Integration Platform as a Service (IPAAS)?
What is IPAAS? Integration platform as a service is essentially a cloud integration tool. It allows one to map and transform data between systems.
For example, one could use the same IPAAS software to map data from your e-commerce platform, CRM system and payroll system to your ERP software.
Let's go over pros and cons as well as other options.
Pros:
One can map data between systems with no or low code.
The IPASS may have pre-built templates or complete pre-built solutions for your applications.
One can gain efficiencies by using one tool.
IPASS pricing may be offered at various tiers to support various company sizing.
Cons:
IPASS can be expensive for smaller businesses. It would be wise to shop around.
Fees are typically recurring (monthly, annually, etc.)
May have data throughput limitations which can be addressed by paying for higher-tier service.
Not as a flexible as a custom developed solution.
What are the alternatives?
1. Built-in integrations. This is the ideal solution as the integration is built-in and may be already included in the software's subscription costs. An example of this is the built in integration with banks in Business Central or Business Central's Shopify Connector. As long as the integration is well designed and executed, there is no need to go elsewhere.
2. Custom integrations - a developer can write a custom integration with each platform. This has its own set of pros and cons:
Pros:
No or low recurring fees.
Almost any scenario can be addressed through code.
Cons:
If software providers make changes to their applications, the integration may require updates.
Higher up-front development costs.
Will require more testing and debugging than a pre-built and tested solution.
Changes will likely require development.
A custom integration may make sense when integrating to one or two systems when the cost of development and maintenance is significantly lower than IPASS costed over a five-year period.
In summary, one should look at all available options, to determine which is ideal for your application.
1. Built-in integrations
2. IPAAS
3. Custom integrations
The above is also the sequence I would recommend in selecting a solution. If there is a built-in integration, I would utilize that. If a built in integration is not present or is insufficient for the desired outcome, I would look at existing IPAAS solutions that have built-in templates or pre-built solutions and price shop. If pricing is not acceptable, then I would look at developing a custom integration and price compare.
The Value of ERP Software
ERP projects can require a significant investment in terms of software costs, implementation costs and your employee's time. Undertaking an ERP project can be exciting and full of promise.
The prospect of moving onto a modern platform that is fully integrated and can spare employees from tedious and repetitive tasks. It can make them more efficient, leading to getting more done and high morale.
Business process and the software can be aligned and in harmony, perhaps for the first time in that company's history.
The undertaking of an ERP project often brings into fruition open discussion regarding processes, problems, and solutions, old and new. It can expose weaknesses, flaws and open the door to handling them, increasing efficiency, security and outcomes. This open discussion increases communication between the team, and perhaps it may be the first time they really communicated!
The value of the software is based on how well it supports the business, the employees and facilitates the delivery of products and services. Configured properly, with the staff well-trained, with appropriate processes, it provides a foundation on which the company can expand.
The software in itself will not cause an organization that is disorganized to suddenly become organized. It will not turn an undisciplined team into a disciplined one. It is not a magical cure-all. Years ago, I recall walking into an IT director's office and there was a literal mound of paper on her desk. One could stand on that mound and throw pitches at elevation if one wanted to. The software did nothing to relieve that mound.
There is no replacement for competent, organized and well-trained staff. However, the software can enforce rules, prevent errors, support the business processes and increase speed of delivery of products and services.
As human memory is fallible, it can serve as a backup to one's memory through notes, reminders and tasks.
It can provide data to employee's efficiently, quickly so actions can be taken swiftly and customer demands can be satisfied.
It can assist purchasers and manufacturers with planning, ensuring product is obtained in time to meet customer demands.
It can provide timely reports to management and executives, who can review the data and make sound decisions based on that data.
It is a vital tool, used pragmatically, that can greatly enhance the operations, finance and reporting of any organization.
This is the value of ERP Software.
Business Central - Creating Sales Orders with Copilot
Our latest video shows you how to create sales orders using AI.
Business Central and AI Future Imaginings
I usually write about existing features and functions, but I thought it might be fun and stimulating to stretch my imagination a bit and postulate future ideas for Copilot and Business Central.
Margie, a sales order processor arrives to work in the morning and logs into BC. Copilot prioritizes her workload for the day and displays them on screen. Based on the ship date and inventory levels, all orders ready to ship today are listed. Margie reviews and only takes action on exceptions. She knows customer ACME has an urgent order and she wants to ensure the warehouse manager gets the order out today.
