Three reasons why companies should migrate Dynamics GP to Business Central
What is Business Central and why should we consider it?
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a mid-market ERP system from Microsoft that is the enhanced version of the venerable Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Versions 13 and 14 of Business Central ran on the NAV client software, because it was in fact the same product.
For those customers who have GP or Great Plains, they may recognize the Dynamics NAV name as a sister product to Dynamics GP. Once known as Navision, the NAV system is a good ERP system for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Microsoft defines this as companies with up to 250 computers.
Microsoft often compared the two products as sold in the same market. They considered them as mid-tier sister products. The reality is that GP was sometimes sold to companies where the sophistication of accounting needs exceeded what NAV could do. The opposite happened in the supply chain and manufacturing.
From Dynamics GP to Business Central? It depends on your business
Our experience is with Dynamics NAV or Dynamics 365 Business Central in manufacturing and supply chain. We think going from Great Plains to Dynamics NAV / Business Central makes a lot of sense for these companies.
Dynamics Business Central’s manufacturing and distribution capabilities are (in our opinion) slightly better than Great Plains. This is especially true once complementary products for BC are taken into account. Companies in this space that choose to migrate from Dynamics GP to Business Central will be very happy with their decision. The capabilities of the system are best suited to your needs.
If you are running Dynamics GP in a more financially complex environment, things get more complicated. The core functionality in accounting is much more robust if you need the multi-level approval processes that are out of the box in Great Plains. If you have plant-level controllers who are overseen by division-level controllers and perhaps this is carried over to a corporate team, GP has your back.
The ability to post to subledgers and leave the final general ledger posting for review and approval is not available in NAV / Business Central.
The fact is, we’ve never seen this as a desirable feature of GP. This is probably because our experience is very limited in the purely financial realm.
3 reasons why Dynamics 365 Business Central is the upgrade path for GP
For those companies in the right space, we would say that the migration from GP to Business Central is extremely logical and probably the way to go.
- Business Central is ultra-modern and Microsoft is investing heavily in it. Dynamics GP will be supported, but even investments in it are often to facilitate migration to BC.
- No chance for Microsoft to invest in making GP a cloud-ready solution, and there are no plans to build the same AppSource (Microsoft ERP plug-in store) capabilities in GP. GP plugin providers are flocking to Business Central. Unfortunately, GP is a dead end technology if it doesn’t move to the cloud.
- Microsoft and partners they are making a real effort to reduce costs and facilitate migration. Also, this could be a great opportunity to revisit problem areas in your business that the GP system is not handling.
If you are in manufacturing or distribution, unless you pass the description of my complex accounting needs, you are a great candidate for Business Central.
Maybe we need Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations?
If you need the approval and complex accounting controls that I discussed above, then you should probably look at the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations product. This product is much more sophisticated and advanced than Business Central. It comes with a price tag to match, but generally those complex needs are going to be met with F&O and not Business Central.
Conclution
There is much more we can say about this process, including discussing the costs of this update; some of the automated tools that Microsoft is developing to help; and the business process reengineering opportunity that this can generate.
We will leave that for another time.
Overall, upgrading to GP’s Business Central is worth considering.