10 Reasons to upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics
NAV to Business Central by 2023
Microsoft Dynamics NAV, an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software has helped innumerable businesses with the capacity and capabilities they needed to run a successful business. Business Central is designed keeping in mind the need of SMBs/SMEs to integrate Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, Reporting & Analytics, Workflow, Barcode Scanning, and e-commerce seamlessly. It comes with modern technology, customized features, and a more agile interface than NAV. It is stacked with advanced financials, robust reporting tools, and functionality that spans the entire organization.
We understand that it’s difficult for companies to change the way they have been operating for years. Some organizations have been procrastinating the switch from NAV to Dynamics 365 BC because they are worried about delays during implementation, the associated costs, and business disruptions. There is also quite a bit of misinformation out there about moving from NAV to Dynamics 365 BC. This post aims to eliminate all misconceptions and demonstrate that an upgrade is in your long-term business interest.
Ten Benefits of moving from NAV to Business Central
1. Support is Ending
Microsoft’s product fixed lifecycle policy is to support a solution for 10 years from its release date for the following two categories:
Mainstream support: Product receives new features or enhancements, updates on security, and any fixes identified
Extended support: The product receives only security updates
Support Milestones for NAV and Business Central
As seen here, mainstream support for all NAV versions (except NAV 2018) has already ended
2. Subscription
NAV is based on licensing fee which does not allow for adding and removing of users as and when required. Business Central has a subscription option allowing companies greater control over adding/removing users per month, thus saving costs. Microsoft’s Bridge to cloud offer allows customers under on-premise (perpetual) NAV Licensing model to seamlessly move to BC on SaaS (subscription) and get a good discount on subscription for 3 to 4 years.
3. Seamless Integration
Upgraded ERP or Microsoft Dynamics Business Central is built in a modular fashion and integrates natively with other Microsoft tools such as other Dynamics 365 business applications, Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365, secured multi-factor Authentication, BI tools, reporting, etc. This is not the case with an on-premise installation of Dynamics.
4. Easy Upgrades
Dynamics 365 BC is upgraded automatically by Microsoft twice a year. Your organization will always be operating on the latest secure version. Microsoft manages all the underlying hardware and Software- meaning as a company you focus on your core business & stop worrying about missing an update or what impact the update will have on your system.
5. Reduced Hardware Requirement
D365 BC being cloud-based, is accessible on any device, anywhere, and anytime. There’s also no further investment in hardware, servers, and maintenance agreements. The back ups are taken automatically. Microsoft’s 3,500 cyber-security professionals are constantly protecting, detecting, and responding to cyber threats. This comes as a big relief since data security is top-of-mind for most organizations.
6. New Features & Apps
Many new functionalities and the next level of Microsoft 365 integration is available in Business Central, enhancing user experience and work efficiency. Forecasts, image detection, and intelligent insights are only some of these new functionalities. With Microsoft AppSource in place, new apps and add-ons are being added regularly, expanding the functionality of Business Central even further. Being able to easily access applications from AppSource or being able to quickly integrate a process using API is something that is not as easy on the Dynamics NAV on-premise versions.
7. Scalability
With on-premise ERP, there would be a lot of time spent on discussing how to reduce downtime, increase capacity and be able to scale on demand. With Business Central there is no worry about the platform scaling as it’s Microsoft’s responsibility. With a SaaS-based ERP, growth will not be a daunting task.
8. Sophisticated Reporting
Improved reporting and automation tools via Power BI and Jet Reports, and Excel add-ins enable BC to produce fast, flexible financial and business reporting. Machine learning and AI support equipment monitoring, forecasting, and more accurate and timely data.
9. Seamless Migration of Historical Data
With a subscription fee per user per month, you save on high upfront Capex and preserve your cash
Cloud-based Business Central reduces IT infrastructure costs
10. Reduced Costs
From any of the earlier NAV versions, data can be seamlessly migrated to Business Central. With this customers can go live on any day and need not be a month beginning.
Conclusion
With the coming together of efficient business process requirement, technology advancement, and pricing incentives, now is the time to move to Dynamics 365 Business Central.