Margie speaks "Copilot, please let Earl know that order 5765 must go out today."
Copilot responds, "Earl has been notified that order 5765 must go out today." and is placed on Earl's to do list in BC and Outlook Calendar.
Copilot knows that Margie sends out email notifications at the beginning of the week to her customers for upcoming shipments. Copilot prompts, "Margie, would you like me to send email notifications for this weeks' shipments?"
Margie responds "Yes."
Copilot responds, "Done."
Earl, Warehouse Manager. logs in to BC and Copilot lists the orders that are ready to ship for the day. The manager only deals with exceptions and flags a few shipments on hold as he just got a call about a problem about a particular product and accepts the rest.
Copilot prompts ,"Would you like me to create Shipments and Warehouse Picks?".
"Yes," says Earl.
Copilot responds with, "Shipments and Picks have been created. Would you like to see them?"
Earl responds affirmatively.
Copilot displays the list of shipments on screen. Copilot assigns the picks to the available pickers in the warehouse.
The pickers pick the product, registering them on their barcode scanners and physically move the product to the shipping stations. The shipper scans the barcode on the pick ticket and proceeds to scan the items ensuring all ordered items are verified. The shipper processes the shipment, calculating freight and posts the shipment. The packing list prints and the product is loaded onto a truck and shipped to the customer.
Copilot automatically emails customers of their upcoming shipment along with the tracking number.
Copilot prompts Joyce in accounting, "Orders have been shipped, would you like to review them prior to posting?"
Joyce reviews the orders on screen and is satisfied and speaks, "Copilot, please invoice the orders".
Copilot invoices the orders and emails them to the customers.
Copilot ran the Requisition Worksheet early in the morning before anyone arrived. When the purchaser, John, arrives, Copilot greets with, "Good morning John. Your requisition worksheet is ready. Would you like to review?"
John reviews, makes a few edits and accepts the plan. Purchase orders are created.
Copilot displays purchase orders expected to be received today along with sales orders that could be fulfilled by the newly arriving inventory. This information is also shared with Margie in Sales and Earl, in the warehouse.
It's near the end of a very productive day and Copilot sends an end of day progress report to the operations manager and key executives summarizing sales, revenue and expenses. The executive team is very satisfied with the days results and go home with high morale.
Business Central Testing Tools
Business Central now has a page scripting tool which allows you to record your steps when testing. Here are some potential use cases.
Creating multiple documents such as sales orders, purchase orders, etc. Once recorded, you can press play and create additional documents quickly. This is very useful in cases where you want to create a number of documents.
Recording a testing session and saving the script. You can then pass it to a developer who imports the script, runs it, sees the error fixes it, runs the script to confirm and reports it complete. The tester can run the script and confirm the issue is resolved.
Recording a multi-step test which involves creating and posting multiple transactions. For example, creating a sales order, releasing it, creating a warehouse shipment, creating a pick and registering it and shipping the order.
Our latest video shows you how to use this tool. Click here.
Business Central - Analyzing your Data with Copilot
You can now analyze your data in Business Central using plain, simple English. Watch our latest video to find out how.
Business Central and AI
With version 24 of Business Central, CoPilot is built-in. Best of all CoPilot is aware of your data in Business Central.
Our latest video shows how to use this new and exciting feature.
A Fresh Start with Business Central
We recently upgraded one of our clients from a very old version of NAV to Business Central. Part of our process in upgrading are to hold design meetings where old customizations are identified as no longer needed or applicable. Many features that were absent in the old version were now present in the latest version. Business has changed as well and prior customizations were no longer applicable and therefore could be discarded.
In this particular instance, we were able to discard 90% of the customizations, leading to a clean new system.
Because of the structure of Business Central in the cloud, customizations are no longer limiting factors to apply automatic updates and upgrades. This is due to customizations are now able to be installed or uninstalled at will in a packages called extensions. You can think of an extension as an app that can be installed or uninstalled.
Cleaning out the garage or the closet can be a liberating experience. Throwing stuff away can be therapeutic. The same could be said with ERP software. Throwing out outdated solutions and processes and embracing efficient processes can be a lifechanging experience and when the technology is designed to facilitate this, well, that’s a marvel of engineering.
