Microsoft offers a new way to model your next Azure-based Dynamics ERP solution

Trying to figure out the expected monthly costs to deploy Microsoft Dynamics ERP applications on the Azure cloud for a customer or prospect is typically no easy task. There will be questions, hypotheticals, and more questions - and they need to be answered quickly and with confidence. For a sales team working on their own, supplying these answers has often been challenging and time consuming.

But Microsoft's John Dooley has developed a tool to make Azure infrastructure decisions a whole lot easier to calculate and explain. It's called the Azure Modeler for Dynamics ERP (recently released in version 2) and it is a simple Excel spreadsheet that lets partners model their customers' current environments and compare these fixed costs with the dynamic costs for an Azure ERP deployment.

"This is a really nice way to show your customers the advantages of moving to the Azure cloud," Dooley said in a blog post. "We have received a ton of great feedback on V1 of the Azure Modeler for Dynamics ERP and added a few key requests and features."

In version 2 of the tool - developed with partner feedback - Dooley has added the ability to support Dynamics GP, NAV and SL on the Settings tab. It provides options to position and sell Dynamics ERP SPLA or perpetual, Azure and Office 365 for customers and prospects. Additionally, there are now some "handy new features" like a TCO (total cost of ownership) worksheet tab to help customers and prospects compare on-premise, online and other SaaS-based solutions.

The simple "Guide Me" questionnaire starts off the process to model varied options for ...