Evolving Your ERPCloud ERP: The New Normal

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Future Proofing your BusinessWhat if you had a unified set of business management tools and applications to bring you insights from finance, sales, or operations, when you need it? A common platform that will let you unify relationships, processes, and data all through the applications you use on a daily basis.

Let's take a look at how Microsoft Dynamics 365 enables easy access to data and integrates with the Microsoft applications you already use every day from three different viewpoints.

Martin: Martin's company just transitioned from Microsoft Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and is using data across platforms to deliver new insights.

Bishop:Bishop works for a company that has upgraded to the latest version of GP and is using Intelligent Cloud.

Cosmo: Cosmo's company is running Dynamics GP 2015 on-premises.

Key Microsoft Office 365 apps that are integrated with Business Central

Martin’s a Database Administrator (DBA) and has just started a new job.

He's excited about this opportunity because his new company recently worked with their Partner on a needs assessment and made the decision to transition from GP to Business Central. Business Central integrates with the Office 365 (Microsoft 365) apps they already use.

Martin’s first days on the job are filled with training on the new systems and he’s excited to dive in and see what he can find in the data.

Meet our hero – Martin.

Teams OutlookPower BI PowerAppsPowerAutomate

Hey Martin - you coming to basketball tonight?

2:30 PM

Just finishing up looking at our sales forecasting. Looks like this is going to be easy because Business Central has some great built in reports. See you in 30.

2:30 PM

Martin’s friend, Bishop, is also a DBA. His company has just upgraded to the latest version of GP with Intelligent Cloud. He’s connected their on-premises data to the Business Central Hub in the Cloud so they can have anywhere access to reports in the Cloud from any device.

The new dashboard includes a few items he knows that Liz, their CFO, has been especially interested in. And he found an “Overdue Invoices Customer/Vendor” report that had some good insights so he stops by Liz’s office to give her a heads up.

“Liz, you’ll love the new reporting in Intelligent Cloud. I sent you the link that gives us a dashboard with cash availability, sales profitability, net income, and inventory value. And there’s a built in report called ‘Overdue Invoices Customer/Vendor’ that has the info you’ve been asking for. Take a look, and we can talk about them tomorrow.”

"Thanks Bishop, I'll take a look," Liz calls out as Bishop heads out for his weekly basketball game.

What is Intelligent Cloud Insights?It's a valuable tool that allows you to replicate your existing on-premises data to the Business Central Hub in the Cloud so all users have anywhere, anytime access to their data using a web browser, tablet, or even a mobile app.

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Cosmo is the third DBA in this group. His company is running GP 2015. Hannah, his CFO, is a data fanatic and has been pushing Cosmo to deliver more real time, actionable data.

This week Hannah is concerned about a spike in travel expenses, so Cosmo needs to track the data back to the department level. GP has the data, but doesn’t include the filters (dimensions) he needs for this analysis, so he’ll spend the night at his desk trying to come up with a work around.

And he'll miss the weekly game. Again. Cosmo texts his friends and then digs back into his work.

Meanwhile, Martin gets a notification on his phone and sees an email from Sidney, his CFO, about capital expenditures. He sees an opportunity to impress the new boss and logs onto Business Central on his phone. He quickly finds the report he wants and emails it off before heading to the game, unlike Cosmo.

Dimensions in Business CentralDimensions allow you to analyze your data more efficiently than a segmented chart of accounts and gives you greater insight into your business. By using more than two dimensions when creating an entry, you can carry out a more complex analysis, such as sales campaign per customer group per area.

Learn more about dimensions in our blog post.

Hey Guys – I’m out tonight. Our travel expenses are out of control again….so I’m working on getting the data matched to departments.

4:43 PM

Hey Guys – anybody online tonight? I need to bouncesome ideas off you about this expense report I’mworking on.

9:53 PM

When Martin gets to the office the next morning, he has a new Microsoft Teams meeting on his calendar – Product & Inventory Strategy.

