutions. The important point is not "Yaveon" or "PRObatch", but "EDI". You can replace that, but not overnight.
Or "payment transactions" or "import / read in account statements" or "manufacture" (to clarify the difference between "manufacture" and "manufacture").
I am happy to support you with this analysis / abstraction. We're sure to find a joint appointment quickly near Kassel, but we can do that just as well in the rest of Germany. On site at your premises or via an online meeting.
How does a change of the system house work?
Simple. The change itself is purely a matter of form.
Your new Navision and Business Central partner will send you a form to be filled out. Enter your previous partner, your license number, your signature and your company stamp here.
You then send this to your new Business Central & Navision partner - usually by fax (but scanning/mailing works just as well). They will then forward the change request to Microsoft.
Microsoft then asks your old provider again informally and then transfers your license to the new Navision or Business Central partner. There is one like this, for example, right near me in Kassel, but also in practically every other larger place, such as Hanover, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Munich, Hamburg, Kiel, Berlin, Leipzig ... whereby distance no longer plays a role in software today.
What are the obstacles when changing system houses?
Competencies. Your new system house may have less competence than your old partner in special things such as production, payroll accounting, EDI, cost accounting.
But if you have found this page here, e.g. via Google or Bing, then you are probably already so dissatisfied with your old Business Central or Navision partner that it can't get any worse. The change is easy, so you can swap your new partner again quickly.
Distances. Well, that used to be a problem.
Even in my 9 years as a system house in Kassel (North Hesse, between Frankfurt and Hanover) in the 90s, we were able to look after customers throughout Germany thanks to ISDN (the older ones among us still remember this...). From Trier via Düsseldorf/Krefeld via Hanover to Berlin, and from Kiel via Hamburg, Hanover, Kassel and Frankfurt down to Stuttgart and Munich. Back then, there was no Internet as we (apart from our Federal Chancellor) know it today!
Thanks to the Internet, VDSL or fiber optics, video chats, the world is now a village and physical distance is no longer important for Business Central & Navision.
Caution! This does not apply to your hardware! Your computer dealer cannot be close enough to your business. At some point he has to come to your company and plug a loose cable back into the distributor or switch on a "guaranteed switched on monitor" a second time with a slight grin.
Do I need a Navision or Business Central partner?
Before you think about changing your Business Central partner, we must first define the real function of a Business Central & Navision partner / system house. First and foremost, there is a company that manages your Navision license.Not more! But not less either.
Of course, a Navision dealer can also advise you on hardware, offer you training or programming services, take care of your hardware, look after your VPN and keep your virus monitor (thanks to Windows 10 you no longer need it) up to date. But almost all of this can also be done by any other computer dealer who, perhaps due to their proximity (see previous paragraph), may be even better able to do so.
What is left then? Correct: Navision or Business Central competence.
Nowadays you can also get this specialist knowledge from many other providers. For example, if you are near Kassel (if you don't know the beautiful Kassel: North / South about halfway between Hanover and Frankfurt East / West between Düsseldorf / Dortmund / Essen and Leipzig, near Erfurt, Eisennach, Marburg, Giesen and Göttingen, and home of the legendary Ahlen Wurscht), I would be happy to sit at your site as a freelancer Navision / Business Central consultant / programmer / optimizer / trainer.Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, I can support you from anywhere around the world.
To come back to the question: As long as you have a Microsoft Navision and Business Central maintenance contract with a valid license, you also need a Business Central or Navision partner who manages this license.
You are welcome to do this at my partner's in Hanover (not far from Kassel 🙂). This partner doesn't have to be more (or less) for you.
English 
Deutsch 
Español