Article

Does Microsoft Dynamics GP Scale?

by Mark Polino
Director of Client Services, Fastpath, Integrated Business Group
August 09 2012

It's can be a pretty scary jump in terms of costs and time to move from something like QuickBooks to a robust, mid-tier solution like Microsoft Dynamics GP. Any implementation can be disruptive to a business, so companies want to know that they are going to be able to leverage their investment for a long time. They want to know, "does GP scale?" 

I do a lot of work with enterprise size companies using Dynamics GP. These are companies with annual revenues in hundreds of millions to low billions. At that level, it's not unusual for companies to hire executives who have experience with tier 1 solutions like SAP or Oracle. The funny thing is that many of them have a similar question, "will GP scale?"

I'm happy to tell you that the answer is yes.  I get questions about fairly complex topics like switching to standard cost for inventory, purchase price variances, and every kind of reporting imaginable. I get a lot of surprised looks when I tell people exactly how Dynamics GP handles their particular issue.  

The upcoming release of Dynamics GP will only add to its scalability. The upcoming web client should allow Dynamics GP to better scale out. Improvements to areas like distribution and fixed assets will help GP scale up and cloud based pricing lets the power of GP scale down.

Given the growth of Dynamics GP to better server wider markets there are some areas that were great when introduced but now they need some work to keep up with GP's growth. A couple of the items that come to mind include: 

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About Mark Polino

Mark Polino is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a former Microsoft MVP (2007-2018) for Business Solutions. He is the author or coauthor of 5 books related to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Mark also maintains the Dynamics GP focused website DynamicAccounting.net. He speaks and writes regularly about ERP related topics. Mark has been a controller and CFO for a division of a publicly traded company and he has  worked as a consultant implementing ERP solutions. Mark holds additional certifications including Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) , Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Dynamics Credentialed Professional for Dynamics GP 2015 (Core Install and Core Financials), Xero Certified. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Rollins College. Mark lives with his family in Florida.

More about Mark Polino
Renier
Submitted by rvdmerwe001 on Wed, 08/15/2012 - 10:29 Permalink
We have successfully used Microsoft Dynamics GP for nearly a decade in a company of 7,000 employees with turnover in excess of $1bn. Average transaction value is low leading to huge transaction volumes being processed through the system on a 24x7 basis. The product has met the operational requirements of our business for extraordinarily low costs. Alternatives like Dynamics AX, SAP etc. is frequently considered but to date none of the alternatives could offer significant benefits withouth inflating costs significantly and besides, our solution is stable.
David
Submitted by davidj on Fri, 08/17/2012 - 02:51 Permalink
I have been involved in implementing GP in companies at the upper end of the typical target market and it has consistently delivered a successful solution at a very low cost. Most of these installations have looked at AX but have not been able to find the cost justification at upgrading the installation and even often find the functionality to be lacking. The only features that most tier 1 solutions have handled better for businesses of this size are multi-currency and record locking. The question of manufacturing is not clear as different business have very different requirements. GP always wins top points for its ease of use and simple user interface with great tools for the end user. It frequently beats its competitors in this area. It is a great solution, long may it live!
lisa
Submitted by lbaergen on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 13:19 Permalink
You should check out this interview with Justin West, SR. Director of Finance for the largest multi-speciality dental group in the Northwest. He has more than 50 dental locations and 300,000 patients. He talks about how he replaced Oracle for Dynamics GP, and his experience with consolidating his multiple databases into one fully integrated database and how that saved him $70,000 per year using GP and Multi-Entity Management. You mention that native is always better than third party, but there IS an issue – and we have a solution. We are one of those ISVs that provide a fully and seamlessly integrated solution for organizations with multiple entities wanting to scale using Dynamics GP in the native dexterity.. Our Multi-Entity Management Solution is fully and seamlessly integrated with GP, extending GPs functionality, not sitting on top of it. MEM allows organizations to scale with GP at a much lower TCO… As Justin mentions in this interview, “MEM customized our overall solution to extend functionality to meet our complex needs. From our perspective, our complete solution IS under one umbrella. All entities work seamlessly together and the service and support we receive is first rate.” http://bit.ly/OCXEiz