Article

How ERP buyers will approach Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - and what it means for resellers

by Michael Hartmann
CEO, QBS group,

"Finally!" was one of the reactions I heard stated by one of the QBS partners  during the latest QBShare event in Denmark when Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 Business Central. Not only was the launch long anticipated, it's taken us on a twisting, turning journey with more than a few bumps along the way.

It started with the launch of an unfinished  first version of Dynamics 365 Business Edition in most European countries, leading to a discussion anticipating how we might position the NAV platform vs. Dynamics 365 for current NAV customers. In the early days, that path was unclear at best.

With the latest announcement, we are now looking forward to working with the new platform that Business Central represents, now knowing that it is not just cloud enabled, it is actually developed from the ground up to be the SaaS platform for Dynamics in small and medium businesses. Microsoft will keep a dual strategy, allowing the partner and customer to choose respectively on-premises (Dynamics NAV 2018) or a cloud deployment.

Now that the product has become available, the question is how fast will customers adopt Dynamics 365 Business Central? I would argue that a few basic rules of the business application market haven't changed, even when an ERP solution is developed and deployed for cloud.

My first reason  is that existing customers have customizations on their current ERP platforms. Migrating these capabilities will take time and investment by capable partners.

Secondly, customers want to work with an ERP solution that has industry capabilities  and they need to mirror business processes that reflect the specifics of their industry.

Last but not least, selling, configuring, deploying, and supporting an ERP ...

FREE Membership Required to View Full Content:

Joining MSDynamicsWorld.com gives you free, unlimited access to news, analysis, white papers, case studies, product brochures, and more. You can also receive periodic email newsletters with the latest relevant articles and content updates.
Learn more about us here

Get full access
Business Central Dynamics 365 Dynamics GP Dynamics NAV Dynamics SL Tenerife
About Michael Hartmann

As Chief Executive Officer at QBS group, I am responsible for the overall strategy and P&L at QBS group. I have a long background with Microsoft, where I had different leadership positions in Sales and Marketing. But I always had strong connection into the Small and Medium Business and the partners that serve these customers. Before joining QBS group, I was the global lead for Microsoft Dynamics SMB partners and prior to that, I was responsible for Microsoft's SMB sales and marketing in the European, Middle East and Africa Timezone.

What made me join QBS group is the clear focus to make our partners more successful. We are passionate to make our partners drive stronger revenue results, while supporting them to lower their cost. The QBS team across Europe is working hand in hand to make this promise come true.

More about Michael Hartmann