Evolving Your ERP

Cloud ERP: The New Normal

Future Proofing
your Business
What 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.

2
Meet our hero – Martin.
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.
Hey Martin -
2:30 PM
you coming to
basketball tonight?

Just finishing up
Key Microsoft Office 365 apps looking at our sales
forecasting. Looks 2:30 PM

that are integrated with Business Central like this is going to

be easy because
Business Central has
some great built in
reports. See you in 30.

Teams Power Power BI PowerApps Outlook

Automate
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.
What is Intelligent
“Liz, you’ll love the new reporting in
Intelligent Cloud. I sent you the link that Cloud Insights?
gives us a dashboard with cash It's a valuable tool that
availability, sales profitability, net allows you to replicate your
income, and inventory value. And there’s existing on-premises data to
a built in report called ‘Overdue Invoices the Business Central Hub in
Customer/Vendor’ that has the info the Cloud so all users have
you’ve been asking for. Take a look, and anywhere, anytime access to
we can talk about them tomorrow.” their data using a web
browser, tablet, or even a
"Thanks Bishop, I'll take a look," mobile app.
Liz calls out as Bishop heads out
for his weekly basketball game.

4

Hey Guys – I’m out tonight.
Our travel expenses are out
4:43 PM
of control again….so I’m
working on getting the data
matched to departments.
Hey Guys – anybody online
tonight? I need to bounce
9:53 PM
some ideas off you about
this expense report I’m
working on.
Cosmo is the third DBA in This week Hannah is concerned about a spike in travel expenses,
this group. His company is so Cosmo needs to track the data back to the department level.
running GP 2015. Hannah, GP has the data, but doesn’t include the filters (dimensions) he
his CFO, is a data fanatic needs for this analysis, so he’ll spend the night at his desk
and has been pushing trying to come up with a work around.
Cosmo to deliver more real
And he'll miss the weekly game. Again. Cosmo texts his friends
time, actionable data.
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 Central
Dimensions 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.
5
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.
Hey Bishop–
know anything
First, he sets up a Microsoft Teams channel so they can about new
10:30 AM

share feedback, files, schedules, and chat. Then he looks to product strategies?
Business Central’s built-in analytics and easy-to-create
dashboards and reports to give him the head start he needs. I just looked at an
4:43 PM
inventory report in
Intelligent Cloud
that our CFO loves.

6
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.
7
“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.”

Benefits of Business
Central in the Cloud:
» Remote Work Capability -
Hey guys –I can’t work from anywhere and access
make it tonight. your data with any device.
6:30 PM
Still working on that
» Eliminate Upgrades -
expense report.
enhancements, bug-fixes,
How did you get and updates automatically
that to work again? pushed out.

» Reduced Upfront Costs - for

hardware, servers, or other
components.

» Improved Security, Privacy,

and Reliability. 8
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.

9
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
GUYS – I’m just Cosmo to move to
finishing up. I’ll be
7:56 PM
there by the end Business Central too
of 1st quarter. so he can make a
Wait for me.
game next season.”

10
Now it's your turn.
Should you transition from
GP to Business Central?
Every company is different
and has its own needs and
requirements, but here’s
some questions to get
you started:
» Are you planning a digital
transformation strategy?
» Would you like to get rid of the costs of
upgrades and new hardware, as well as
the downtime required?
» Do you want to reduce costs and/or
security risks by hosting your data and
application in the Cloud?
» Are you sticking with GP because of third
party add-ons that you have to pay to
renew and maintain? (Ask us about new
features in Business Central that can
replace those add-ons!)
Could you use these
new features in
Business Central?
» Dimensional chart of accounts,
which makes the reporting more
meaningful and powerful than in GP
» Project accounts (“jobs”) that will
enable better collaboration between
your finance and operations teams
» Faster and more flexible analysis of
all your data
» The ability to let your staff configure
their own interfaces without having
to purchase add-ons or hire
consultants
» Your favorite SmartLists for
simplified business intelligence
» Integration across platforms
112
 GP vs. Business Central - The GP Features You Know and Trust Plus More
Product/Feature
Bill of Materials
US & Canadian Payroll
eBanking
Fixed Assets
Inter-company Processing
Inventory Tracking
Multiple Currencies
Multiple Entities
SQL Server Reporting Services
General Ledger
Cash Flow Management
Fixed Asset Management
Intercompany
Multicurrency
Revenue/Expense Deferrals
Bank Reconciliation
Payables Management
Receivables Management
Want to learn more about the differences between GP and Business Central?
Dynamics 365 Dynamics 365
Dynamics GP Product/Feature Dynamics GP
Business Central Business Central
3 3 Power BI Integration 3 – some effort 3 – little effort
3 3 – through apps Upgrades 3 – Incur cost every 2-4 years 3 – Free and automated
3 3 Add-on options 3 3
3 3 Budgeting 3 3
3 3 Financial Reporting 3 3
3 3 3
3 3 Excel Publishing 3
3 3 Financial Reporting
3
Capabilities Built-In
3 3 Dimensions 3
3 3 Search Capability 3
3 3 SmartLists 3 3
3 3 Refreshable Excel Reports 3 3
3 3 Invoicing 3 3
3 3 Inventory Control 3 3
3 3 Bill of Materials 3 3
3 3 Purchase Order Processing/
Receivings
3 3
3 3
3 3
Project Accounting 3 3
Check out our blog. 12
 Know Your Options - Encore Can Help

OPTION 1: OPTION 2: OPTION 3:

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
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
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

Take the next steps for your business.

Contact us for your needs assessment or about transition offers for GP users.

info@encorebusiness.com 13
Aligning strategy, people, processes, and technology
Encore 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 Cloud Our Commitment

With 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.
As 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.

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