Key Considerations for Migrating From NAV to Business Central
With the Microsoft support ending for NAV 2018 in January 2028, and most other NAV versions already out of support, it is time to think about next steps. It is critical that your organization can rely on a supported ERP system as your system of record. You have two primary decisions to make about moving to the Cloud and which approach to take. We will explore these now.
Microsoft offers, via your partner, licensing options to convert from Microsoft Annual Enhancement plan to the cloud. The current promotion is called Bridge to Cloud 3; it offers dual use rights to support your upgrade/migration to Business Central (BC). This allows you to benefit from your existing enhancement while you undertake your move to BC.
NAV was an on-premise solution, that was sometimes hosted via private cloud, and Business Central is first and foremost a public cloud solution. BC does offer an on-premise option, but you lose a number of the cloud benefits. Most organizations opt to use the public cloud option with its related benefits of upgrades handled by Microsoft, Copilot and AI features being natively available, access to the full suite of Microsoft AppSource (aka Microsoft Marketplace) apps.
There are AppSource apps that only work in the cloud, so you have more options in the cloud. I have observed that an organization really needs a compelling reason to remain on-premise moving forward.
How do you move forward? You canā¦
- Upgrade your NAV system and move all code and data to the cloud. The downside of this is that you may have customizations that are no longer required since they are now handled in the base product or via an App, or your operational needs have changed. These legacy customizations are often referred to as technical debt that requires ongoing upkeep.
- Re-implement in Business Central and re-start with just opening balances. The advantage of this is that you start with a clean environment. The disadvantage is that you do not have your legacy data available within the environment. There are Apps to help see your legacy data in BC.
- Complete a hybrid upgrade and carve out some (or all) of your transaction history and/or drop some customizations. While there is a degree of complexity to complete, the resulting system is more compact and performance is improved. You end up with a less cluttered system that is easier to maintain moving forward.
Your partner is key to a successful migration/upgrade to Business Central since they can apply lessons learned and you get the benefit of that knowledge. This is the perfect time to consider your next steps for your NAV system.
