The Eighties
Navision was originally founded in
1983 by Jesper Balser, Peter Bang and Torben Wind in Copenhagen,
Denmark. In 1984 the product was launch as “PCPlus” in Denmark & Norway.
This was a character-based accounting solution targeted towards the SOHO
(small office/home office) market. In 1984 “Beauty of Simplicity” was
adopted as the first company slogan. In 1987 the company changed its
name to Navision and the product was renamed to Navigator.
The Nineties
In 1990 the company launched
Navision 3.0, and expanded the market beyond Scandinavia into Germany,
Spain and the United Kingdom. In 1992, the company also reached an
agreement with Peachtree Software President, Bill Goodhue, who acquired
the rights to distribute Navision in the United States. In 1993 Navision
initiated a major development effort to create a new generation of
Navision solutions based on the Microsoft Windows 32-bit client/server
platform.
To Americanize Navision,
modifications included better printing capabilities and changing the
terminology of the systems. For example in Europe you “book” an entry
and in the United States we “post” it. Europeans sell “product” while
Americans sell “inventory”. For the most part, Navision’s underlying
business rules were completely compatible with the business rules used
here in the United States. Therefore the Americanizing of Navision was
more a matter of cosmetics than redesign.
This product designed for the
Windows 95 version and Windows NT platforms, was launched in the US
market in 1995. Initially called AVISTA Software, the name was quickly
changed to Navision Financials in order to better leverage Navision’s
name recognition. The company continued to enhance the product by adding
contact management functionality in 1997, manufacturing capabilities in
1998, and advanced distribution in 1999.
The Two-Thousands
2000 was a stellar year for
Navision. In 2000 Navision Financials received Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional Certification and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Certification. The company launched the Navision Commerce Gateway –
world’s first solution based on Microsoft’s BizTalk Server. The company
also launched the Navision User Portal – the world’s first solution
based on Microsoft’s Digital Dashboard. In an industry shaking move,
Navision Software merged with their long-time Danish rival Damgaard
Software. (Both products were developed in Denmark and both products
maintained US operations in Atlanta, Georgia. As a result, the
management of both companies frequently sat next to one another in First
Class when traveling between Denmark and Atlanta. This merger literally
emerged on Delta airplanes). In 2001 the company made many
enhancements including:
- Re-branded “Navision
Financials” as “Navision Attain” and “Damgaard Axapta” as “Navision
Axapta”;
- Integrated the
e-commerce applications, Commerce Gateway, Commerce Portal into both
products;
- Introduced User Portal,
browser-based access to both products;
- Introduced supply chain
collaboration functionality, manufacturing and distribution
capabilities, and new financial management functionality;
- Navision received the
Designed for Microsoft XP logo.
In 2002 Microsoft acquired Navision
for $1.4 billion – the largest acquisition ever made by Microsoft. (This
was a very high acquisition price considering that ACCPAC International
was acquired the following year by Best Software for just $120 million;
even though ACCPAC had more products and far more customers (41,000 to
1.2 million) than did Navision.) Today Navision has been the fastest
growing accounting system solution offered by Microsoft. Consider that
in 2001, Navision’s growth rate was an astounding 32%, even though the
rest of the accounting software industry had been slumping and recoiling
from the impact of the Y2K bug. Since then, the Navision software
product line has grown steadily and today has approximately 35,000
customers worldwide, and more than 400,000 individual users. The
Navision product’s strength and future outlook has never looked
stronger.
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