MSDW Podcast: Microsoft Dynamics GP to Business Central Upgrades Thoughts, Ep.1

Microsoft has noticeably ramped up efforts to offer a path for its on-premises SMB ERP customers on Dynamics NAV, GP, and SL to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Some technical tools already exist to help migrate data to the cloud, and there is a roadmap for more to come. And Business Central partners are armed with favorable licensing conversions and special offers for these existing customers.  While many SMB ERP customer will be well suited to a future Business Central solution, others will be best served looking elsewhere. Staying in the Microsoft family, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is the logical option for organizations with multi-company, multi-currency, or other complex needs that their current ERP is struggling to fulfill. Some may end up looking at other third party options.

Our guests on this episode, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics, walk us through some of the reasons today's on-premises SMB ERP customer may be tomorrow's SaaS enterprise ERP customer - or not.

Show Notes:

• 2:00 - Karen's background in the ERP channel
• 3:00 - On being challenged to think about more than just Business Central for today's GP customers
• 5:00 - When a GP customer should stay on GP
• 7:45 - Microsoft's advantage by improving GP to BC cloud migrations
• 11:00 - The importance of master data cleanup
• 14:00 - Why GP customers may not be aware of the extent of the customization and ISV add-on solutions in their ERP
• 18:30 - Consolidating legacy systems
• 20:30 - Why leaving GP ought to be a move to the cloud in some form - whether BC, F&O, or another

See also: Peter and Karen's new article on the options that GP customers can consider when evaluating their on-premises GP solution's future.