Working with the Dynamics NAV Mobile App

(Transcript)

Hello and welcome to the NAV Viking coffee mug tutorials. Today what I wanted to go through was the mobile client, for the mobile app, for NAV. It’s a very dynamic program or solution from Microsoft. From the app standpoint, from my personal view, I think it’s fantastic. It’s very hard to build apps from scratch. Customizing them, changing them around and all that takes effort. With Microsoft, what they’ve done is created a universal app that works for Android, Apple or IOS and Windows Mobile. It is really easy to change around, to configure it and move things. So, you don’t really have to do a whole lot of development as long as you stay inside that environment. So, I’m going to display that today, or show you how powerful it is.

Windows Client: RoleTailored Client View
So here I’m going to fire up the windows client or "RoleTailored Client", like we NAV people say. Inside here we have the sales order processor (I’m logged in as a sale order processor), and I’m viewing my sales quotes, sales orders, etc.

Mobile App: RoleTailored Client View
Now, I’m logged in as a certain user and that user has been setup to view these things or this view—particular view.If I log in on my mobile app as the same user—here I have an Android Emulator on my machine so, I just go into my Dynamics NAV app, it’s actually a Nexus Emulator, emulating a Nexus phone—You can see that I have the same exact tile view, and actually all the options, as I have on my windows client. So, it replicates my view. Also on the sidebar, over here, are the options. If I go in here [mobile client] and click on this side, I have all my same options.

Windows Client: Switching Profiles
Now just to show you how dynamic that is. If I actual go and change that [user profile], and go into my user personalization, and let’s say I just moved out of the sales department and I went into the purchase department, I just go in here, and I want to change the profile for this user and make this user a Purchasing Agent… click that out.

Now if I close my application here—and we are familiar with this—and open it again, then I should see all information pertinent to purchasing…and yup, that I do. Purchase orders, purchase quotes, my tiles are prearrival follow up on purchase orders; which ones are to send and which ones are coming up, etc. etc.

Mobile Client: Automatic Configuration
Now if I go into my app—and I want to log out of this, we’ll just close the application, like so, and then open it up again—it should have already figured out that I have a new role and gives me, now, the tile set for the purchasing.

So, it’s automatically configuring the application for you. Also, if you change the application or you change the role center, it will change in the app as well. Which is amazing, because changing apps is not easy so, this is a very, very good solution from Microsoft.

Windows Client: Customer Card and Location Finder
Just to further on this point, on the sidebar over here, I can go into…let’s say customers—actually let me change back into Sales Order [sales order Role Center]. Just to show you how easy that is—user personalization—I’m going to go back into being a sales order processor.

Over here, close and open, and while this is opening up [windows client], I’m going to close this one as well [phone client] and open, like that.

So now I’m the order processor. If I go into customers, I get a list of customers. I’m going to go into Sportsmyer’s Furnishings and open up the customer card. This comes up here [customer card], a nice addition to 2017, we do get a picture of our contact there, Mr. Mike Nash.

So here you can see there’s the address. If I click on show on map, I can show where this is. As somebody who works in sales and service to travel here, and there, and everywhere, is very common, so it’s good to quickly get to a map, and it just brings up the map address here.

Now how does this work in mobile? Well, it is the same interface in the mobile; it’s not a different one. So, we should be able to go through the same exact steps.

Mobile Client: Customer Card and Location Finder
So here, yup, I’m back in as the sales order processor. I click on my side bar, that’s where my customers are, go into customer, I get Mike—actually you’ll get a brick view in the app client. Brick view means they actually bunch up several important information’s; along with a picture, often, in this brick layout. I want to click on that [Mike Nash customer record].

I’m on the road and I’m wondering where this company is, I can just go down to the address, just like I did in the windows client, I click on show on map, use this address—I could have done directions, so it would give me directions from where I’m coming to there—and here it is.

Now it does you Bing but Bing is good too. So, this was a short presentation of the app, the NAV app, which I think is fantastic. It’s not been shown, often, how dramatic the technology is in solving these issues with changing things around.

So, it’s very dynamic. You can change it around anyway you want. All you have to do is change the Windows Client, which is very easy (we all know that), and the app will just follow.

I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. Thanks!