A client guided by a competent partner to make the appropriate design decisions regarding the direction of one’s ERP system will lead to a superior system, configured and tailored specifically to that business.
Increasing Efficiency with Business Central
I like to look over my workday or work week to see what I have accomplished. After a productive day, one can feel a sense of accomplishment.
I do this by making a list at the beginning of each day of tasks I want to accomplish. As I accomplish them, I cross them off my list.
I can then look at the end of the day or week and see what was done and what is open.
Business Central is a tool and like any tool, one becomes more efficient as one uses the tool and learns various shortcuts or by reducing steps, keystrokes, or clicks. An extra click or two may be annoying and may take an extra second or two, but often steps are repeated over and over and these seconds will add up to minutes and perhaps hours over time.
Below are a few things one can do to increase one’s efficiency with Business Central. By using these tips, I sincerely hope you will be able to cross off more items off your list in less time.
Bookmark all of the pages and reports you use, particularly if infrequent. You can do this by clicking the bookmark icon while searching or in the page or report. This will save you lots of time. I can’t tell you how many times I wasted time looking for things.
Use the Gear icon, Personalize feature to hide columns you don’t need. Rearrange columns to fit your style. Add columns that are meaningful to you.
There are functions that are hidden under multiple tree menus. These are the ones that you can only see by hovering your mouse over a menu item and following down multiple levels. You may not realize is you can use the Personalize feature to drag and drop these menu items up to the top menu instead of being buried under multiple sub-menus. This is not only time saving, you will likely feel a sense of relief!
Save your filtered lists. When you filter on a list page, use click the save (disc) icon and give it a friendly name. This will save you tons of time from having to set the same filters in the future.
Copy things! It may be more conducive to copy things instead of creating them from scratch. We’re taught not to copy in school, but this isn’t school, so copy items, sales orders, purchase orders, journal entries to your heart’s content. This will not only save time, but often will prevent data entry omissions or errors. Look for the copy button and use it.
I hope you will find these tips and shortcuts fruitful and will increase your productivity at work!
Why are ERP systems Complicated?
By definition, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software is complicated. It can be viewed as having many components that work together intricately and seamlessly. This is a necessity since a business requires tracking activity in many diverse areas such as accounting, sales, customer relationship management, inventory, warehouse management, manufacturing, and yet these areas must somehow come together for concise financial reporting and planning.
Add to this the fact that companies often require functionality that is not included in the ERP, but has been provided by the community through third party apps. These apps can be installed in the ERP software (Microsoft Business Central for our purposes here) and become part of the solution as a seamless integrated whole.
Selecting the appropriate app, configuring it and providing training is a key task. Having a competent and experienced partner is key as they will be able to recommend apps they have used in the past that are tried and true. Importantly, but sometimes overlooked is the publisher of the app. Do they provide good support? Do they continually improve their app?
By selecting appropriate apps, we simplify the user experience, thus reducing complexity. There is the complexity of the software itself, but as far as user experience goes, the complexity is beyond the visibility or awareness of the user. One doesn’t need to know the inner workings of a mechanical watch to wear the watch and tell the time.
Having an ERP system available in the cloud simplifies not only the user experience, but reduces cost for your company. No longer are complex physical servers required, nor the whole host of required accompanying software. While the technology to run ERP in the cloud is complicated, it is not something you need to concern with anymore. That tedious and costly endeavor is now handled by the publisher of the ERP software. All you need is a web browser or a tablet or phone.
Reducing complexity for the user is key to a successful implementation. This is accomplished by implementing the system appropriately for the company involved taking into consideration its staff, its capabilities, its resources and so on. The implementation to be successful must be managed well and in an extremely organized fashion. Done right, ERP implementations can be smooth and with relatively few bumps in the road. Complexity can be taken down to simplicity for the user and the company.
Shopify and Business Central
When Microsoft announced they have been working with Shopify to create a quality API between Business Central and Shopify, I was excited.
The prospects were good. The API was built-into Business Central and there was no additional fee for clients to use it. It was a collaborative effort between both software publishers. Check.
The initial release proved to be slightly disappointing as we could not extend (modify) the API and the API did not handle returns.
However, Microsoft being Microsoft, improved the API over time and currently, we can extend (modify) the API. Microsoft also added the ability to handle returns.