As he joins the Teams meeting, Sidney says, “Thanks for that expense report. That’s exactly the kind of data we need. I’m hoping you can work the same kind of magic on our new product issues.”

“Let’s figure out what we need and I’ll make it happen,” Martin replies confidently.

Sidney starts off the meeting with a challenge, “We have years and years of sales and purchasing data. We need to be able to access it in real time to help make new product strategy decisions. We’ve got inventory issues that don’t show up until the product hits the floor and it seems like we’re always running behind the competition.”

After the meeting, Martin digs in again. He's been given two weeks to put together a solution to present to the team.

First, he sets up a Microsoft Teams channel so they can share feedback, files, schedules, and chat. Then he looks to Business Central’s built-in analytics and easy-to-create dashboards and reports to give him the head start he needs.

Hey Bishop– know anything about new product strategies?

10:30 AM

I just looked at an inventory report in Intelligent Cloud that our CFO loves.

4:43 PM

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Down the hall in the sales office, Martin's co-worker, Carl, gets an urgent email from one of his big customers who needs an order at short notice.

While in Outlook, Carl checks inventory and discovers they don’t have enough stock. Still in email, he creates and sends a purchase order to the supplier to make up the shortfall. And then, continuing in email, he creates and sends a quote to the customer.

The sales team has really jumped on board with Business Central. They love the ability to do all their work in Outlook and the familiar interface made the transition from GP painless.

“Just need to update my pipeline report and I’m out of here,” he says to himself just as Martin walks by.

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“Hey Carl. Want to join the game tonight? My buddy Cosmo can’t make it.”

“Definitely. I just need to update my sales pipeline and send it to the boss. Give me 5.”

“Really? It will only take 5 minutes?”

On their way out, Carl says, “You know that pipeline report used to be a waste of time. It took hours to put together. Look up the customer in CRM. Email accounting for the latest sales figures. Call Ops to check on inventory. Search the network to find the right Excel file to update. Now I can update it all right in Outlook. I don’t even have to be in the office – I can do it on my phone, wherever I am.”

Hey guys –I can’t make it tonight. Still working on that expense report. How did you get that to work again?

6:30 PM

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Benefits of Business Central in the Cloud:

» Remote Work Capability -work from anywhere and accessyour data with any device.

» Eliminate Upgrades -enhancements, bug-fixes,and updates automaticallypushed out.

» Reduced Upfront Costs - forhardware, servers, or othercomponents.

» Improved Security, Privacy,and Reliability.

It’s time for the big report. Martin needs to show Sidney and the team what he’s put together.

“Take a look at this report, ‘Predictive Inventory and Sales Forecasting.’ I think it has the information we need to get started.”

Sidney takes a look and says, “This is exactly what we need. Can we share this with the Ops team?”

"Sure, we'll create a dashboard in Power BI and share it with everyone that needs it, even sales. That should help them see inventory in real time before it becomes an issue. I also noticed a couple trends in the data that I think can help us improve our customer experience.”

The team has the information they need to get a new strategy put together. Martin has another big win under his belt.

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It’s the last game of the season and Martin and Bishop are warming up.

“I just put together a great Business Central dashboard for the CFO and really scored some points.”

Bishop high fives him and says, “I’ve got good news too. The insights we’re getting from Intelligent Cloud are not only making me look good, but are changing how we make decisions. We're looking at a full transition to Business Central.”

Martin adds, “I love this new job and I haven’t had to miss a single game. Maybe we should get Cosmo to move to Business Central too so he can make a game next season.”

GUYS – I’m just finishing up. I’ll be there by the end of 1st quarter. Wait for me.

7:56 PM

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Every company is different and has its own needs and requirements, but here’s some questions to get you started:

» Are you planning a digitaltransformation strategy?

» Would you like to get rid of the costs ofupgrades and new hardware, as well asthe downtime required?

» Do you want to reduce costs and/orsecurity risks by hosting your data andapplication in the Cloud?

» Are you sticking with GP because of thirdparty add-ons that you have to pay torenew and maintain? (Ask us about newfeatures in Business Central that canreplace those add-ons!)

