UK Delocalization 🚀

Hello all, good morning, good evening or good afternoon. Today we'll talk about a topic that's very interesting to me and I like everybody to kind of understand it. So with the Business Central 2025 release week 2, Microsoft announced UK deoization. Now if you don't have customers in UK or if you're not from UK, you're thinking okay let's skip it. But I would highly request you to stay because there is a lot that's coming up in other localizations also and from a developer perspective you need to understand how it benefits the whole ecosystem. So let's get ahead with it. So first let's talk about the history of deoization. So what happened when Microsoft and this is my theory when Microsoft decided to go to cloud they took the business center or dynamics nav source code and made it available on cloud for few countries UK was one of them and then there were other countries which are part of it now people who have worked on NAV would understand how the whole ecosystem work for the codebased perspective but Now later on Microsoft identified that it's very hard to kind of manage a complex system like this and they started this process of deoization. So not to surprise but UK is not the first country who is part of the deoization process. There had been some in the past. So let's quickly review that. So the first one was Sweden which was migrated to W1 uh in 2023 release wave 1 and then in the next release it was Iceland which was migrated to W1 in 2023 release wave 2 specifically on 23.3. I was waiting for it that they continue doing this but they took a pause. I know there are lot of complexity with deoization and in some cases it'll take some time. So we've talked about the history. Let's talk about the process how it actually happens and why it's being done as in what's the need of deoization. So let's understand the process. So people who are coming from NAV would understand that in the NAV world each localized version of Dynamics NAV aka also business central used to be released separately. There was a separate product DVD for each localization. So let's take this example for UK perspective in this case. So back till 2025 release wave 1 if you're onrem then you got a separate product DVD specifically for GB localization or UK localization. When I say a separate product DVD, that means the base app of GB was different from a base app of Iceland, India or some other countries because the code for GB localization, their local regulations and rules, the taxes and other things which are specific to GB was embedded inside the base app and other Microsoft apps. Now, you'll say, "Yeah, that sounds cool. That makes sense. But when you look at from a bigger perspective where Microsoft is expanding business central to every country and region it becomes hard to maintain. So then what they do as they're doing for UK in this release they convert or they take will be taking or have already taken in 2025 release wave to GB will not be a GB database it'll be a W1 database. Now W1 would be a new word uh for people who are starting with business center but NAP people will understand it that W1 is a worldwide release which had functionality that was not using any local regulation and features. There are certain countries in the world who still rely on W1 because they don't have those kind of rules which require Microsoft to customize the product based on their need. So when they took the GB and converted it to W1, they surely were missing functionality which was GB specific and those are three kind of I would broadly classify them in three different categories. The one which you know like in India they Microsoft has splitted it into I guess seven or 10 extension. they might extract these GB customization functionality on top of W1 as separate GB extensions. So when you kind of uh create a new environment for GB in future you'll get a W1 we'll say in your environment list as GB but it's a typical W1 database on top of it you'll get some additional extension which are from Microsoft but they are only applicable to GB right and then the good part here is that there are some customization which are not GB specific they were in GB because they were kind of built for them but they are applicable or they can be used across the business center ecosystem from wherever whichever country you have been using it. And if you're watching this series about what's new in 2025 release wave 2, you'll see that some of the functionality that was released in this version are actually coming from certain localization functionality. So Microsoft is right now paying a deep attention to all these functionality that were built previously for specific reasons but if they are not attached to that particular region they are being disconnected from that region and then made available to other countries in the world. So if you haven't watched it at the end of this video you'll find one uh video link which will take you to one such functionality which is coming from some other regional function uh environment earlier. So what happens now? So GB will get their own extension as in UK will get their own specific extension which are specific to their region and then there will be some functionality which will port to W1 which means which will be available to rest of the world who are using business central. I'm hoping great functionality coming from there and everybody will be able to use it. Now why you need to know that because eventually if you are modifying these kind of functionalities for certain countries where your customers are you need to keep that thing in mind that am I modifying uh a localized functionality or am I modifying a global W1 functionality because that's how you'll be able to port it. Now when you think about the benefits of deoization, think about app source. Right now when you publish an app on apps source, you have to list which countries this is applicable for. Yes, you will have to list it down in future also because you might build a functionality which is only specific to certain regions. But then in future you'll see more and more apps which will have uh compatibility with different countries and region because it is working on a functionality which is a non localized functionality. Now so it'll make more and more sense back uh in future. Now I have some weird theories about it which I always have about the product. Uh if somebody want to talk about those let me know. We'll talk in private about it but I I think there is a bigger plan of deoization not just from the maintenance perspective but from the future of the product. So it's a pretty interesting change how Microsoft is doing it. Now we have talked about the process we have talked about the history. Let's see who else on the list of these deoization because when Microsoft build business central specifically cloud they had certain countries where they ship as is the product as it was navig. So here is the future. Based on my research and my uh findings, there are total of 19 countries who had BAS app specific to their needs starting from Australia till Russia which is on premise only. There's not a cloud version for Russia which I found out during my research. The highlighted ones which is is Iceland, Sweden and United Kingdoms which is GB has been ported to W1 with UK specific or Iceland specific or Swedish specific extensions to provide them similar functionality as it was earlier. I'm pretty sure that these three fall in the same group because right now from an NAV perspective, United States, Canada, and Mexico use a similar product DVD or the localization functionality. So I'm hoping that if Microsoft targets this uh set going forward, there will be three more addition in the list just in one release if that happens because they can just break that out and then say okay UK uh sorry US you got this, Canada you got this and Mexico you got this because they all are building in one product DVD which in today world is called North America NA right there's lot to happen which is 19 countries or 16 more countries to be done. But as this happens, I see a lot of um easiness in these releases because then Microsoft is majorly managing W1 more or less. Yes, they are managing local functionality but then they are part of the separate extension. So that brings to a world where things are simple in business central from a developers perspective and that also helps to kind of move a product to a future direction which as I said earlier I have some weird theories. Now do let me know what do you think what else you think in comments about what happens when this deoization become reality for all the rest 16 countries which are left yet. And if you are a customer still watching us and if you have some business related queries, do reach out to us at info@dayconulting.com. We'll be happy to help you. And at this point, you know the drill. If you think this was useful, hit the like button. If you think this is something that your colleague, your friend should know about, hit the share button. As I said, if somebody would like to talk about the weird theories that I have about this, call me. We'll talk about it. And then if you haven't then hit the subscribe button and keep yourself updated about what's happening around Business Center. I'll see you sooner than later into the next video. Till then keep learning and keep sharing whatever you're learning. Thank you and have a nice day.