Whether connecting to Business Central Cloud, Business Central on-premises, or Dynamics NAV, you will require a Windows service running on your on-premises network in order to communicate with Business Central or NAV.

You can think of this service like an app you use to communicate with Business Central, but rather than install the app on every device/terminal, it only needs to be installed on a single network PC. Once the service is installed, all devices on the network will communicate with the service and the service will communicate with Business Central. This approach consolidates the logins and communication to dramatically simplify the device/terminal deployment.

The Windows service has a small footprint with low overhead and does not require a dedicated server. It is typical to have this Windows service deployed On-Premise where you have high network availability between the scanning stations to the server to Business Central/NAV.

Note: See this article for information on how to install and configure the app.

Hardware Requirements

• A minimum of 2 GB of available RAM for each Windows service.
• A minimum of 8 GB of disk space for each Windows service.
• Sufficient CPU to handle its current load and available CPU to handle expected usage. Shop Floor Insight is real-time and not batch driven; the expected CPU activity is most often on-demand as usage grows.
• Sufficient Network availability to handle connections from the scanning stations to this server and network connectivity to the Business Central / Dynamics NAV service.

Other Considerations

• Every company in Business Central/Dynamics NAV wanting to use Shop Floor Insight requires at least one Shop Floor Insight service.
• If employees from the same company (in Business Central) work in multiple time zones, you need one Shop Floor Insight service for each time zone. Multiple Shop Floor Insight Windows services can be configured, both on the same machine and on different machines connecting to the same Business Central / Dynamics NAV.
• When connecting to Business Central SaaS, the Shop Floor Insight component needs a Windows Server to host the Windows service for Shop Floor Insight.

Azure Servers

If using Azure Windows Servers, ensure to use a good VPN between the site to the cloud, a sufficient whitelist, or other sufficient security.

When provisioning an empty Azure Windows Server for this portion, the Standard_B2ms as a technical minimum, with Standard_B4ms template being recommended, is sufficient.

These standard Azure templates typically translate into:

• Windows Server 2019 (or newer)
• Minimum 16 GB RAM (or more)
• Dual core 2.3 GHz CPU (or more)
• 8 GB available disk space (after all other OS and other system requirements)

These are general guidelines.