What You Need to Know about Microsoft Dynamics 365

April 16, 2018
|In Dynamics 365, Uncategorized
|By Laura Peters

Fortunately, what you DON’T need is a manual. That would be so old school and Microsoft Dynamics 365 is as far from old school as you can get. With Dynamics 365, everything you need to know is conveniently available online. So unless you have a pressing need for door stoppers, you can heave those weighty manuals right into the trash or burn them in your fireplace for a lovely blaze.

Dynamics 365 unifies CRM and ERP capabilities into applications that work seamlessly together across sales, customer service, field service, operations, financials, marketing, and project service automation. If you don’t need all of those applications, no worry. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 you can easily choose and use just the pieces that you actually need right now. The rest will remain available to you as your business, and your needs, grow.

True Cloud

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a true cloud solution. It was conceived and designed as a cloud-based, unified ERP and CRM system. It was NOT an on-premise solution that was later re-engineered for the cloud. Heaven forbid! No, Dynamics 365 is your ticket to the world of Digital Transformation – for digitizing and digitalizing every facet of your business.

This is nowhere more evident than in the newest release when on April 2nd Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central became generally available. Business Central is like the central bus station in a big city. It’s the hub for every conceivable destination. Business Central connects people and processes like never before. It’s a cloud platform for managing your finances, operations, sales, and service in one comprehensive solution with built-in intelligence.

Kitchen Sink

When I was growing up, there was a local ice cream parlor that was famous for its sundaes. You could choose how many and which scoops and toppings you wanted to create your own sundae. Or, you could order the mother of all sundaes which was called “The Kitchen Sink.” I can still picture it!

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central includes everything except the kitchen sink. Which makes sense, given that you don’t need a kitchen sink to run your business. I’m going to start a long list of what Business Central allows you to do, but at some point, I’m going to run out of virtual paper:

  • Manage your financials
    • Make informed decisions
    • Connect data across accounting, sales, purchasing, inventory, and customer interactions to get an end-to-end view of your business
    • Chart financial performance in real time with built-in Power BI dashboards
    • Accelerate financial close and reporting
    • Streamline accounts receivables and payables, and automatically reconcile accounts to close and report on financials quickly and accurately, while maintaining compliance.
    • Improve forecast accuracy
    • Refine financial forecasts by modeling and analyzing data across multiple dimensions
    • Customize reports using seamless Microsoft Excel integration
  • Automate and secure your supply chain
    • Optimize inventory levels
    • Use built-in intelligence to when and what to replenish
    • Purchase only what you need with dynamically updated inventory levels
    • Avoid lost sales and reduce shortages
    • Maintain the right amount of inventory by automatically calculating levels, lead time, and recorder points.
    • Suggest substitutes when requested items are out of stock
    • Get recommendations on when to pay vendors, use vendor discounts, and avoid past due penalties
  • Keep projects on time and under budget
    • Create, manage, and track customer projects using timesheets along with advance job costing and reporting capabilities
    • Develop, modify, and control budgets to ensure project profitability
    • Manage resource levels by planning capacity and sales
    • Track invoicing for customers against planned costs on orders ad quotes
    • Make effective decisions with real-time insight on project status, profitability, and resource=usage metrics
  • And now I’m officially out of virtual paper and this blog is getting too long!

There’s so much more to say so the best thing I can for you is point in the right directions. Because as I said from the outset, everything you need to know about Microsoft Dynamics 365 is conveniently available online.

Begin your quest here: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/business-central/overview/
Then continue AppSource, the online marketplace for hundreds of applications that you can add to Dynamics 365 for even more functionality.

And finally, contact International Software Systems for personalized answers to questions that are unique to your business. Laura Peters is available at lep@intlsoftwaresystems.com, at my office 714.379.0545, or on my cell at 714.264.4250. www.intlsoftwaresystems.com

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