Executive Q&A: Why North American manufacturers are investing in Microsoft Dynamics 365

Manufacturing is an industry with many challenges, particularly in the highly competitive North American market. MSDW spoke with David Linton, a partner with BDO Canada, about industry trends and how manufacturers are investing in new technology to deal with concerns like a skills gap, the pressures to boost productivity, and the complexities of global competition.

MSDW: What are the big challenges you see among North American manufacturers and how can they be overcome?

David Linton: The two key challenges that North American manufacturers face are a skilled resource shortage and competition. To overcome the skills shortage North American manufacturers and distributors have to learn to be more productive with less staff. In addition to overcoming competition North American manufacturers need to be innovative, to offer what their competitors can't.

Would you say that the task of building an in-house solution has grown beyond what most companies are capable of due to security concerns?

Finding the right resources is tough, and mid-size organizations are having difficulties finding the right questions to ask. They require a higher level of expertise needed to keep their own on-premises servers and environments safe. Consider the phishing scams and all the viruses and the malware out there. The smaller the organization is, the less likely it is to be well protected.  There's just no way that the level of security that they have in their own in-house services and systems can match what Microsoft offers in Azure. If you look at the Microsoft Trust Center, you can see exactly what Microsoft offers. I would argue it's only large multinational ...