Founded in 2016, Tangicloud’s primary focus is to deliver best-in-class accounting solutions for nonprofits and governments. Tangicloud works with partners around the globe to meet the unique accounting needs of partners’ customers. To do this, Tangicloud took Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP and extended the software using Microsoft’s Universal Code standards. The Colorado-based independent software vendor (ISV) provides a much-needed software product for organizations focused on making the world a better place.
Steve Potts, Tangicloud’s president, says, “We’re the Microsoft product experts for nonprofits and governments.”
ISV on a Mission for Good
Tangicloud is focused on helping humanitarian and government organizations solve their unique accounting, compliance, audit and reporting requirements.
Two decades ago, Tangicloud’s founders realized that out-of-the-box accounting software just didn’t work for Not for Profits (NFP), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and government organizations and began building a solution using Dynamics NAV (previously Navision).
Potts explained that critical industry-specific features aren’t prevalent in commercial software products like Business Central and Dynamics GP and how Tangicloud has filled the gap. “We've taken Business Central and enhanced its functionality and extended core functionality to be more representative of what a nonprofit or a government organization needs.”
Over the years, the Tangicloud offering, now called Fundamentals, followed Microsoft’s technology path into the Cloud. This commitment requires Tangicloud to publish each application version to remain compatible with Microsoft’s latest releases.
Today, Fundamentals helps customers to:
- Reduce the burden on IT by moving software to the Cloud.
- Support common web clients, tablets and phones.
- Keep systems up to date in cadence with Microsoft’s monthly release cycle.
- Benefit from Tangicloud’s commitment to “Customer Driven Innovation” to future-proof investments in Business Central
“If you looked at our software product, you would think Microsoft built a nonprofit application as opposed to a generic accounting system,” says Potts.
However, as demand for Business Central burgeoned and customer requirements mushroomed, Tangicloud needed additional resources to accelerate time-to-market and release new Apps while meeting Business Central Online’s exacting development standards.
Microsoft Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central (GP2BC)
The announcement in 2018 that Microsoft would not move Dynamics GP to the Cloud was a clear indicator for Tangicloud to reshape its development roadmap. Tangicloud realized at the 2018 Summit user conference that Dynamics GP partners would need a path to move their customers to Microsoft’s Cloud solution based on Business Central. Major partners like Enavate and Microsoft leaders in Denmark counseled Tangicloud to embrace the Universal Code initiative versus the less flexible “Embed-ISV” approach.
While this represented a major investment in R&D, Tangicloud realized that the best way to serve the nonprofit and government industries was to refactor its code to meet the needs of the Dynamics GP partner community. Potts views the on-premises GP solution as being “in a delicate state now. Microsoft is keeping it running but not doing much to enhance the software. That’s why we think there’s a home in Business Central for nonprofits who need to plan for the future.”
Enavate understands that with the Cloud, you always have more options and more iterations.
Additionally, the unique structure of nonprofits requires many stakeholders need to buy-in beyond the Executive Director/CEO and the head of IT. The reality of any nonprofit is that the board controls the purse strings. Government organizations face similar challenges related to fiscal accountability, which sometimes hinges on politics, making for a complex decision-making process when budgeting for big IT decisions.
“Part of the reason nonprofits don’t change software often is that many organizations must be fiscally prudent with the spending of their unrestricted funds. They don’t always have the unrestricted funds they need for administrative expenditures. As a result, nonprofits and NGOs are very conservative and likely hang onto a piece of software as long as possible. Better functionality, efficiency and technology are mission imperatives” – Steve Potts, President, Tangicloud
Solutions to Real-Life ISV Problems
Enavate and Tangicloud began their successful cooperation with Microsoft’s ISV Accelerate Program in 2020. Tangicloud selected Enavate as a Microsoft Development partner because of their Partner Services (EPS), as well as their Managed Services (EMS) divisions. Some of the key initiatives Enavate brought to the partnership with Tangicloud were:
- Piloting a GP2BC promotional program to lower the cost of transitioning a GP customer to the Business Central Cloud
- Developing a strategy to leverage the Microsoft Dataverse (common Data Model) to evangelize the benefits of the Microsoft Cloud strategy
- Developing a Power BI dashboard for nonprofits
- Build a specification for automated conversions of data from GP to Business Central
- Assistance in converting older embedded code to work in the Cloud for AppSource
The Enavate deployment team’s expertise in both Dynamics GP and Business Central quickly gained Tangicloud’s confidence. Understanding core functionality in Dynamics GP and how that would deploy in the new Cloud rollout brought real peace of mind to the Tangicloud team.
Tangicloud’s biggest concern was that the conversion from Dynamics GP to Business Central would create critical challenges for GP partners. Enavate’s expertise with both GP and Business Central applications plus their talented offshore development resources are huge benefits to Tangicloud’s successful implementation of a GP2BC strategy.
Enavate and Tangicloud: What’s Next for this Partnership?
True to the Enavate mission, these two organizations continue to develop a strong partnership to enable the GP2BC migration opportunity. In addition to offering continuing ISV support to the Tangicloud team, Enavate is working to help market the Tangicloud product to Enavate nonprofit clients, as well as help build an acceleration program to assist GP partners. It's a great match: Both organizations understand the Microsoft ecosystem and are invested in their efforts to impact the world.
Steve Potts summed up the partnership to evangelize Microsoft to the nonprofit community:
“What’s wonderful and unique about the collaboration with Enavate today is that a
nonprofit can subscribe to a Microsoft platform product. Meaning you're at the
lead of modern technology, you're at the head of the best quality software
because you're on a platform that everybody knows the world over. And on top of that,
with our product, you're getting software designed for the unique and challenging missions that nonprofits and governments have. It’s a huge leap forward. That's why we think that by helping partners in moving their customers from Dynamics GP to Fundamentals on Business Central, we’re doing them a great service.”
