Article

How far away is the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials train?

by James Crowter
Managing Director, Clever Dynamics
Train at a station

I listened to Paul White at Directions 2016 last year and his assurances that the Microsoft Dynamics NAV market as we knew it was not going away. Dynamics 365 for Financials was a different and new market segment that, while growing rapidly, would grow alongside the traditional NAV market. Paul had figures from IDC to show that the business we had now would grow 1% in 2019. This was all about owning both, was his message.

At that time I believed him, but as 2017 begins I'm starting to have my doubts. I'm wondering if the subscription loco is about to run us down much quicker and, by the end of 2017, be the dominant force in our market.

Lots of you will laugh and say I've been drinking too much over Christmas. After all, Microsoft has been telling us that online and subscription models are about to take over for at least five years now, and it's just not happened other than a very small percentage, has it? What makes this year any different?

So my hunch is based on what the customer will perceive about Microsoft's offerings. As the ones who ultimately spend the money, they want the maximum for the minimum, always have and always will. And looking from their perspective, I think that Dynamics 365 for Financials (D365F) is starting to transform into a proposition that's going to take a very significant share of their money, instead of Dynamics NAV, very soon.

Functionality   

No longer will NAV have the edge by having more functionality that D365...

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About James Crowter

I'm passionate about how businesses can improve their efficiency by getting process optimal more of the time. For the last twenty five years I've worked to help organisations of all sizes and types implement the ERP & CRM software that typically they decide they need when things are going wrong. I've seen that work unbelievably well and enabled those organisations to rapidly grow but I've also had some hard projects over that time where it's felt more like warfare at times.

Since 1996 (and version 1.01) I've been working with a small Danish product called Navision that's now become Microsoft's Dynamics NAV and I've also been using and consulting around Microsoft CRM since 2005. As managing Director of one of the longest established first Navision and now Microsoft Dynamics partners I've been involved in the complete history including numerous product councils and system design reviews. It's my privilege to know many of the key Microsoft executives and product designers and have insight into both where the products are now and their future direction.

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