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One Place for All Your Project Activities
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An ERP for Your Specific Needs
Run Your Business With a Single Solution
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Backbone of your Business’ Operations
Expertise to Streamline Your Transition
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Microsoft ERPs have evolved over the past several decades to accommodate new business needs, technologies and opportunities. Greater access to and use of the Cloud has made for even more rapid evolution and development.
The functionalities available today are well worth the changes they’ve necessitated. Many businesses are arriving at the crossroads of needing a new solution and being unsure of what’s next. They’ve either outgrown their existing ERP or their provider plans to stop updating it. Or they’re simply hungry for the many benefits of today’s advanced Cloud-based capabilities. Here is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP solutions come into play – providing users with the choice between Business Central (BC) and Finance and Operations (F&O), which has recently been rebranded and renamed to two separate products: Finance and Supply Chain Management (F&SCM).
If your business is operating on Microsoft Dynamics, Quickbooks, Sage or NetSuite, or you are running your financials with Excel, you may be asking yourself, “which Dynamics 365 ERP is best for my business?” While some paths are clear (Dynamics NAV users are best suited for Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics AX users are best suited for what was once known as Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations) other migration paths aren’t so black and white.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (F&O) is actually the old name for what is now two products, Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Though Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (SCM) are separate products, many Microsoft partners recommend a combination of the two to support the functionality previously offered in Finance and Operations. You may see the combination of these two products referred to as Dynamics 365 F&SCM.
Generally, Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management are best suited for larger enterprises, like public and international companies, and Business Central is best suited to small to midsized organizations. But choosing the right ERP involves more factors than company size.
An ERP partner that understands the complexities of your industry and business needs can often make a determination based on a few criteria.
As a business leader, it might not be immediately clear which ERP solution is the best fit. But Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) and Finance & Supply Chain Management (F&SCM) are in different categories regarding their functionality, complexity, implementation timing and pricing.
“They’re in a different league basically,” Dennis Chiu, Sales Solutions Leader, says. “If you’re looking at both products, one of the products is not for you.”
The right ERP solution for your business will depend on:
You might be wondering: “What about revenue as a factor?” According to Chiu, revenue can be misleading and isn’t a reliable indicator.
“I would be careful not to use revenue as a key indicator,” he says. “Revenue could be quite misleading depending on the dollar value of what you sell. You could be selling low transaction volume of a high-dollar value item.”
Companies adopt Cloud ERPs mainly because they’ve outgrown their current systems or are about to outgrow them. Their current solution and provider may not offer the level of functionality and support they need to achieve their goals, perform at peak levels and compete. Worst case, they experienced a failed implementation, or their legacy software is about to sunset, which means the software will no longer be supported.
Whatever their reason for stepping toward Cloud-based business solutions, many businesses are on the verge of leaping miles ahead in their capabilities and realizing tremendous benefits.
“If you're coming out of legacy software into one of these new environments and systems, everything is radically improved,” Prescott says. “The technology has changed, the strategies have changed, the way data is accessed has changed, reporting; everything is different. The only thing I can equate it to is an old car versus a new car. There's just much more technology and strategy employed now than there was 50 years ago.”
Here are some of the most significant benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for businesses:
Are you unsure where you fit in terms of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central versus Finance & Supply Chain Management to improve operations and grow your business? When you work with a top-tier technology provider like Enavate, we always right-size the solution to fit the organization – so you can move forward with confidence.
Request your free Dynamics 365 assessment to determine which system, Business Central or Finance and Operations, is best for your business.
For details on end-of-support plans for various Microsoft software, Microsoft has a convenient hub that lists plans for the next several years.