Navision Rapid Implementation Methodology

So the RIM tool kit for NAV has been around for a while now, but I have just started a project that will use this with Version 5.0

With NAV 5.0 when you create a new company you get prompted to say what type of company it is. The list of 'out of the box' configurations is fairly limited with options for Food, Furniture, High Tech, Machinery and Wholesale.

Selecting one of these automatically set's up master data, which is all configured in XML files hidden away in the Client install folder.

That said its fairly straight forward to create new configurations.

1. Create a new XML file for the configuration you want


2. Modify the Configuration.xml file to reference the new file.

Once you have your nice new company all set up and the configurations from the XML file have all been loaded its time to move onto the specific data for this company.

Again the RIM tool makes this easy, and if you build your XML configuration file correctly you will even have the RIM Templates setup and ready to go, if you don't have the templates setup for you then you will need to create them but this is also straight forward.

The setup templates fall into 2 categories, Setup Configuration(handled by the Setup Questionnaire) and Data Migration(handled by the Data Migration).

The Setup questionnaires take a little bit of thought initially. You can have multiple setup questionnaires that each have multiple Setup tables associated with them. Looking at it I think you should always try to only use 1 Questionnaire, or ensure that each Setup table is only referred too once or you could end up with some confusion.

Once you have your Questionnaire you need to go to the actual questions. These belong to 'Question Areas'. These are the Setup tables. Give your Question area a Code and description and then associate it with a table. You can then use the function Update Questions. This will populate the question lines with all the fields from the table. You can then go through modifying the questions for each line so that it makes a bit of sense to a user. You can add comments or define initial answers. After you have your Question Area completed move onto the next one.

Once all your Question Areas are designed you go back to the main Questionnaire screen and user either Export to XML or Export to Excel. So far I have only used the Excel option as I intend to give the file to the user to complete. When the excel file is filled in you can re-import it and the answers will be loaded to the Question Area Screens where you can review them and then Apply them, this will update the Setup tables... Easy huh?

For the Data Migration the process is similar. This time there is no Questionnaire to worry about. You just define the table that you want to migrate data to and then select Migration Fields from the Migration button menu. In here you define the fields that will be imported. When you open the screen you will get a list of all the fields and you just need to flag those that will be included.

Once you have this setup you can select the various pieces of master data to create files for and use the functions to Export to XML or Export to Excel. Again I am using the Excel option. If you select multiple tables you get a separate tab in the resultant file for each table. If any of the tables already have data on them this is included in the exported file, useful for that data that was setup in the config XML file earlier where you want the customer to review the defaults and amend them.

This is given to the users and once filled in you can import the data to NAV.


The final part of the Toolkit allows for Templates to be built. These again refer to specific tables.
You can define multiple Templates for each table if required. In the Template you can define which fields are Mandatory and what default values they should have. The Templates can be used as part of the Data Migration to complete data the user may not know about, but they can also be used after the migration.

As an example we have a number of templates for the customer Table. Each defines slightly different posting groups and payment terms. From the Template you can Create an Instance. This will create a new record on the Customer table and pre-fill all the information form the template. alternatively from the customer you can run a function Apply Template. This give yo a list of templates for that table and when you select one it updates the current record with the defaults from the Template.

With a little bit of work the Template's could be made more useful still, especially in environments where new master data, e.g. Customers and Items, are regularly setup as it would reduce the amount of keying of default data while still allowing flexibility.