Being able to extend the API comes in handy. For example, we have had clients wanting to send a different calculation for quantity available.
We have made further improvements by converting Shopify transactions and payouts into Cash Receipts and auto-applying the cash receipt to the invoice. These are areas perhaps Microsoft will address in the future to round out the API.
The Shopify connector is open to contribution from the community and one can also suggest product suggestions. The link for this is here.
Artificial Intelligence and Business Central
Copilot AI is now available within Business Central 24! This version of Copilot is specifically designed for Business Central. You will see a new Copilot icon in the top right portion of your screen directly to the left of the search (magnifying glass) icon.
What can you do with co-pilot now?
You can chat with Copilot. There are currently three main categories:
a. Find - use verbs such as “Look up”, “Show”, “Go to”, etc.
Examples:
Look up posted sales invoice 55666.
Show invoices over 30 days past due.
Go to Cash Receipts Journal.
b. Explain
Examples:
Explain field “Due Date” on Sales Order
Help me understand posting.
c. How do I?
Examples:
How do I enter cash receipts?
How do I print financial reports?
Create marketing text
Map e-documents to purchase orders
Reconcile bank accounts
Suggest Lines on sales orders
Analyze data in lists
While Copilot is in its infancy with respect to Business Central and the outputs are not yet ideal, this is a great start and it will only get better as it improves.
You can find more details on the above here.
Business Central for Manufacturing Companies
Manufacturing companies are unique in that they both manufacture and distribute their products. Therefore, an ERP system for manufacturing companies must be strong in both manufacturing and distribution. You can read about Business Central for Distribution companies here as this is applicable to manufacturing companies.
Business Central contains key functionality for manufacturing companies including: bills of materials, , routings, production planning, production orders, recording consumption and output and finishing production orders.
Routings are defined as the steps necessary to produce a particular product. Routings give the ability to predict how long production will take and thus schedule production orders. The other key feature of routings is the ability to include labor and overhead in the cost of your manufactured products.
Production planning suggests what to produce, when and suggests the acquisition of raw materials needed in the production process. Demand Planning Forecasts can be utilized to predict future sales and get ahead of future production demands.
Shop Floor is an available extension of the standard BC functionality, where kiosks or workstations can be place strategically on the production floor where users can clock in or clock out and thus record time, consumption of raw materials and output of sub-assemblies and/or finished goods.
The key to a successful manufacturing implementation is understanding the production process and configuring the system to parallel the process and record all inputs and outputs along the way. The end result is properly costed product, leading to accurate gross margin calculations.
Business Central has strong web capability and can be connected to scales and/or machines to read data and record data in BC. This can lead to streamlined processes and improved data capture and accuracy.
Contact us today to find out more.
Business Central for Distribution Companies
Distribution companies often have common requirements that extend beyond the capability of simple accounting systems. Do any of these functions sound familiar to you?
Accepting sales orders through various means - phone, web, EDI, etc.
Planning and purchasing inventory and tracking inventory on the water.
Allocating freight costs to inventory.
Integrating with carriers such as UPS, Fedex and USPS.
Forecasting sales based on history.
Sending and receiving EDI transactions with trading partners.
Efficiently packing and shipping inventory in volume.
Advanced warehouse management with picking, shipping, receiving and put-aways.
Implementing an ERP system such as Microsoft Dynamics Business Central can help support your business with the above requirements and more. Having a single integrated solution rather than running disparate systems reduces complexity and software costs.
Contact us today to find out how Business Central can support your business as it scales.
How Business Central ERP Software can Support Growth
A properly implemented ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software can support your company’s growth in many ways:
Support and enforce business processes. Employees following standard processes is the ideal method to ensure products and services are delivered with consistent quality. Workflow, approvals and mandatory steps and sequences are helpful in ensuring business processes are followed.
Reduction of double entry of data. Running multiple software systems can lead to double entry of data where the same data is entered in multiple systems. Integrations can reduce and/or eliminate this. The concept behind ERP Software it is is one platform and thus data is automatically available throughout the system, eliminating double entry.
Automate tasks - using automations such as optical character recognition (OCR) on vendor invoices will increase efficiency and allow accounting staff to focus on other important tasks.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) - some vendors/customers may require you to send transactions via EDI. Once configured, EDI automatically takes incoming documents and converts them to sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, etc., thus saving on data entry and on potential input errors. This is particularly important if your transaction load is high or is increasing. EDI automates the creation of transactions within your ERP system.
