The Internet of Things and Dynamics NAV
As a kid, I spent many Saturday mornings in front of a small TV watching cartoons on one of the three channel options available. One of my favorites was The Jetsons. To this very day, I can still sing the full theme song from memory! In retrospect, I think it was the magic of it all, which got my attention. Well, it seemed like magic back then: George and Jane slid from room to room on a moving sidewalk. The maid, Rosie, was a robot that took verbal instructions, and got dinner out of a microwave. Elroy, their son, had television on his wristwatch. The dog, Astro, walked himself on a treadmill. And Judy, the teenage daughter, talked to her boyfriend via a computer video conference. But, this was the 1960’s! None of these things had been invented yet.
Flash forward to today.
I can carry my phone in my pocket, and use it to open my front door, video my daughter singing, or pay for my groceries. A 3-D Printer is now used to create automobile parts, or even print the scaffolding of human organs on which living cells are placed to create a transplantable organ. Drones can be used to move objects within a warehouse from one shelf to another without a forklift or workers.
Not only is the world of electronics changing how we live, but also the internet is changing how we do business with great speed. Fortunately Microsoft has kept Dynamics NAV up to speed with those changes, and I thought it might be interesting to just go over two possibilities that are available in Dynamics NAV 2017 (as well and a prior version or two) thanks to its use of The Internet of Things (IoT).
Dynamics NAV 2017 and Social Listening
Let us say you are in the fashion industry where social media can go a long way in promoting your brand and your latest styles. Or perhaps you sell food products, and would like to know how often they are mentioned in cooking blogs. Using Dynamics NAV 2017 (and 2015 or 2016), you can set up Social Listening and have the analytics gathered from various social media sources (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) appear on the item’s page (viewed on a web or mobile client) with charts and graphs that are based on the interpretation of words as positive, neutral or negative. You can even look at the data by geocode, to determine areas of the world that might be most interested in your products so you can tailor your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Social listening can also be used with customers and vendors. Now wouldn’t it be nice to know when your vendor has certain items you purchase on sale, or be forewarned that your customer is looking to open an additional 12 stores in the next three months?
For more information on how Social Listening with Dynamics NAV works, watch this video. It demonstrates the configuration and use from NAV 2015.
Dynamics NAV and Currency Exchange Rate Updates
There are several web services available that can be used in Dynamics NAV 2016 and 2017’s Currency Exchange Rate services. After subscribing to a service, you fill out the Currency Exchange Rate services page in Dynamics NAV. This information will connect NAV to the service, and detail the inbound file layout. You can either use the Update Exchange Rates action on the currency page, or set it up to run from the Job Queue each night after the daily exchange rates have been posted. For more information on how you can use published exchange rates for automatic update of your currencies, check out this article from Microsoft.
Dynamics NAV and the Future
Microsoft continues to find ways to incorporate IoT with the Dynamics NAV ERP. This makes Dynamics NAV even more flexible in the business place as integrations to external sources are made possible. It also adds a great return on investment by increasing efficiency and accuracy for the businesses that utilize it. Why settle for anything less? Be the Jetsons of the 21st century! Talk to us about your Dynamics NAV upgrade or implementation today.
For more information on getting the most out of Dynamics NAV, please visit our website. Be sure to subscribe to our blog so as never to miss update.