Update: October 8, 2024
With years of experience as an account manager focused on Dynamics GP, I have many great conversations with CEOs, CFOs, accounting professionals, and IT professionals about their Dynamics GP roadmap and whether they should transition to Dynamics 365. If you’re one of the millions of Dynamics GP users around the world, it’s a decision you likely think about, and you probably have several questions:
- What should we be asking about Dynamics 365?
- What are the pros and cons of GP vs. D365?
- Do I have to move to the cloud with D365?
- Is D365 more affordable?
But the first question I usually hear…
Is Microsoft still supporting Dynamics GP?
You might have heard otherwise but, yes, Microsoft still actively supports GP. What has changed is that there is no growth path for GP from Microsoft—they no longer provide feature updates. Just like your business, technology has evolved a great deal. Smartphones, the cloud, artificial intelligence, IoT, mobility and more have revolutionized ERP. Microsoft is investing heavily in taking customers into the future with D365 but certainly is not abandoning the GP family. Microsoft recently announced that support and updates for Dynamics GP will end in September 2029.
What are the advantages of transitioning to Dynamics 365 from GP?
Many businesses started with Great Plains more than 20 years ago and are still going strong with Dynamics GP today. You may have a ton of customizations and third-party add-ons, and at the end of the day, it’s serving you just fine. We appreciate that and it’s why we always encourage you to work with a trustworthy partner to help you explore all your options and costs—even if that means the best decision for you is not to move to D365 quite yet.
However, if you’re curious, here are some of the top benefits GP customers really like about the advantages of Dynamics 365:
- Dimensional accounting.  This is a change for GP users and is game-changing for accounting professionals. Growing businesses typically find themselves with a bloated chart of accounts in GP that can be inefficient, ineffective and inaccurate. Dimensions enable you to create a clean, segmented, and simplified chart of accounts that really elevate your insight and reporting. Watch our OnDemand webinar on how dimensions work in D365 because you have to see it for yourself to appreciate how powerful this feature is.
- Reporting. Dimensions enable you to slice and dice your data virtually any way you want so reporting is more insightful and meaningful. Instead of spreadsheets, you can use the seamless Power BI integration, which makes it fast and easy to consolidate all your data and create visual dashboards tailored for any role.
- Multi-entity management.  If your business has grown or is growing, Dynamics GP can require customizations or third-party solutions to manage multiple entities. Dynamics 365 is built to manage multiple entities, currencies and languages—right out of the box.
- No more concurrent users. If you ever had to log out of GP so someone else can work in it (or have been the one waiting hours or even over a weekend), you know how frustrating it is and the delays it can cause. With a Dynamics 365 license, you can access the system at any time, on any device, or even multiple devices at the same time. Another huge productivity boost.
- Flexibility. GP can be quite rigid and require a lot of workarounds to get your work done. Dynamics 365 is more flexible and allows you to create role-based processes, and automated workflows. You can even create your own apps with Power Apps.
- Outlook integration. Are you in Outlook most of your day? Dynamics 365 has unmatched integration with Outlook and a lot of functionality is actually embedded. It’s a big productivity boost not having to shift back and forth between windows and applications.
- Flexible cloud options. One of the concerns some GP customers have is that Dynamics 365 forces them to move to the cloud. That is not the case. Western Computer can implement D365 in the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid environment to fit your access and security requirements.
- Automatic updates. Your Dynamics 365 subscription includes all updates and enhancements installed for you—so you are always on the latest version without additional fees or effort on your part. On that note, updates and upgrades can present problems and costs with GP due to heavy customizations and third-party systems. With Dynamics 365, it is much smoother. Our technical specialists are happy to dive deeper into this with you.
- Seamless integration. D365 is built for integration among Microsoft applications like Office 365 and Power Platform apps as well as a huge library of ISV applications on Microsoft AppSource. Functionality is often embedded within the system instead of a bolted-on application.
- Scalability. With subscription-based licensing, it’s much easier for administrators to scale functionality and add or remove users. You can choose the applications and licenses you need today, change them tomorrow, and quickly be up and running. It’s also faster to onboard new users.
- Mobility. Dynamics 365 was designed for mobility across its applications, so it’s easier to grant secure, remote access to unified information. Companies that have remote workers or field operations will find D365 an excellent foundation to provide a more modern and flexible workplace.
You have options
While we’ve highlighted some of advantages of transitioning from GP to Dynamics 365, it is not a decision to take lightly or make quickly. We are here to help you assess your needs and look at the options, timing and pricing that make the most sense for your business.
In addition, Western Computer will help you and your team with change management—a key factor in reducing fear and improving user adoption. Contact our experts to start the conversation.
About the Author
More Content by Cady Jackson
