DYNAMICS GP Smbs: Is Moving to Business Central Worth It? CONTENT

WHITE PAPER DYNAMICS GP SMBs: Is Moving to Business Central Worth It? CONTENT

4 Hosting

4 Remote Work

5 Key Advantages of Business Central

6 Continued Support

7 The Right Choice

7 Future-Proof Your Business Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has drawn a wide range of reactions from the Dynamics GP community. Some GP businesses are leaping to make the change. Some are planning it out slowly and carefully. Others are worried about being forced into a change they don’t want.

Microsoft has made it clear: Dynamics GP is not going away. Happy GP users can continue thriving with their current ERP without having to worry about losing key functionality or support.

Many Dynamics GP companies are eager for the new features and technology of Business Central, but are cautious about the cost and complexity of a new implementation—to say nothing of Business Central’s compatibility with their other existing systems.

How do the two systems compare? Is upgrading worth it? Let’s take a look.

k-ecommerce.com | [email protected] 3 Hosting With Dynamics GP, you have the option of installing your ERP on-premise, or using Microsoft’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) where they host your server(s) on the cloud (Microsoft Azure).

On-premise hosting is expensive upfront ($5,000 USD for 3 users), and entails fees of 16-18% per year. An on-premise installation also means regular server upgrades every few years, incurring additional costs, complications and risks.

A subscription service on the cloud lets you avoid these hassles, in addition to offering greater security, performance and availability. However, the IaaS subscription is not included with the purchase of Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Dynamics 365 Business Central, by contrast, is built for the cloud. Cloud hosting is the default option with a new implementation (although on-premise is available, should you want it). The subscription licencing is per-user, which means no large capital investment just to get your team online.

Remote Work It’s also worth noting that cloud hosting is the best choice for remote work, which has become increasingly important with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, even an on-premise implementation of Dynamics GP has remote working capabilities. Your staff can access your servers either through a VPN connection or an internet-facing ERP installation.

With a cloud installation, however, remote work becomes as simple as just logging onto a web page from any browser or device.

k-ecommerce.com | [email protected] 4 Key Advantages of

EASY TO Business Central CONFIGRURE In addition to the factors we’ve discussed here, business owners who do switch to Dynamics 365 Business Central often cite one or more of the following Business Central benefits:

»» It’s easy for your staff to configure their own dashboards in Business Central without having to resort to third-party addons or ERP consultants. SMOOTHER COLLABORATION »» Business Central’s project accounting (or “jobs”) feature enables much smoother collaboration between finance and operations teams. DATA »» The dimensional chart of accounts in Business Central ANALYSIS allows for deeper and more robust reporting than Dynamics GP can offer. ROBUST »» Data analysis capabilities in Business Central are faster, REPORTING more flexible, and more thorough.

»» Business Central’s per-user subscription plan is more cost- COST efficient year-over-year than Dynamics GP. EFFICIENT

»» The mobile-enabled Business Central app allows for cross- platform access from any device, anywhere, at any time. MOBILE- By contrast, Dynamics GP notably features payroll processing, ENABLED which Business Central does not include. Dynamics GP users also report satisfaction with GP’s human resources, manufacturing, and service management capabilities.

k-ecommerce.com | [email protected] 5 Continued Support As of Microsoft’s October 2019 update, Dynamics GP has moved to a Modern Lifecycle Policy. This means that, as long as Dynamics GP users keep current with their license, acceptance of terms and technological requirements, service and support for Dynamics GP will be continuous and ongoing.

Again: Dynamics GP isn’t going away.

Nevertheless, with Microsoft’s emphasis on the Dynamics 365 platform, it is virtually certain that in most cases, major functionality and performance upgrades will reach Business Central before they come to GP.

So if you are counting on specific tech improvements for GP in the near future, you should consult Microsoft’s Dynamics GP roadmap to help you determine if it’s worth the wait.

k-ecommerce.com | [email protected] 6 The Right Choice As you can see, there’s no clear-cut answer when it comes to upgrading from Dynamics GP to Business Central.

Dynamics 365 Business Central has deep, versatile and powerful data-driven technology adapted to the modern workplace, and is particularly well- suited to remote work.

The intricacies of updating complex systems, however, coupled with the high-level overlap of functionality as well as certain GP-specific benefits like payroll management, make Dynamics GP the right choice for many SMBs.

The bottom line is, you shouldn’t upgrade because At k-eCommerce, we have been developing you feel like you have to. Dynamics GP remains a e-commerce and digital payment solutions formidable system that is more than up to the specifically for the Microsoft Dynamics suite for task of managing complex business processes. more than 20 years. We design our ERP-integrated Nevertheless, for any number of reasons, you systems with the specific goal of future-proofing may still decide to upgrade in the future. our clients’ businesses.

For instance, k-eCommerce Integrated Payment, Future-Proof Your our new cloud-based invoice payment and transaction processing service, integrates natively Business to Dynamics GP. With upcoming support for As such, you should be on the lookout for third- Business Central, you will be able to upgrade your party solutions that are designed to work with ERP at any time and rely on the same seamless both Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 Business connectivity to your digital payment solution. Central. After all, the whole purpose of upgrading your ERP in the first place should be to make your business life easier.

k-ecommerce.com | [email protected] 7 About Us Contact Us k-eCommerce is mdf commerce’s platform for CANADA SMBs, providing all-in-one ecommerce and digital payment solutions integrated to Microsoft Montréal 666 Boul. St-Martin Ouest, Suite 330 Dynamics and SAP Business One. k-eCommerce Laval, Québec H7M 5G4 simplifies and accelerates online growth, offering a complete omnichannel ecommerce solution +1 514 973-2510 supporting both B2B and B2C engagement. 1 855 532-6663 [email protected] www.k-ecommerce.com

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