Berlin / 2015-10-05. As part of the “Technology Adoption Program” Europe’s leading Microsoft ERP partner COSMO CONSULT has implemented a prototype of the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics NAV generation at RKB Karosseriewerk GmbH, one of the major bodybuilders in Germany. Along with the migration of a legacy NAV system to the latest version the COSMO CONSULT configure-to-order industry solution and several add-ons have been updated, too. Now, after successfully going live, RKB is one of the first companies worldwide using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 for its daily business.

“Software development in real world” – that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of Microsoft’s so-called “Technology Adoption Program”, or “TAP” for short. During TAP selected ERP partners and customers are becoming part of new software generations composition and deployment at an early stage. To Microsoft, the TAP is a vital component of its software development as the involved ERP partners and corporate users together with Microsoft’s experts are probing the daily use suitability of the latest ERP technologies. This way possible lacks or flaws can be detected and eliminated early. And that only works if the software is operated in a live environment.

In Germany RKB is one of the leading car body engineering and construction companies. The brand is well-known for its mobile selling shops as well as for its special designs like command post or TV broadcast vehicles. As a long-term COSMO CONSULT client the company has been an early Microsoft Dynamics NAV adopter together with COSMO CONSULT’s manufacturing solution and its software for workflow management. For RKB the TAP participation not only was a good opportunity to bring its aged NAV system to a modern state. Internal business processes have been revised, too, while former individual adjustments have almost completely been replaced by the enhanced standard functionalities of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 together with the broad COSMO CONSULT product portfolio.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 – also known under its “Project Corfu“ working title – brings a bunch of enhancements and innovations, like for example in workflow and document management including OCR, in Microsoft Office integration, cloud services and financial management. “NAV 2016 already shows up as a very solid and practical system package,” says Ralf Krahnert, responsible for the RKB project and TAP implementation on the part of COSMO CONSULT. “To be able to accomplish a very demanding upgrade and reengineering project like ours in only four months, including the migration of all functional areas with a highly automated operating data collection and a newly-created mobile data acquisition, that is really impressive. Not least, this is owed to the quality of the new NAV 2016 system,” adds RKB’s CIO Patrick Taube.


“Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is a great step forward in our ERP strategy,” states Brett Johnson, Business Productivity Technical Sales Lead at Microsoft, and in charge of the Microsoft Technical Adoption Program. “COSMO CONSULT is one of the few worldwide exclusive partners to early attend us on our way to new technologies. The cooperation with COSMO CONSULT by shaping our business solutions is highly appreciated and extremely helpful for developing new software generations that best fit to true business requirements.”

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Gero Brinkbäumer

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Gero Brinkbäumer

Gero is a journalist with heart and soul and has been an enthusiastic chronicler of digital change for 25 years. At COSMO CONSULT, he is particularly interested in how technology can make work and life more human.

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COSMO CONSULT Successfully Implements Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 Pre-Release at RKB