Last June, General Motors, an American industry icon, filed for bankruptcy. What went wrong? Though analysts spoke of a variety of issues - very high labor costs, rising competition from Toyota and Honda, a frightening climb in fuel prices, credit freeze, the caving in of the American economy, drop in sales caused by lack of purchasing power among Americans due to the downturn–we cannot forget the time-tested Darwin theory on adaptation, ‘The Survival of the Fittest’.

General Motors didn’t change much with time. GM still made large cars, when Japanese competitors focused on midsize ones to suit more of customer’s budgets. Within a month of going bankrupt, General Motors announced an aggressive push into the small car arena.

ERP solutions available today are undergoing a similar metamorphosis. The ERP industry has metamorphosed and evolved from large monolithic solutions to nimble quick implementation offerings. Microsoft Dynamics NAV (or Navision) particularly swam this change tide and became the solution of choice for SMBs across the world. NAV aligned well with the Microsoft partner story on promoting entrepreneurship and innovation and helped partners in building their own verticals and building strong profitable business models. What does the future hold for NAV customers?

Cloud computing, Web 2.0, Bridging external stakeholders like customers and suppliers, engaging internal user experiences, simpler licensing and pricing models and support options would indicate the next expectations from ERP vendors including NAV.