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If you haven’t read Part 1 where we discuss why it’s time to start looking for the Dynamics GP/SL off-ramp, please head over and check out that post. (We’ll wait.) If you are venturing on without reading it, well then, good on you for being so decisive!
In case you missed it amid our dire prognosis, we want to reiterate: Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL are great products. We’re not even going to qualify that with a “for their day”. They are still great products. In customization and configuration capabilities, 3rd party support, stability and maturity, they’re superior to leading cloud offerings (as of this writing). They have the knowledge and experience that comes from being old warhorses. You’re comfortable and familiar with them.
So, sure, opting for cloud-based solutions is going to cause some pain in the near term. But sticking with Dynamics GP/SL will cause you greater pain in the long term. The longer you wait, the more pain you’ll feel, and this pain isn’t just the typical “technical debt” we developers always talk about.
Not All Ecosystems Are Created Equal
Microsoft’s new-look financial solutions, Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and Dynamics 365 Business Central, aren’t just a webified version of what you already have.
In some ways they do more! Great!
In other ways they do staggeringly less! That’s ALSO GREAT! (Now, wait, hear us out.)
Dynamics GP and SL have to be everything to everyone, complete, standalone solutions. They need to be great at reporting, great at data import/export, great at accessibility. Is it really possible to excel at so many things that are peripheral to your core purpose?
Cloud solutions, on the other hand, are able to laser focus on what they need to be good at, eschewing all other responsibilities to their complementary and tightly integrated cloud brethren.
Business Central doesn’t NEED to be great at reporting because PowerBI is also a part of the suite.
Finance and Operations doesn’t NEED a great business rules engine because Microsoft Flow is so tightly integrated.
Instead of being all things to all people, true cloud-based financial solutions can focus on their core competencies, while letting other leading solutions seamlessly do their jobs. It’s the hallmark of civilized society: division of labor. We’re getting more specialized all the time, and so are our tools.
With Dynamics 365, you get the best of all worlds without the big, expensive integration initiative. Since these products are part of the same cloud suite, you don’t have to constantly keep integrating or upgrading them. It happens behind the scenes as part of your monthly subscription fee.
You get the best reporting/business intelligence engine, best document storage solutions, best business process engine. All the bests, tightly integrated, constantly working to make themselves and each other stronger.
The short-term pain is worth it.
Break Down the Silos!
All these integrated solutions offer another big benefit: the walls between your internal departments can come crashing down – if, when, and how you choose.
You no longer have to be captive to a business process that starts and ends with Finance. You are free to create a business process that truly encompasses the life-cycle of the work you do, embracing the interplay of people, products, solutions and departments.
The right hand finally knows what all the other hands are doing, and everyone gets more insight, automation and control.
You can digest reports and business intelligence drawn from all the information you are permitted to access, enterprise-wide, not just what’s in your department’s database. Making smart business decisions is so much easier when you’re looking at the whole picture.
Minimize Downtime + Disruptions
Remember that “division of labor” thing? You aren’t in the infrastructure business, nor should you be.
With your new cloud-based financial solution, upgrades, hosting, patching, backups and all the rest are handled by Microsoft. Just as Dynamics 365 products focus on their core competencies, you get to focus on yours.
You get more focused; tech vendors get more comprehensive
It used to be so easy to be a software guru. All independent software vendors (ISVs) had to do was learn a single product like Dynamics GP or Dynamics SL, and then they could go peddle their wares around town.
Not anymore.
Today’s enterprise solutions are a cocktail of complementary products and services curated to meet individual companies’ needs – based on their as-is and to-be requirements. (They’ll grow with you.) Many of these solutions offer similar capabilities. For example, do you manage tasks in Dynamics 365? Planner? OneNote? Outlook? SharePoint? How did you choose? Might one of the alternatives better fit your business process?
Enterprise resource planning has changed dramatically over the last decade. Traditional financial system ISVs who are just coming to this daunting realization are hurting. They have a steep hill to climb; lots of knowledge and experience to gain in a short amount of time. It’s like having to read all the Harry Potter books by the end of the month versus reading one a year since middle school. That’s a lot of magic . . . and so are the Dynamics 365 cloud offerings!
Our MINDs have always been comprehensive
Like the original Potterheads, we’ve been reading along since day one. For over 30 years, Mind Over Machines has been at the forefront of building and working within tightly integrated ecosystems. We’ve had front row seats to the evolution of Dynamics 365. Now we’re fresh off learning Finance & Operations and Business Central. We’re intimately acquainted with all the puzzle pieces, and we know the many different ways they can fit together.
It’s scary to let go of the old ways, especially when it comes to how you manage your money. But when you opt for Platform as a Service, you don’t just get a better way to track your finances, you get an integrated system for working smarter. Best of all, someone else handles the infrastructure.
Ready to pull the trigger? Think of us as artisans behind a fully stocked bar. We work with you to create the craft cocktail of cloud products that best complements your business.
