Dynamics 365 Business Central: the evolution of Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 Business Central, the evolution of Dynamics GP, is the perfect ally for companies looking to modernize and optimize their operations. This business management system offers a complete set of integrated tools that span everything from finance to sales and customer service. With its cloud focus and adaptability, Business Central is the essential upgrade for improving business management.

The evolution of Microsoft's ERP

Over the years, Microsoft has made significant investments in major ERP companies such as Great Plains (GP) and Navision. GP earned praise and affection for its solid financial management, while Navision stood out for its strong customization and manufacturing capabilities. However, since they were built on different code bases, Microsoft set out to consolidate the best features of both, giving rise to a completely new product: the "Best cloud ERP for SMBs" (as cited by Forbes Advisor), Dynamics 365 Business Central. Let's look at how Microsoft's ERPs have evolved:

Advantages of taking the path from GP to Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central includes superior features, even surpassing some functionality found in Dynamics GP, making long-term investments pay off.

Let's explore how your company can benefit from BC:

Universal accessibility and ease of use

Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to be easily learned and used across different roles and departments within the company. Its intuitive interface ensures that different teams, including business owners, sales and marketing departments, accountants, finance directors and more, understand its functionality without the need for extensive training.

It lives in the Microsoft Azure cloud

The Microsoft Azure cloud hosts business tools and infrastructure on a secure online platform, ensuring scalability, reliability and compliance with data protection laws. Migrating to Dynamics 365 Business Central Online will give you access to the Azure cloud.

Full integration with Microsoft products

Dynamics 365 BC integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft business products, including Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook and Teams; Azure, Power Platform and the Dynamics 365 ecosystem. This integration forms a modernized end-to-end solution where all systems connect and communicate, reducing errors and time-consuming manual processes. This ensures operational efficiency, minimizes the need for multiple systems and, ultimately, saves you time and costs over the long term.

Flexible customization

Business Central provides graphical analytics and business intelligence tools to get a complete view of your organization, which supports decision-making. Customizing the system ensures adaptability to changing needs throughout the year. This inherent flexibility allows your team to make the necessary modifications independently, minimizing the associated costs.

Pricing and cost savings

Dynamics 365 Business Central has expanded pricing offerings, providing flexibility to adapt to your evolving business requirements. It is SaaS-based, which ensures a cost-effective approach by eliminating upfront infrastructure costs and offering a subscription model that aligns spending with usage, contributing to a more predictable and manageable cost structure over time.

In addition, consolidating your needs with a single vendor, as Dynamics 365 offers, means long-term cost savings thanks to streamlined support, maintenance and vendor management.

Greater data security

With approximately 20% of small businesses reporting cyberattacks and bearing an average cost of $21,000, growing threats pose an undeniable challenge. In particular, 82% of these ransomware attacks target small businesses. However, in the face of these challenges, Dynamics 365 Business Central emerges as a support, providing enhanced security measures that not only protect your data but also offer peace of mind, ensuring the long-term resilience of your business.

The latest version includes all updates, including Copilot.

Dynamics 365 Business Central continuously evolves with updates such as the latest AI wonder, Copilot, ensuring your system stays at the forefront and aligned with changing business needs, which has an impact on your bottom line. Microsoft is constantly rolling out Copilot improvements in Business Central. These improvements are designed to help your team work smarter with their ideas and suggestions.

Maximize your sales team's performance with Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 is built with sales teams in mind. It has tools that help reduce those heavy, time-consuming tasks, such as improving workflows, increasing data accuracy, getting more done and having a better view of all the information.

Optimize your workflows with the power of Copilot chat in Dynamics 365 BC

This feature lets you optimize your workflow with quick answers, task automation and creative insights. From speeding up month-end tasks to improving customer service, Copilot is your AI companion, helping you proactively overcome business challenges and improve overall efficiency.

If you want detailed information about Dynamics GP lifecycle policies, we recommend visiting the official Microsoft Learn page. There you will find everything you need to know about the modern and fixed lifecycle policies, including support dates, updates and other important details.

You can access this information by clicking the following link: Dynamics GP lifecycle policies