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Is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central the best ERP?

Inkey, February 19, 2024 631 Views

ERPs or Enterprise Resource Planning applications have been around for a very long time now. They started off as simple table heavy software applications leveraging computers’ ability to store data indefinitely and retrieve data at any time with speed and accuracy. Over time as databases evolved into relational databases, computers became faster and could store and handle more data, ERP also evolved. They began to have the reports that the clients would need the most, allowing them to make correct decisions. The ERPs also later allowed the client to customize these reports to a small extent, at the same time, allowing the developers to build upon existing functionalities and create new or customize existing reports. More recently, ERPs have also incorporated AI or Artificial Intelligence to help predict scenarios all in the effort to help the client make better decisions. 

Enter Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

There are many ERPs available in the market today from small and big companies targeting multiple sectors. It is safe to say that none of them are as good as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This ERP is targeted towards the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment but that does not mean it can’t handle larger organizations.   

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can handle all ERP related needs of just about any organization. And it can also be customized relatively easily for specific needs of an organization. It can allow inventory management, employee management, financial management and even customer relationship management, especially when it is integrated with Dynamics 365 Sales. The biggest advantage that Business Central has is that it is cloud based. This means that it can be accessed from anywhere. The only thing that is needed is an active internet connection which is pretty much available just about anywhere and a browser, some version of which is always available on mobile devices and computers irrespective of make and model. Microsoft also provides a guarantee of 99% uptime which means Business Central is always available. Being cloud based, the organization does not have to invest in hardware which means the cost of managing the hardware is also reduced to a great extent if not eliminated completely. 

Now, if Business Central is good all by itself, it becomes even better with other allied services like Power Apps which allow making small self-contained and mobile ready applications and Power BI which allows creating reports and dashboards both simple and complex which are also mobile ready. 

Integration with Microsoft Power Apps 

Business Central can also integrate with Power Apps from Microsoft which can allow quick and easy extension of functionalities as well as maintaining a logical separation of data and services. While because of its no code/no code approach, Power Apps allows what Microsoft calls citizen developers to add functionality. The citizen developers are employees of an organization that do not have any coding knowledge. So, this means that to create Power Apps no coding knowledge is required. 

Using our no code/low code development process of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Services, a client and quickly add just about any kind of functionality that they need. While certain functionalities can be easily added by the organization’s employees themselves, we can step in for the more complex functionalities. As mentioned earlier, Power Apps are mobile ready. Meaning they can be accessed from just about any mobile device. And they only need to be created once. The organization no longer has to create and maintain an application for each mobile device that they would be using. The same Power App can work on an Apple device and an Android device and at the same time be usable from a computer through a browser. 

Creating reports using Microsoft Power BI 

While Business Central also provides multiple reports and dashboards, new reports and even dashboards can be easily created using Power BI. We do provide Microsoft Power BI consulting services to help you with all your reporting needs, be they of Business Central or any other application.  

One of the biggest advantages that Power BI offers, especially when used with Business Central, is that the user can have reports that can be drilled down to smaller and smaller details as per requirements. Dashboards, which could contain multiple reports, can also be created. These dashboards can potentially provide a more or less complete picture of the organization at any given point of time. 

All together now 

As is now obvious, Dynamics 365 Business Central from Microsoft, especially when taken together with Power BI from Microsoft and Power Apps, also from Microsoft can and will fulfill any requirements of any organization. Power Apps can be shared with the users that need it without exposing the larger Business Central. This would make sure that people who are not used to the relatively complex Business Central can still perform their functions and their data will be reflected in Business Central. Moreover, sharing the Power BI reports instead of Business Central would make things easier and far less complicated for management to reach decisions. They will not have to deal with the more complex details of various departments. 

In terms of licenses, Business Central is relatively cheap and certain Microsoft 365 formerly known as Office 365 licenses also provide limited but useful Power Apps and Power BI features which can be integrated with Business Central as mentioned above. This keeps the overall cost low, especially when the lifetime cost is considered.

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