Business Central/NAV General Session Highlights Release Wave 2 Updates, Microsoft Insights, Community Recognition
On Day 2 of Community Summit North America 2024, attendees of the Business Central/NAV User Group gathered at the Stars of Night Ballroom for the “Business Central/NAV General Session.” The session included recognition of the programming committee and Board of Advisors, award ceremonies for Gemstone and All-Star recipients, and presentations from Microsoft.
Programming Committees and Board of Advisors
For the first time in Summit history, Business Central User Group attendance was higher than Finance & Operations attendance, demonstrating the rapid growth of the product, which is made possible through users, programming committees, and Board of Advisors.
The 2024 Programming Committee members for 2024 included:
- Jason Theophanes
- Steve Chinsky
- Kim Dallefeld
- Brad Prendergast
- Gary Mueller
- Robb Delprado
- Elizabeth McQuisition
- Cynthia Priebe
- Angela Holland
- Jessie Sanger-Picard
- Kristoffer Ruyeras
- Munir Latif
- David Laster
- Cliff McDaniel
- Andrew Good
- Tiffany Collums
- Josh Standard
- Meenakshi Singh
- Chris Warren
- Shawn Dorward
- Mark Rhodes
- Gina Ramirez
The 2024 Board of Advisors included:
- Cliff McDaniel
- Jessie Sanger-Picard
- Lewis Rosenberg
- Amanda Mayer
- Bill Wilson
- Robb Delprado
- Chris Warren
- Leanne Paul
- AJ Ansari
- Brad Prendergast
- Tiffany Collums
- Suzanne Scanlan
- Jason Theophanes
- Kim Dallefeld
- Steve Chinsky
And new Board of Advisors have been added for 2025:
- Shawn Dorward
- Kristoffer Ruyeras
- Mark Rhodes
- Angela Holland
- Andrew Good
Awards Presentations
2024 Gemstone Award Winners announced include…
Sapphire:
- Brad Prendergast
- Jason Theophanes
- Amanda Mayer
Ruby:
- Robb Delprado
- Tiffany Collums
- Chris Warren
- AJ Ansari
- Kim Dallefeld
- Gregory Allord
- Cliff McDaniel
Emerald:
- Steve Chinsky
- Bill Wilson
- Jessie-Sanger Picard
- Lewis Rosenberg
2024 Dynamics Business Central/NAV All-Star winners were announced:
- Brad Prendergast
- David Laster
- Shawn Dorward
Congratulations to the 2024 Gemstone and All-Star Award Winners!
Copilot in Business Central
Microsoft’s Vice President of Business Central & SMB, Mike Morton, led a session on the Copilot capabilities inside of Business Central, with core features across Financial, Sales, Service, Project, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain Management.
40,000 customers are running Business Central, explains Morton – another testament to the growth of the product. “With the rate that we’re growing… Business Central will definitely be the leader in this space,” he noted.
Further, Morton defined the 2024 Release Wave 2 investment areas for Business Central, covering two primary aspects:
- AI-powered business
- Including sustainability, supply chain, generative AI, reporting, and finance capabilities
- World-class service
- Geographic expansion, enhanced User Experience, Power Platform capabilities, administration, efficient development, fundamentals
Product Demonstrations
Following Morton’s overview, Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager, Brian Nielsen, led a product demonstration on the consolidation capabilities across different companies. Nielsen also reviewed the 2024 Release Wave 2 updates, which introduce several significant changes to Business Central.
One of the key updates is the integration of Jobs and Projects with Warehouse and Procurement systems. This enhancement allows users to manage Assembly, Inventory, and Procurement directly from the project or job module, streamlining project-related workflows.
Additionally, this release includes new functionality for sustainability and carbon footprint reporting, enabling organizations to track and report on their sustainability and carbon emissions data, which is becoming an increasingly important business requirement, explained Blazej Kotelko, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft.
There is a continued investment in AI capabilities through Copilot, which is leveraged across BC to automate tasks, generate content, and enhance productivity, representing a significant evolution in the ERP product.
To round out the general session, Kennie Pontoppidan, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft, discussed using Power BI to analyze sales and finance data in Business Central. This included looking at sales team performance, product profitability, and market growth trends.
Further, he demonstrated how to customize Power BI report layouts and add themed elements to reports, as well as how to import the custom Power BI report layout back into Business Central to use for sales documents and quotes.
