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What Makes Navision Attain Different?
When reviewing any
accounting software solution, I think that it is important to understand how the
product is different from its’ competitors. All products are developed with
different tools, different philosophies, and with different objectives in mind.
All products are targeted towards different sized customers, and different
industries. When evaluating products, it is easy to get bogged down in the
overwhelming complexity of the systems. The reality is that all accounting
systems have a general ledger with account numbers and financial reports; they
all have an average accounts payable module that works fine; they all have a
bevy of standard features. Studying these common elements of an accounting
system will get you nowhere. It is the key differences that provide keen
insights that will allow you to effectively identify and select the right
product for your needs. With this spirit in mind, presented below are the key
characteristics that set Navision Attain apart from its competitors:
- Speed
- For starters, Attain is
extremely fast and reliable. Whether you choose the Navision database or
Microsoft SQL Server database option, you will find that the product flies.
In 2000, I was engaged by an Atlanta based company who needed an accounting
system solution that could accommodate up to ten million transactions a day.
The company was on the verge of contracting with a company in India to write
a product for them to handle this volume. I advised them that I thought that
Navision could handle this volume right out of the box. When asked to prove
this claim, I teamed up with Tom Wimberly and Kevin Fischer of CompuSystems
of GA who constructed a database of 10 million transactions (not an easy
task mind you) and posted these transactions to Navision in less than 3
minutes, right in front of the company’s management. They were convinced
and the company implemented Navision Attain for a total price including
software, customization work, and implementation costs that was 90% less
than expected compared to the India-based programming option.
- SIFT
- There is a key reason why Attain
is such a fast product – particularly when it comes to printing reports.
Attain is designed with a clever technique which they call “Sum Index
Flow Technology” (SIFT). With SIFT technology, every time a
transaction is posted anywhere within Navision, all customer, vendor,
account, and item totals are updated automatically for each day, week,
month, quarter, and year. In this manner, when a user prints a report in
Attain, the system need only “grab” the necessary totals and pop the
report to the screen. By contrast, most other products must tabulate
hundreds (if not thousands) of transactions in order to calculate the
necessary totals and produce the resulting reports. This same tabulation
occurs each time a report is produced, even if that same report was just
produced seconds earlier. The result is that Attain reports hit the screen
almost immediately, while other products may take 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or
even several minutes in order to make a report happen. Very clever!
- Reliable
– Attain is designed in such a
way that it maintains database integrity, even if the power is cut
unexpectedly during a posting routine. For example, assume that you are
posting a large batch of 500 transactions in Attain. The product actually
makes a copy of the database on the fly, then posts the transactions to this
copy. Once this procedure is completed, Attain makes another copy of the
original database, and proceeds to over write the original database with the
posted version. Once the whole posting process is completed and verified,
Attain throws away the unneeded database copies. In this manner, the
computer’s electrical plug can be literally pulled out of the wall at any
point during the posting routine, and upon rebooting the computer, Attain
will automatically continue the posting routine where it left off. ACCPAC
has also engineered it’s product to post in this manner. It is not
uncommon for Attain and ACCPAC resellers to stage an “accidental
unplugging” during a product demo in order to prove this powerful feature.
- Customization
- Navision Attain is highly
customizable, with perhaps the best mix of “ease of customization” and
“power of customization” available anywhere. Today you will find that
most of the top accounting packages are highly customizable. The general
idea is that the product is supposed to meet 80% to 85% of your needs right
out of the box, and you use the built-in customization tools to meet the
remaining 10% to 15% of your needs. Unfortunately, some products which offer
customization offer very limited customization capabilities, while other
products which offer strong customization are extremely difficult to
customize. I‘ve talked to dozens of consultants out there who have
customized a wide variety of products and the general consensus is that this
is Navisions’ true strength, and the foundation for it’s success. I have
prepared a detailed demonstration of this feature, which is located in the
“Attain Product Tour” section of this web site.
- Audit
Trail – Attain has perhaps the best audit trail of an accounting
software package I have seen. The product allows you to drill down and
around virtually throughout the entire system. No matter where you are, the
built-in “drill-ability” of the product allows you to navigate
seamlessly from financial statements down to original source documents, and
from source documents up to the resulting financial statements. I have
prepared a detailed demonstration of this feature, which is located in the
“Attain Product Tour” section of this web site.
- High
Reseller Standards – One of the
best attributes of Attain is the extensive training and testing requirements
set forth by Navision. In order to be an Attain Solution Center (reseller),
you must have five people attend extensive training and they must each pass
a fairly tough test. Three of these people must be trained in the Attain
product, and two of them must be trained in customizing the Attain product.
In 1999, Navision reportedly fired 25% of their 120 resellers because they
did not pass the tests, or because they were providing shoddy work. By
contrast, most other accounting vendors make little or no requirements of
their reseller channel. To some accounting software companies, their
reseller test amounts to seeing whether or not the reseller’s check will
clear. I believe that Navision's requirements result in much higher caliber Solution
Centers, which in turn translates to higher customer satisfaction.
