Cloudy with a Chance of ERP?

The weather forecast today is cloudy with a 85% chance of ERP.  Yes, here I go again, "borrowing from a movie title", but I can't help myself - my nine-year old son loves the movie and that's the end of that. 

Should you run your business in the cloud?  You probably are already to some degree and almost daily, a new cloud solution materializes in the ether.  We are becoming more dependent on cloud-based services - banking, word processing, spreadsheets, payroll services, on-line tools and so on.  ERP is undergoing the same evolution, though it has unique challenges.  It is not a question of if, but when. 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is rapidly evolving and users are successfully running NAV in the cloud and with the release of Dynamics 365, Microsoft is clearly stating its intentions - cloud ERP is where we're going. 

The main problem that needs to be solved is customization, though Microsoft is making great strides in this area. Customization may be a "feared" word with negative connotation, but I'm not one to mince words.  Businesses are unique and therefore customization is often necessary to support a business in running efficiently. Being able to customize the software and at the same time receive automated updates and upgrades is the end-goal. 

One school of thought states to change your business to satisfy the software.  Wrong-headed approach in my humble opinion.  Structure does not monitor function.   Function monitors structure.  In other words,  your customers and your ability to satisfy your customer's needs are paramount.  Everything else should be aligned in that direction.  

Microsoft's latest release, NAV 2017 has some compelling features, leveraging Office 365.  The In-Office 365 experience is a magical one.   Here's a scenario - a salesperson receives an email from a new contact. Without ever having to leave Outlook, a contact is created and a Sales Quote is created and emailed using NAV in Outlook. Another scenario - your accounting department receives an email requesting a copy of an invoice.  Within Outlook, with a single click, the invoice pops in view and is then sent to the customer by email.   This is a game changer in increasing efficiency.  Switching software and searching for documents takes time and this all but eliminates that time. 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV has never been so cloud-enabled with deep Office 365 integration, improved Web client and continued improvements in supporting customizations without affecting the base product.  Add to this the already excellent native phone and tablet apps for Android and iOS.

Embrace the cloud, but be smart about it. Research it and find a trusted partner who can advise you and steer you away from any pitfalls.  There are many companies providing cloud hosting services, some are poor, many are mediocre and a very, very few are stellar. This can make all the difference in the world as you want your ERP experience to be fast, reliable and efficient. A lot of things need to come together properly to make this a reality.