Microsoft’s Business solution offering has recently taken another turn in branding and product strategy. Over the last 10 years Dynamics NAV has evolved into one of the most popular business solutions on the market. However Microsoft has not stopped there, during recent years Microsoft have focused heavily into its hosted solutions such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365 with the aim of bringing its entire business offering together under one integrated package. You may have seen or even use Dynamics 365 Business Edition.
Business Edition was Microsoft first attempt at bringing its solutions online, and as with all first attempts this was achieved with limited success. Bringing together functionality from Dynamics NAV and Dynamics CRM, Business Edition’s aim was to give business all the tools needed to run any number of businesses.
Microsoft has now gone a step further having learnt from the experience and introduced Dynamics 365 Business Central.
So what is Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Business Central, released in April 2018 offers a full Azure hosted version of the Dynamics NAV application with low-cost subscription licensing. Dynamics 365 Business Central is hosted by Microsoft. Microsoft hosting is a recent development, but the actual application behind the product has the same code-base as the on-premise version of NAV so it’s not that recent from a functional point of view. Delivered as a SaaS ERP system, it is offered as a more economical cloud based application developed and hosted on Microsoft’s cloud service Azure. Dynamics 365 Business Central provides functionality in finance, procurement, sales and inventory and is intended as a cloud based solution designed for companies with between one to five users who want a small implementation to replace or to migrate upwards from applications such as Xero, Sage 50 and Quickbooks. For larger organisations requiring an ERP solution which can be integrated with other business software and can be customised to meet specific operational requirements, Dynamics NAV is still available as an on premise solution.
Business Central offers terrific value by integrating with other Microsoft cloud services, including Office 365, and can be customized or extended for specific industry needs with PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, and Power BI.
Microsoft Announcement
Business Central has two specific modules: Essentials and Premium – and includes:
- Financial Management
- Project Management
- Sales and Service
- Reporting and Analytics
- Supply Chain Management
Dynamics 365 Business Central offers:
- Business without silos: Unify your business, and boost efficiency with automated tasks and workflows—all integrated within familiar Office tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel.
- Actionable insights: Achieve greater outcomes and gain a complete view of your business with connected data, business analytics, and guidance delivered by Microsoft’s leading intelligent technologies.
- Solutions built to evolve: Start quickly, grow at your own pace and adapt in real time with a flexible platform that makes it easy to extend Business Central based on your changing business needs.
Synergy Technology is an accredited Microsoft reseller and Dynamics NAV specialist. Our talented team can guide you and support you on the most suitable ERP solution from the options available from Microsoft to build the best fit for your business. For further advice and information please contact Synergy Technology on 0345 456 0050.
Read our BLOG on Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 : Understanding the differences to learn more about the ERP options available.
