MSDW Podcast: How to assess a move to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud

Editor’s Note: This episode is sponsored by Enavate.

Across Microsoft’s broad base of legacy ERP customers running Dynamics GP, NAV, and SL, there is a range of reasons why any organization might consider a cloud migration project. But until they assess the current state and future options, business leaders will be challenged to justify a decision on how to move forward with ERP modernization.

Our guests on this episode, Jennifer Ranz and Chad Sogge of Enavate, discuss the guidance and tools they have developed for organizations considering a move to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud. Jennifer and Chad are veterans of Microsoft’s ERP product teams and they have carried that experience in the SMB market with them to Enavate where their team has been developing new assessment tools and guidance around migrations based on Dynamics products and Enavate’s own experience with many organizations that have already deployed Business Central.

We discuss various types of ERP journeys today, some of the ways Microsoft partners are collaborating on ERP projects today to benefit their clients, and how to handle challenges like industry-specific needs and historical data. We also look ahead to the future of migrations and how Business Central will  evolve to support more customers moving to the cloud.

To learn more about cloud migration, technology and options, visit the Enavate blog.

Show Notes:

• 3:00 – Advice Chad and Jennifer are offering legacy ERP customers today
• 6:00 – How adoption of other modern business technology like Office 365 is spurring thinking on modernizing ERP
• 7:30 – Benefits of Business Central after a transition
• 11:00 – How to assess and select the right transition path, and about Enavate’s assessment tool
• 14:30 – How to explain the scope of a BC project to a customer
• 16 :30 – Know your ERP project priorities
• 21:45 – Why legacy ERP customers are going with SaaS transitions
• 23:00 – ISV discovery and mapping from legacy to BC
• 26:45 – What partners need to know about migration factories
• 28:15 – Migration tooling available now
• 32:00 – The importance of historical data and what to do with it after the transition to BC
• 35:00 – How to make BC a better solution than the legacy system
• 38:30 – The growth of assessments for ERP customers as the solutions evolve