DYNAMICS 365 PRIME TIME
I am often asked if Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is ready for prime-time and if customers are buying it. My response is a definitive yes, and customers are buying it. At the Microsoft Inspire Conference last month, I heard (unofficially) that 3,000 customers have purchased Business Central since its launch. 95% of these are net-new customers who aren’t replacing a current Dynamics solution. Given this, Business Central is the FASTEST Cloud-based ERP solution to ever go to market. Yes, customers are buying it. The product is incredibly feature-rich and can help Small and Mid-Size companies achieve most of their business requirements. The excitement of this solution is centered around the marketplace of ISVs (third party solutions). Microsoft AppSource, the home to most of these solutions, continues to grow every day. Last week I was in a demo showing a customer AppSource and there were 380 solutions; today there are over 390. Every day Microsoft is approving new solutions to go to market. Each one provides additional value to the customers using Business Central. Several factors are key when selecting a partner. It is important for them to know not only Business Central, but also be familiar with other ways to solve your business challenges. Typically, partners will build it or buy it to solve the problem, especially when the main solution can’t solve it for you.
BUSINESS CENTRAL FAVORITES IN APPSOURCE
I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of my favorite Business Central solutions in AppSource. They are always adding new ones, but there seems to be a core few we talk about a lot more with our prospects and clients:
1. Scaptify
This is a great connector for customers using Shopify as their eCommerce platform. So many small and mid-size companies rely on Shopify now and this is an easy way to move inventory, customers and sales information between Business Central and Shopify.
2. Multi-Entity Management
This solution has always been incredibly popular with our Dynamics GP customers. If you need to consolidate many business transactions from different companies into one entity, this solution is for you. MEM allows you to streamline intercompany transactions and centralizes the processing of purchase orders, receipts, payroll, invoices and more.
3. Jet Reports
This is another solution that is very popular with our Dynamics GP customers. It provides the ability to have advanced operational and financial reporting inside of Microsoft Excel. Drag and drop data from any table allows you to eliminate errors and decrease risk.
4.Zetadocs Expenses
Many customers are looking at ways to handle expense reports. This fully integrated solution allows you to have better management of credit cards, fast & accurate reimbursement and provides a simple way to manage business mileage. This is a great replacement for expense management tools not yet integrated into Business Central.
5. AvaTax by Avalara
Although some people don’t, EVERYONE needs to worry about sales tax compliance. This is yet another great solution that many of our Dynamics GP and AX/D365FO clients use. Using the AvaTax bypasses the native rate table functionality, and increases calculation accuracy across more than 16,000 jurisdictions. If needed, Avalara can also handle your cumbersome tax filing.
6. SmartConnect by eOne
This solution is not in AppSource but is one of my favorite solutions used by many of our Dynamics GP clients. This online toolset is used to integrate anything into D365. This includes Business Central to D365CE, to FTP sites, to files on a server, and even to Salesforce.com. Our customers have had to bring in data and share with many different solutions. SmartConnect.com can handle it all. It often helps drive down the cost of some complex integrations, too.
7. Shop Floor Insight
This solution is not for everyone. But it is THE solution for anyone that has a manufacturing plant needing to eliminate manual time entry. Adding barcode scanning to Production Orders, Jobs, Service Orders, and Fixed Assets eliminates errors and improves shop floor efficiencies. In addition to this solution, Insight Works has many more solutions to assist in your warehouse or manufacturing environments.
TRY FOR YOURSELF
As you continue your journey of implementing, using or shopping for Dynamics 365 Business Central and you think the out of the box functionality may not completely solve your challenges, remember to evaluate the solutions inside of Microsoft AppSource. If the above solutions interest you, or any other of the 390+ available, reach out to us. We will be glad to let you know our thoughts and/or set up meetings with the companies behind the extended solutions and be there for you. Reach out to us and schedule a meeting with a member of our Business Central team.