Provide metrics that were not available before. By capturing data within your ERP software, reports may be possible that were not before. This can give better insight into costs and profitability and point out problem areas.
Take advantage of planning tools to facilitate sales forecasts and purchasing. Sales forecasts can help predict future sales and purchase planning can ensure you have inventory to meet customer demands.
Provide needful information efficiently to customers and vendors, improving customer experience and cash flow. ERP can facilitate the flow of orders through your system resulting in goods and services being delivered faster.
The key is implementing the software for your business, tailored to the uniqueness of your business, streamlining and enforcing business processes, with the end goal of delivering quality products and services to customers efficiently and with sufficient volume to continue expansion.
Contact us today and put in place the structure that will support your business’s growth.
Successful Actions for ERP Projects
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software projects can range from straightforward to complex. What are some of the actions one can take to ensure the project goes well?This will be written from the viewpoint of the customer.
As a customer, what can you do to ensure the project is successful?
Select the software that closely meets your needs. No software will match 100%. Your partner should be able to fill in any gaps.
Select a partner that is competent, has good communication and organizational skills. Check references. Ensure you meet/interview technical resources that will be working on the project. Ask about their implementation methodology. What tools do they use for project plans? What are the phases of the project? Do they provide documentation? Have them walk you through step-by-step how the implementation will be carried out. Is training done remotely or on site? Is go-live done remotely or on-site? Is there a design phase? What are the deliverables for design? Does the partner use a checklist for going live? Ask for a sample copy.
Assign an internal resource as the Project Manager. The ERP vendor will have a Project Manager on their side. These two contacts are key to moving the project forward. Project Managers key skillset must include strong communication, follow up and good organizational skills. Your internal project manager must take charge and be able to gather up internal resources and set meetings and ensure users are actively engaged.
Assign an internal ERP team consisting of key department managers who will be responsible for their area.
Have a company-wide briefing on the purpose of the ERP Project and what it will do for the company and how it will affect their roles and what benefits you expect to gain from it.
Schedule weekly meetings with your team and partner. and ensure they are productive and not time-wasting sessions.
Design requirements sessions must be carried out and your partner must provide a written document indicating what will be implemented, what data will be converted, any custom requirements, documents, reports, etc. You should have a good understanding of what your partner will be providing.
Insist your partner demonstrates work-in-progress on a regular basis. You don’t want your partner to go into a black hole for 6 months and show you what they did and find out it widely missed the mark. Regular demos of work-in-progress gives your partner feedback to deliver what is needed and wanted.
Insist training is done with your data. There is nothing worse the training done with irrelevant data. On site training is superior than remote training.
Get your team engaged for user-acceptance testing. This means regular testing and feedback and an efficient way to communicate test results back to your partner so they are addressed quickly.
Have your team verify data conversions and validate the integrity of the data. Make them responsible for the accuracy and quality of the data. Communicate issues back to your partner and ensure they are addressed.
Have department heads write procedure guides for each post. Alternatively, you can have your partner write them. However, having your resources write them will reinforce their training and take greater responsibility for their part of their project.
Understand the final data conversion that is done just prior to going live with the software. What time will you stop using the old system? What time will the data be exported? When will your partner import the data? Who will validate the data and when?
Ensure you partner prepares a go-live checklist well in advance of the go live date. There may be dozens of tasks that need to be done prior to go live. You cannot leave this to someone’s memory or chance.
Assess your go-live readiness by consulting your team and the partner. The partner may have a completely different concept than your team. It is unwise to force a go live that is not ready. The results of going live before you are ready can be serious and costly. Users should be confident they can do their jobs in the new system and you must be able to run your business processes start to finish in the new system and hit all of the various types of transactions that you would typically encounter.
Ensure your partner is physically present during go live. On site presence is ideal when going live. Remotely supported go lives can be done succesfully, but an on site go-live will result in faster response and help smooth over any bumps.
After the go live week, don’t consider your work done. To the contrary, you will undoubtedly have many follow-up tasks. Keep your partner and team engaged and addressing those tasks until the team is running smoothly.
