At some point, every company needs to evaluate if the business system that got them where they are today, is going to continue getting them where they want to go into the future. Your business may be outgrowing your current Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP) solution and you’re considering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC). But do you have some misgivings about BC because of all the conflicting opinions you’re coming across?
We’ve rounded up some common Business Central myths and the truths behind them to help put your mind at ease and lay out all the facts to make your next step a clearer one.
Myth 1: Business Central doesn’t have the functionality needed to run my business compared to GP:
You may be comfortable with your current Dynamics GP situation to provide the features you need, but with many of the companies on Dynamics GP are moving (if they haven’t already) to Business Central, meaning that the breadth of BC’s functionality is ever-growing. Microsoft is constantly investing in further enhancing Business Central, incorporating most requested features to ensure the product delivers the functionality that businesses need.
Myth 2: Business Central is the more expensive option
The real savings occur when taking advantage of Microsoft’s cloud platform to eliminate your internal spend for infrastructure and resources. With an on-premise setup, you are responsible for the costs of maintaining backups, maintenance, and security. When you move to the cloud, then you no longer need to pay your IT team to complete these upgrades, as those responsibilities are shifted to Microsoft. Also with Business Central, you pay for what you need, and scale up or down as needed.
Microsoft’s ‘Bridge to Cloud’ promotion lets existing Dynamics GP customers renew their Enhancement on a monthly basis and receive Dynamics 365 Business Central online licenses at a 60% discounted price for up to four years. Customers who enroll in this promotion can continue to use their on-premises GP in parallel with Business Central online while maintaining Enhancement benefits on their on-premises license throughout the promo term.
MYTH 3: My business isn’t secure in the cloud
Dynamics GP was architected over 20 years ago as an on-premise accounting system – one that sits on a server supporting people within the four walls of a business. It was never envisioned that people would need to access sensitive information from remote. Microsoft’s more modern cloud-based accounting and ERP platform, Business Central comes with in-built Cloud Security to protect all your cloud-based services, applications, programs, technology, and provide threat management.
It is tightly integrated into productivity tools like Office 365, MS Teams, and Power BI reporting with native hooks and integration. It’s built to run on any device from any location without impediment. It’s built with a security-first architecture so there is no risk of malware or ransomware intrusion which is on the rise in small to mid-sized businesses. Workers are now knowledge workers and need good insights to make data-driven decisions. This information needs to happen in real-time on-demand. Cloud architecture supports all of this.
MYTH 4: Business Central is harder and more expensive to maintain
Like Dynamics GP, Dynamics 365 Business Central has regular major updates. The difference is, with Business Central, Microsoft automatically pushes out regular bug fixes and updates, included in your monthly licensing fee (can you hear your IT team’s sigh of relief?). Most updates take place overnight, with major updates happening twice a year. For more significant changes, Business Central provides a sandbox environment so you can safely test, train, or troubleshoot without disturbing your company’s work processes or business data.
Myth 5: Business Central is only for large businesses
This is less true for BC than it was for GP. The cloud subscription makes BC even more affordable for smaller businesses, without the cost of multiple servers, infrastructure maintenance, and implementations. And BC has a lot of features that can be customized to meet your business needs.
Myth 6: Business Central is a simple upgrade from Dynamics GP
If you’ve done this before, you know that moving from one system to another isn’t as easy as it sounds on the surface. And even though you are moving from one Microsoft product to another, you’re going between two completely different platforms. Thus, you may not necessarily be able to shift your data across in a simple click, but with a good partner can make it a pain-free process.
Partner with the Experts
Customers have countless options when evaluating which partner to work with on their BC implementation. As indicated, BC is a rich and deep ecosystem, and you may want to consider a partner who has experience migrating GP to BC, implementing BC, and providing support, as well as their pricing models.
SMB Suite’s one-price approach means there are no upfront fees, and not only does it include the hardware, but we are also responsible for the backups, data management security, emergency services, product upgrades. And don’t forget unlimited support, if you ever have any questions or concerns at all, we’re just a phone call away. Read more about our All-in-One price offering.
SMB Suite has over 30 years of experience as a Microsoft partner and has been deploying in the cloud for 20 years. We offer Microsoft ERP solutions so that our customers can grow with us using the best of breed software on the market.
At SMB Suite we’re committed to growing with you. As your business expands, we’ll help you uncover the solutions best suited to your business needs. We support Business Central with our trademark customer-first, with a problem-solving attitude that has made us the partner of choice for growing businesses across the country.
To learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, give us a call at 866-956-1636 or reach out to our sales team.