- Reseller
Fees - It is worth noting that most resellers are required to pay a fee
in order to become a product reseller. This fee typically ranges from a few
thousand dollars to $15,000 or higher with the normal fee of $5,000.
Thereafter, the reseller purchases the product at discounts ranging from 30%
to 55% off, this discount usually escalates during the year as the reseller
achieves higher volumes. However Navision does not charge a fee to become a
Solution Center. Instead, Solution Centers must meet certain standards
(basically five consultants must be on staff and trained in the Attain
product, and there must be a commitment to maintain a certain level of
marketing). Navision even trains the Solution Center personnel for free
(although the Solution Centers must pick up their own travel expenses to
Norcross, Georgia).
- Positive
Customer Feedback – Perhaps the
main reason that I regard Attain so highly is the fact that I have never had
an unsatisfied customer when I have recommended the product to them. In
other words, 100% of the people I’ve recommended Attain to, and who
actually installed Attain, have indicated virtually complete satisfaction
with the product. The only two exceptions to this are as follows. In 1998, I
recommended Attain to my printer, and despite repeated phone calls to the
nearest Attain Solution Center located about 75 miles away, the Solution
Center never returned her call. In 1999, an Atlanta area Attain customer
mentioned to me a problem with Attain on a Saturday. I e-mailed my contacts
at Navision who immediately jumped on this problem. At 2:00pm on Monday
afternoon, an official at Navision corporate called me personally to explain
that the problem had been solved, and asked me to call the company to verify
this claim. I did. The customer was satisfied. I’ve recommended Attain
dozens of times throughout the years, and with results like these, it is
easy to see why I continue to recommend Attain.
- Protected
Territories – Navision protects
its Solution Centers by limiting the number of Solution Centers in a given
territory. For example the total number of Solution Centers in the United
States has grown from about 80, 120, 150, and 200 in 1998, 1999, 2000, and
2001 respectively. By contrast, many larger accounting software companies
have 2,000 to 4,000 resellers out there. There are some benefits to having
more resellers, for example, it is more likely that you will find one if you
need one. However, it is almost a certainty that this approach results in
hundreds of resellers “working out of the trunks of their cars”
so-to-speak and without the proper product training. Since shoddy resellers
is the number one complaint from end users, this characteristic is worth
noting.
- Two
Database Options – Attain offers
two databases, a proprietary database called the Navision database (formerly
referred to as the C/Side database) and Microsoft SQL Server. Ordinarily,
you will hear me trash proprietary technologies when it comes to databases
and programming languages. However, the Navision database is outstanding.
Today, 80% of the new Navision customers purchase the Navision database
option over the Microsoft SQL Server option, even though it is priced the
same. The reason for this I believe, is that the Navision database is fast,
and easy to administer – which translates to a lower total cost of
ownership. I should note that I like the Microsoft SQL Server database also.
Navision says that they added the Microsoft SQL Server option because they
were losing some deals due to not being fully Microsoft compliant. I can
understand this.
- Granular
Pricing – Navision is the only
mid-range or high-end product that is priced by the granule – or in other
words, priced by the feature. For example, you could purchase a single user
version of the Attain general ledger for about $500. However, the
allocations, budgeting, and consolidation features would cost an additional
$300 each. By the time you purchased the full general ledger, a single user
version would cost about $2,500. User licenses for additional users would
drive that cost up much higher. The result is that smaller companies who
anticipate heavy growth can get into the Attain product for a lower cost,
and can add additional features and functionality as they grow.
It
is interesting to note that each Attain installation includes all granules (or
features). The un-purchased granules are “turned off” in the live
product until they are purchased. However, users can toggle over to the sample
company and experiment with these un-purchased features using the sample company
data before making a decision to purchase them. I think that this is very
clever.
- Foreign
Language and Foreign Currency –
Attain is a widely deployed product around the world. It is reported that in
Iceland, one out of every two hundred residents of that country use Attain
software (this may be hard to believe, but here at Accounting Software
Advisor, we try to bring you every statistic). My point is that because Attain
is deployed in so many countries, the product has developed excellent
foreign currency and foreign language capabilities. By contrast, many
accounting software products developed in the United States either do not
include foreign currency and foreign language capabilities, or they add them
later as an after-thought. If foreign currency and foreign language
capabilities are important to you, then Attain just moved up a little higher
on your short list – didn’t it?
Weaknesses - Attain
is certainly not without problems – as with any top product, Attain contains weaknesses, missing features, missing modules and shortcomings. Attain is
not targeted towards businesses of every size, nor is it ideally suited for
every industry. We have compiled a detailed list of these weaknesses, including
screen-by-screen evidence of some of the key weaknesses. You
can view these weaknesses here.
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