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Top 6 Business Intelligence and Reporting Pains from a Microsoft Dynamics NAV User

insightsoftware -
July 18, 2018

insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, empowering organizations to unlock business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate.

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Creating and customizing reports should be easy, right? Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a strong ERP system for managing business processes and operations, but when it comes to accessing data, easy might not be the ideal word to use.

A general challenge experienced by most members of the Dynamics NAV community is that there is a complexity to building and configuring reports in such a robust system. Not everyone is a data expert and the ability to transform large amounts of data into a small, more manageable format is essential for communication, growth and decision making. Even with the launch of the new NAV 2018 Excel reports, there are still restrictions on the amount of preconfigured reports available, on top of non-existent drill-down capability and a lack of flexible custom reports.

People that work in Dynamics NAV every day, from reconciling inventory accounts to creating new vendor accounts, don’t want to have to call a consultant to pull a report. The hardest part is that they know all the BI tools are pre-built into the system waiting to be used, but without the technical background, it’s not something your average accountant or manager has the ability (or time) to learn. Ultimately, they want to be able to pull the report they need themselves.

When you don’t have a readily available IT team or the skills in-house to make Microsoft’s BI stack work for you, your users are faced with growing pains. Here are the top 6 reporting challenges compiled from Dynamics NAV users:

  1. Delays
    There’s a lot of waiting required when you can’t build the reports you need when you need them. Waiting on consultants and changes to custom reports takes valuable time from a busy employees’ day and ends up delaying any decisions pending that report.
  2. Data Errors 
    The result of not being able to build your own reports is usually system workarounds. From copy and pasting to “Frankenstein” Excel spreadsheets, mistakes made from manual data entry result in inaccurate reporting and decision-making.
  3. Risk
    Bad data or a general lack of data can cripple your organizational visibility and ultimately impact revenue and customer relationships. If your executive team is being fed inaccurate data and only one side of the business, you might as well close your eyes and pick a decision at random.
  4. Productivity
    Employees that struggle with not being to create their own reports end up feeling frustrated and annoyed with a system. This impacts morale and results in more time being spent on patchwork or workarounds.
  5. Reliance
    Analytics and data experts with a Dynamics NAV background are hard to find, which is why most companies rely on their solutions partners for custom reports and problems they encounter.
  6. Cost
    All of these challenges essentially boil down to the bottom line – cost. On top of the cost of delays and errors, you have to pay for experienced consultants to build any new or custom reports you need.

Cut your Reporting Costs by Half with Business Intelligence Built for Dynamics NAV

From frustrated employees and unrecovered time to increased risk and data errors, all of these reporting challenges eventually add up and result in costly damage to a business. We are living in data-driven times, and the key to business growth is inefficient, accurate business intelligence and reporting and the ability to use data for business decisions. The good news is, there are many stand-alone reporting solutions for Dynamics NAV that have been doing this for years.

If you’re ready to empower your NAV users with self-service reporting, we’re here to help. Download our latest whitepaper for a helpful framework for evaluating BI solutions, to ensure you choose the option best suited for your business goals.

How to Evaluate Business Intelligence Solutions for Dynamics NAV