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MSDW Podcast: Rod O’Connor on a year of SaaS ERP with Dynamics 365 for SMBs

by Jason Gumpert
Editor, MSDynamicsWorld.com

Rod O'Connor, CEO and founder of Briware Solutions, has been taking stock of a year living with SaaS business applications, both for his own company and some clients. Rod is an ERP and accounting software veteran based in Ontario and who has been a reseller and user of of Dynamics GP for many years. But last year he tried something different - he migrated his own business from GP to what was then known as Dynamics 365 Financials, now known as Finance and Operations Business Edition, and soon it's likely to have yet another brand name.

Rod talks to us about what the adoption of SaaS has meant for his company, what it will mean for other SMB VARs who are still entrenched in the on-prem ERP world, and the evolution of Dynamics 365 and its add-on solution market so far.

Show notes:

  • 4:00 - Transitioning from on-prem GP servers to a SaaS solution
  • 7:50 - Adjusting as D365FOB product has evolved.
  • 10:20 - Seeing features appear in a SaaS app at unexpected times
  • 11:30 - D365FOB as part of Briware's expansion, and how its constantly expanding feature set changes the potential market space.
  • 15:00 - Experiences and best practices today for integrating D365FOB and the (enterprise) Sales app.
  • 16:45 - How to investigate new add-on apps for D365FOB
  • 22:20 - How Rod's outlook has changed on traditional ERP-related services that go away in a SaaS world.
  • 25:00 - What to look forward to in the D365FOB roadmap as Tenerife approaches.
  • 26:40 - Could a traditional GP firm evolve to support Tenerife/NAV?
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About Jason Gumpert

As the editor of MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason oversees all editorial content on the site and at our events, as well as providing site management and strategy. He can be reached at jgumpert@msdynamicsworld.com.

Prior to co-founding MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason was a Principal Software Consultant at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), where he implemented solutions, trained customers, managed software development, and spent some time in the pre-sales engineering organization. He has also held consulting positions at CSC Consulting and Monitor Group.

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