Migration Services

Navision to Business Central for pharmaceutical wholesale

A migration partner that understands your operation as well as your technology.

The challenge

Why pharma wholesale migration is different

Most BC migration partners follow a standard playbook: discover, configure, migrate data, go live. That playbook fails in pharmaceutical wholesale because it doesn’t account for the domain-specific complexity baked into your Navision system over years of operation.

Your Navision instance isn’t generic. It contains customised pricing engines that handle complex wholesale discount structures, rebate calculations, and contract pricing that BC’s standard pricing module doesn’t natively support. It has warehouse workflows built around pharmaceutical-specific requirements — temperature-controlled zones, controlled drug segregation, batch and expiry management that goes beyond standard BC item tracking.

It has integrations to ordering platforms, logistics providers, and possibly regulatory systems that were built incrementally and aren’t documented anywhere except in the code itself.

A migration that doesn’t account for all of this will either break critical operations at go-live or deliver a system that warehouse teams refuse to use. We’ve seen the inside of these systems. We know where the complexity lives.


Our approach

A phased journey, not a rigid methodology

Phase 1 — Discovery & Audit

We start by mapping your current Navision estate in detail. Not just the standard objects — the customisations, the integrations, the business rules embedded in code, the workarounds your team relies on daily. This produces a comprehensive migration scope document that protects you from the “we didn’t know about that” moments that derail projects.

Deliverable: Migration readiness report with complexity assessment, risk register, and realistic timeline estimate.

Phase 2 — Design & Configuration

We design your BC environment to support your actual wholesale operation, not a generic template. Posting group structures, warehouse configuration, item tracking for batch and lot management, pricing and discount frameworks, dimension structures for your reporting needs, and the extension architecture for any bespoke functionality.

Phase 3 — Build & Integrate

AL extension development for pharma-specific customisations. Custom integration layer connecting BC to your B2B platforms, logistics providers, and internal tools. Data migration tooling and validation. Modern user interfaces where BC’s standard UI falls short.

Phase 4 — Migrate & Validate

Phased data migration with validation at every stage. Parallel running where critical. User acceptance testing with the people who actually use the system daily — not just IT. GDP compliance validation to ensure audit trails, traceability, and documentation meet MHRA inspection standards from day one.

Phase 5 — Go-Live & Hypercare

Cutover support, immediate issue resolution, and a hypercare period where we’re embedded in your operation to catch anything the testing didn’t surface. Because pharmaceutical wholesale doesn’t stop — orders ship every day, and downtime has direct patient impact.


Honest assessment

What drives migration complexity

  • Number of custom Navision objects and reports in your current system
  • Number and complexity of external integrations (B2B portals, logistics, EDI)
  • Number of warehouse locations and whether you handle controlled drugs
  • Complexity of your pricing and discount structures
  • Volume of historical data requiring migration
  • Whether you need to maintain parallel systems during transition
  • MHRA inspection timing and GDP compliance requirements

We’re building a migration estimator tool that will help you understand ballpark costs based on these factors. In the meantime, get in touch for an honest conversation about your specific situation.

See our Technology Decision Frameworks for detailed guidance on deployment model, warehouse interfaces, analytics, AI strategy, and build vs buy decisions.

Start the conversation

Ready to understand what your
migration actually involves?

No sales pitch. An honest conversation about your Navision estate, your operation, and what a realistic migration looks like.