This should serve as a good guideline to ensure your ERP implementation is successful. A successful ERP project is a team effort between customer and partner. Good communication, a friendly working relationship, organized activity, well-managed and run will ensure your ERP project will succeed.
Have you outgrown Quickbooks?
Many small businesses start out on Quickbooks, but at some point, you will outgrow Quickbooks and look for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software to support your business.
What are some of the indicators that may be signaling you have outgrown Quickbooks? What are the pros and cons of moving to an ERP System. We will attempt to answer these two questions here.
You may have outgrown Quickbooks if one or more of the following apply:
It lacks the functionality to run your business smoothly without workarounds and/or manual solutions.
You are using multiple software systems due to the lack of functionality of Quickbooks, requiring double entry of data.
You are tracking processes off-line using Excel or other tools.
Your transactional load needs automation to keep up with your business demands and are currently being handled manually.
It does not lend itself to industry compliance requirements and/or standards.
You need functionality tailored specific to your business for legal, compliance, customer-driven or other reasons.
If any of the above points hit home, it may be time to start looking for an ERP software. ERP systems are fully integrated and will handle most of your business needs within a single solution. I say “most” because nothing is absolute and there is no single ERP software that does everything for every industry.
What are some of the pros and cons of an ERP System compared to Quickbooks? Let’s start with the cons. Note that some of the cons are actually benefits, although they may not seem so at first glance.
ERP systems are more complex than Quickbooks and will require dedicated training and user acceptance testing. This complexity means there will be a learning curve. This doesn’t mean that the system cannot be configured and sized appropriately to your business for easier user adoption.
ERP systems are more expensive than Quickbooks. Expect subscription fees and implementation fees to be higher than that of Quickbooks.
It takes good organization and a competent and dedicated team to properly implement an ERP system. Do it right and it will support your company in its expansion for years to come.
ERP systems properly implemented will enforce concepts such as “audit trails”, “separation of duties” and GAAP (Generally Accepted Account Principles) compliance. This means you cannot modify posted entries such as the date, etc. Quickbooks gives you quite a bit of leeway here. You will not typically see this “leeway” in an ERP system.
Depending on what you are trying to capture data-wise, an ERP system may require more data entry with the end result being better reporting to base decisions on.
Computerizing a process (where before it was loosely done or not done at all) requires discipline and a mindset change for staff.
Now, let’s look at the pros of moving to a full cloud-based ERP system:
Fully integrated ERP system encompassing most modules business require such as accounting, sales, CRM, inventory, purchasing, resource planning, projects, manufacturing, and more.
Access anywhere using a web browser.
May be integrated with other software using latest technologies available.
Support business specific requirements and tailor to your business as necessary.
Capture vital data to manage your business and report on outcomes.
Define, standardize and implement ideal business processes paralleled and supported by the software.
Increase efficiency by eliminating multiple data silos and double-entry.
Comply with legal requirements, best practices and principles.
As you can see, there are many positive benefits to moving to an ERP system when you are ready. Contact us to find out more how Microsoft Dynamics Business Central can support your business.
Advantages of Migrating from Dynamics GP to Business Central
Depending on your version of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft has either stopped supporting or will sunset support in the near future. You can see the sunsetting dates in the link here.
A natural evolution may be to switch to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. The reasons for this are:
Business central is tightly integrated with the Microsoft stack of products that you are already likely familiar with such as Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, etc.
Business Central has built-in, evolved and improved. data migration tools to convert data from GP to Business Central. You will realize a significant cost savings over converting to an ERP system without built in tools.
You may qualify for a discount from Microsoft when migrating from GP to Business Central. The subscription model requires less up front costs and may be more affordable depending on your situation.
Business Central likely contains the functionality and features your business needs. A wide variety of extensions are available from the marketplace to fill in any gaps. “Extensions” are apps that may be installed or uninstalled from Business Central.
As a cloud solution, Business Central is updated monthly with two major updates semi-annually. You will be able to take advantage of the latest features and functionality and stay-up-to-date with technologies such as AI.
Save on IT hardware, software licensing and recurring service costs, You will not need physical or virtual servers, or server software to run Business Central in the cloud. All you need is a web browser.
If you would like more information on converting from GP to Business Central, contact us today!
