MICROSOFT BUSINESS CENTRAL NEWS: At last week’s Microsoft partner conference in Orlando, Jeff Edwards, Senior Vice President Channels at Velosio announced: “Business Central is the Superstar.” He continued: “BC has the highest growth in the [Microsoft] Dynamics space” ... and it even “outgrew F&O.” “Business Central is, by far, the best product for the small to mid-market. “
It is meaningful to hear this honest perspective from a Velosio exec since they sell both Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, (previously “F&O”). Far too often, some Microsoft people and partners still push prospective clients towards the higher priced (and less popular) Dynamics F&O because it means more revenue, or because they meet an arbitrarily set minimum number of users for an F&O implementation to be viable (e.g. 20 or 50 users.)
The decision between products should no longer be based upon user count, since both products are browser-based and can handle 500+ users according to Microsoft. Many companies, including some of our clients, have well over 100 users running successfully on Business Central. They're enjoying the many reasons that give rise to its popularity, Dynamics “Superstar” designation, and its incredible value proposition vs. F&O.
Dynamics 365 Business Central high-level advantages:
All-in-one: Finance, CRM Sales, Marketing, Service, Supply Chain, Warehouse, Manufacturing, and Project/Job Management
Ease of use, and less training time required since it’s less complex,
Lower license costs
A significantly greater number of available, skilled consultants, at more reasonable rates,
A wealth of documentation and videos,
A thriving ecosystem,
Over 2,500 add-ins on AppSource, and
Typically, a much faster go-live, given the same modules & features in use.
Dynamics 365 F&O can be an appropriate choice for some SMB clients with highly sophisticated requirements or complex global operations. However, I believe the choice for Business Central (or not), should be based on the functionality required for the business rather than based arbitrarily on user count. Often a “F&O” feature can be added to Business Central for a minimal cost by a skilled partner, such as us (Computer Business Solutions, Inc.), and it can be designed just the way the client would like - without the complexity or ongoing higher costs of F&O.
The capabilities and value prop of Dynamics 365 Business Central continue to increase in momentum as Microsoft continues to invest heavily in new user features and back-end technologies. Three new services: "Azure SQL Hyperscale", "Azure Application Insights" and "Azure Sentinel" are being added to BC to increase speed with large databases and to further identify and mitigate potential security risks by applying AI and machine learning.
Microsoft also announced, that in an upcoming 2023 release of Business Central, companies on BC will be able to give their Microsoft Teams or Office (365) users full read rights to BC, without having to purchase additional BC licenses.
Don't let your user count cause you to miss the opportunity to run your business on Microsoft Dynamics’s most popular product and “Superstar” - Dynamics 365 Business Central.
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