Could you use these new features in Business Central?

» Dimensional chart of accounts,which makes the reporting moremeaningful and powerful than in GP

» Project accounts (“jobs”) that willenable better collaboration betweenyour finance and operations teams

» Faster and more flexible analysis ofall your data

» The ability to let your staff configuretheir own interfaces without havingto purchase add-ons or hireconsultants

» Your favorite SmartLists forsimplified business intelligence

» Integration across platforms

Now it's your turn. Should you transition from GP to Business Central?

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GP vs. Business Central - The GP Features You Know and Trust Plus More

Want to learn more about the differences between GP and Business Central? Check out our blog.

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Product/Feature Dynamics GP Dynamics 365 Business Central

Bill of Materials 3 3US & Canadian Payroll 3 3 – through apps

eBanking 3 3Fixed Assets 3 3Inter-company Processing 3 3Inventory Tracking 3 3Multiple Currencies 3 3Multiple Entities 3 3SQL Server Reporting Services 3 3General Ledger 3 3Cash Flow Management 3 3Fixed Asset Management 3 3Intercompany 3 3Multicurrency 3 3Revenue/Expense Deferrals 3 3Bank Reconciliation 3 3Payables Management 3 3Receivables Management 3 3

Product/Feature Dynamics GP Dynamics 365 Business Central

Power BI Integration 3 – some effort 3 – little effort

Upgrades 3 – Incur cost every 2-4 years 3 – Free and automated

Add-on options 3 3Budgeting 3 3Financial Reporting 3 3

3Excel Publishing 3Financial Reporting Capabilities Built-In 3

Dimensions 3Search Capability 3SmartLists 3 3Refreshable Excel Reports 3 3Invoicing 3 3Inventory Control 3 3Bill of Materials 3 3Purchase Order Processing/Receivings 3 3

Project Accounting 3 3

OPTION 1:

Stay Where You are on GP and Renew Your BREP• Continue to get access to upgrades and

updates, access to CustomerSource, technical support, a knowledge base, and more

• No new security, productivity, or long-term saving advantages of Business Central or Intelligent Cloud

OPTION 2:

On-Premises + Midterm Stay on-premise by either transitioning to Business Central on-premises, or upgrade to the latest release of GP with Intelligent Cloud

With a GP Upgrade:• Intelligent Cloud takes your data and

replicates it in a read only Business Central environment

• Try out Cloud benefits without transitioning your whole system; run reports and do inquiries

• Requires you to manage software upgrades and infrastructure

OPTION 3:

Transition to Business Central in the Cloud • Creates the greatest savings and other

benefits over the long-term• No future software upgrades and better

management of infrastructure• Combines disconnected systems through

one seamless integration with Outlook, Teams, and Power Platform

• Enables real-time data and business analytics to generate actionable insights

• Security and governance, as well as back-up and recovery

Know Your Options - Encore Can Help

Take the next steps for your business.Contact us for your needs assessment or about transition offers for GP users.

info@encorebusiness.com 13

888-898-4330 encore@encorebusiness.com www.encorebusiness.com

Aligning strategy, people, processes, and technologyEncore has been helping businesses worldwide drive efficiency and sustainable success since 1990. Our experienced business and technology professionals across Canada and the US guide our 1000+ customers through all phases of ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, IT Infrastructure and Cloud adoption.

Encore + the CloudWith our decades of experience with software and our early adoption of Dynamics ERP in Azure, it means that we’re as good as anyone in the world at moving your ERP system to the Cloud.

Moving to the Cloud is all about less risk. With Encore as your Partner for Azure and other systems, we are your sole point of contact for uptime, support, and improvements.

Our CommitmentAs your business processes evolve, so should your software. Encore is the best positioned Partner to tie together all technology solutions from Microsoft in one holistic solution to benefit your organization.

When you work with Encore, you are partnering with a team of specialists who are focused on providing customers with the right solution, training, and ongoing support for continued growth.