What I love about Business Central
I’m going to geek out a little bit in this blog. I’m going to talk about the features that I absolutely love about Business Central. These are the ones that make one’s life easier or save’s one hide in a pinch. Some of these are not strictly based on the software and extend beyond ones and zeros. Without further ado, here are my favorites!
1. Restoring environments - restoring sandbox environments from production data from a specific point in time. Sometimes, you have to recreate a problem in order to solve it and that problem often only is demonstrable in the production environment. By making a copy of production into a sandbox, one can typically debug the issue and resolve it. In the past, this could be a daunting task, but with Business Central cloud, it takes minutes.
2. Automatic updates - we often take automatic updates for granted as practically everything updates automatically these days - automobiles, phones, TV’s, smart devices of every sort, to name a few. Business Central automatically updates along with your extensions (customizations made for your business). This means you will not end up with aging software and outdated technologies faced with an expensive upgrade years down the line. You get two major releases every year and monthly minor updates.
3. Continual improvement - it’s quite a relief when something you found cumbersome, annoying or lacking is now resolved or available. It’s enough to let out an audible sigh of relief or perhaps a joyful expletive. Microsoft has listened to us and you can provide direct feedback to Microsoft on desired features and vote for them on Microsoft Dynamics Ideas website. Ideas (dynamics.com)
4. Peace of mind and lowered IT costs. Having your software hosted in the cloud by Microsoft takes out a great deal of complexity out of running an ERP system. No servers! No SQL server licenses. No security certificates. No remote desktop server. No Citrix server. And if you don’t know what any of that means - it means less headache and less cost and less things to worry about. Microsoft takes care of all of the backend and you are the consumer of the product and simply use a web browser to access the software. It couldn’t be simpler.
5. An active and thriving field. The Business Central field is huge and continually growing. Many ISV (independent software vendors) continually innovate and create solutions for industry specific needs or areas where a niche can be filled. Some examples are sales tax integrations, web portals, credit card processing and more. There is a strong community and user groups where you can network, receive or give training and exchange ideas.
Why Business Central?
If you are in the market for a new ERP system, why choose Business Central over the competition? Here are a few compelling reasons:
One of the key advantages of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is its comprehensive, all-in-one approach. Unlike some competitors that offer fragmented solutions requiring multiple integrations, Business Central provides a unified platform that seamlessly integrates financials, sales, service, and operations. This integrated approach fosters collaboration across departments, breaking down silos and enabling a holistic view of your business operations.
Scalability - Businesses evolve, and your ERP solution should grow with you. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed with scalability in mind. Whether you are a small startup or a large enterprise, Business Central can adapt to your changing needs. Its modular structure allows you to start with the functionalities you need and scale up as your business expands. This scalability ensures that your ERP system remains a strategic asset rather than a limitation as you navigate the challenges of growth.
Stable and secure platform, self-maintained, automated backups and point-in-time recovery, frees up your IT resources to focus on other areas of the business.
Seamless Integration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform: Business Central isn't just a standalone ERP solution; it's a seamless part of the larger Microsoft ecosystem. Integration with Microsoft 365 facilitates smooth communication and collaboration, while the Power Platform empowers users to create custom apps and automate workflows without extensive coding knowledge. This integration ensures that Business Central aligns effortlessly with your existing technology stack, enhancing overall efficiency and user experience.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers robust business intelligence and reporting tools, providing real-time insights into your company's performance. With Power BI integration, users can create visually compelling dashboards and reports, turning raw data into actionable intelligence. Informed decision-making becomes second nature, enabling your business to stay ahead of the competition in a data-driven world.
Continuous innovation - Staying competitive in the digital age requires constant innovation and adaptation. Microsoft understands this, and that's why Business Central benefits from regular updates and enhancements. As a cloud-based solution, updates are seamlessly delivered, ensuring your business always has access to the latest features, security patches, and improvements. This commitment to innovation means you can future-proof your business, staying ahead in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
Strong independent software vendor community. Extensions are solutions created by the community that expand the functionality of Business Central for specific industries, features, integrations and more.
In the realm of ERP solutions, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central stands out as a compelling choice for businesses seeking a unified, scalable, and innovative platform. Its seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, coupled with robust business intelligence capabilities, positions Business Central as a strategic asset for businesses of all sizes. Make the wise choice for your business's future success — choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central over the competition.
Contact us today 888-512-3195 or email us: sales @erpefficiency.com