7 Fast Ways to Transform Your Business with Dynamics 365 Author
You’ve likely heard of Microsoft Dynamics 365, but are you wondering what it means for your organization? Select the Dynamics 365 product that fits your organization whether Dynamics 365 Business Central or Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement for CRM. Microsoft provides several options that can meet your needs. How does it compare to other ERP solutions? Why move to Dynamics 365? This article highlights seven ways Dynamics 365 will transform the way you work while delivering a rapid return on investment.
1. Eliminate IT Costs
Every business is looking for ways to save money without sacrificing performance, and Dynamics 365 delivers from day one. By deploying your ERP in a Microsoft Azure Cloud, you can quickly eliminate several IT costs including hardware, support, and maintenance. With Microsoft’s industry best security, privacy and compliance standards and 99.9% uptime guarantee, you are assured your data is secure and readily available from anywhere in the world. Some Microsoft competitors offer a 99.5% SLA guarantee which seems comparable, but could mean up to 4 hours of production downtime in a month. This could have a major impact on any business. If you are a global organization, you will appreciate the ability to host your ERP solution on Azure in virtually any data center in any country.
2. Scalable, Predictable Licensing
Licensing is a major expense for any ERP solution, so moving to the subscription-based Dynamics 365 licensing structure is a welcome change for most organizations. This enables you to establish a predictable monthly budget which is a big plus, but there are additional savings that come with it.
Your Dynamics 365 subscription fees include all maintenance and the ability to add and/or remove users and other subscriptions at any time. No more lost licensing fees if you scale down. In addition, Dynamics 365 introduces a “Team Member” license at a very affordable monthly cost which allows you to provide limited capabilities to users who don’t need the full range of ERP features or access. With D365FO specifically, there are additional user types such as Activity User and Devices.
3. Unmatched Office 365 Integration
If you use Office 365, no other ERP or CRM system can compete with Microsoft’s built-in integration. It’s a huge bonus when your employees can do their work in a familiar environment, often directly within their Office applications like Outlook and Excel. This not only saves time and improves productivity, it helps you overcome the biggest hurdle with ERP and CRM success – user adoption.
4. Seamless Third-party Integrations
Many apps have started to offer APIs for Dynamics 365 with sophisticated integration framework led by Web Services. You can connect to almost any third-party app without middleware or coding. Microsoft is currently working on taking the level of integration with Dynamics 365 to the next level with a common data model that standardizes data among applications.
5. Instant Mobility
Let’s face it, more business is being done outside the office walls than ever before. Dynamics 365 provides instant mobility. You simply download the client on any Android or iOS device and you can connect to any Dynamics 365 application. No VPN required! It’s all web-based so whether you’re working at a job site, a customer’s location, a hotel across the globe or at the local coffee shop – you can take care of business like you were sitting at your desk.
6. Automatic Software Upgrades
Upgrades have traditionally carried a big expense and a bigger headache, especially if your ERP system has several customizations. With Microsoft Dynamics 365, your total cost of ownership (TCO) isn’t the only thing that goes down—so does your stress level. Upgrades are easily deployed in the background, meaning your organization will always be on the latest release. You are able to develop customizable extensions in Dynamics 365 that enable seamless updates without breaking your system.
7. Power Apps, Flow and Cortana Machine Learning (AI)
The future is here with Microsoft’s commitment to innovation. Cortana Machine Learning, Microsoft Power Platform that includes Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow), Power BI and Power Apps are making it easier for companies to forecast and strategize, connect systems and communications, and customize their world. Now, you can easily build mobile applications without being a real developer. Using templates, even non-techies can build power applications without writing a single line of code.
Is Dynamics 365 right for your business?
The only way to know for sure is to visit with one of our Dynamics experts to discuss your questions and concerns so we can help you explore the many options available. You can also browse our extensive resource portal to learn more about Dynamics 365 and other solutions for your business.
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