At Advantage, we’re always highlighting how the corporate landscape is continuously changing. From legislative requirements that (for better or worse) force businesses to change the way they do business to economic peaks and troughs that impact performance, structure and even target markets, there is no such thing as ‘going steady’ in today’s world. Arguably though, it's technology, more than politics and economics that is bringing about the most rapid changes to businesses; changes we thought would've taken years are now being actioned within months. Attending the Directions EMEA event in Madrid, Spain, only confirmed this further.
You look different, did you get a haircut?
This is no haircut, this is more of a facelift. As most of our existing clients will know, along with most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the market, Microsoft has traditionally released an Enterprise Edition and a Business Edition for each of its SaaS products – the latter usually used by SMBs with around 200 or so users. This year, however, that will no longer be the case. Now it’s all about custom-built solutions that are specific to your business’ needs.
Wait, what is this Dynamics 365 anyway?
Most of you will know, but for those that don’t, I’ll briefly explain. Dynamics 365 brings the power of CRM and ERP together into one cloud service. Rather than being a generic solution, Dynamics 365 focuses on producing purpose-built apps that work to support a specific business process, for example, customer service or sales.
One of the obvious benefits of Dynamics 365 is that it allows all your business apps to run in one place, allowing for greater productivity – due to a structured flow of business apps and processes, as well as greater collaboration capabilities. The fact that all of your business applications are talking to each other also means the insights you can pull from Dynamics 365 are far greater than anything you’ve been able to do before. So, whereas before you might have had your CRM doing one thing and your accounting software doing another, Dynamics 365 – powered by the Azure cloud – integrates to your existing Office 365 to give you one seamless experience.
Great, I’m up-to-date. Now back to this “Editions” business.
Well, Dynamics 365 for Business was supposed to be released in the U.K. at some point this year. It was to have dedicated SMB applications that focused on Finance and Operations, with the ability (if needed by the business) to plug into Sales and Marketing apps from the Business editions: this was to take place in 2018.
Last month, however, Microsoft announced it had decided to change its strategy, with the new model being what we spoke about earlier – essentially, a removal of ‘Editions’ and a move towards a single offering of Dynamics 365 applications which businesses of all sizes could pick and choose from. This means, moving forward SMBs will choose applications from various price points based on the requirements they need.
But I’m an SMB, how can I afford an ERP and CRM solution that’s made for big businesses?
Thankfully, Microsoft took this into consideration and as a result is offering SMB customers that have previously not registered with Dynamics 365 a significant discount. These are the three basic offers:
- If you only have a maximum of 25 users, then the Dynamics 365 Sales app is available at a reduced rate.
- You can add to this offer by licensing users with full Sales and Customer Service applications, as long as you do not exceed 50 users.
- Not everyone requires the same level of access, therefore, for those users that only require viewing, scheduling or certain dashboards, an SMB can have up to 150 users on a team member license, which costs significantly less than a full license.
Important to note is the fact that offers one and two can be combined, so long as the overall number of users does not exceed 50.
If you would like to discuss Dynamics 365 pricing in more detail, talk to us today.
The big reveal: Tenerife.
Apart from being one of the Canary Islands' many treasures, Dynamics 365 Tenerife is also great news for those outside the West African Coast.
What is it?
Tenerife is both a business management suite, as well as a business application platform. It has full NAV functionality that is fully customisable. Using full NAV application objects and Dynamics 365 branded vertical solutions, ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) can use the platform to create bespoke solutions and applications. From a general ERP and CRM solution to one that fits your business like a glove, Tenerife is the next step in business technology.
Picture of a slide taken from Directions EMEA 2017, Madrid, Spain.
Pencil it in the diary.
While we don’t yet have specific dates, here are some key seasons to be aware of:
- Today: Dynamics 365 for Financials Business Edition and Dynamics 365 for Financial and Operations Business Editions
- December 1st, 2017: NAV 2018 available and Tenerife previews available.
- Spring 2018: Dynamics 365 Tenerife available and NAV 2018R2 released (both of these will mirror each other, the only difference will be whether it’s on the cloud or on-premise).
Changes such as these seem to be happening almost daily, it’s our job to make sure you know what’s going on. Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep yourself up-to-date.
As more information becomes available we will unpack all the new functionality of Dynamics 365 Tenerife and show you how to optimise it for your business.
For more information on finding the best CRM and ERP solution for your business, talk to us today.
Words by Camilo Lascano Tribin
