It goes without saying but given the competitive nature of markets nowadays, businesses have to be agile and optimise how they work on a regular basis to ensure that they remain competitive.
For this to happen, businesses need to control their costs, have a good visibility over cashflow and the ability to make budget adjustments in real time. In order to do this, you need to have comprehensive systems and data to be adaptable to any market changes as well as using an insights gained to make the right decision at the right time.
This is where Cloud computing has been hailed as a saviour – enabling data and systems to be securely available at any time from any location and on any device.
Many businesses are keen to take advantage of these benefits that can be delivered. However, taking the step towards the Cloud can be a difficult choice to make. How do you make the transition from a wide variety of legacy, on-premise systema and data that is stored and managed all over the place?
The answer is simple, take it a step at a time to make the transition to the Cloud by firstly looking to implement a comprehensive cloud based financial management system.
Having these financial systems in place first is vital in helping you to make the right decisions and manage your business effectively and efficiently. Therefore, it cannot be underestimated the benefits that you will receive immediately, and risks reduced by going for a more cloud-based approach which will allow you to manage your business in a much more efficient way.
What are the main drawbacks of on-premise finance systems?
With the innovations seen in technology over the years, on-premise financial management and ERP systems are very much a thing of the past. Granted, the functionality used may continue to be enough for your standard or historical business requirements, however, these systems aren’t as flexible or scalable as your business grows. As well as this, it is an arduous task to be able to adapt an on-premise system to any changes to the way in which a business operates to expand activities, recruitment as well as boost functionality in a cost-effective way.
This is where a comprehensive cloud-based ERP system like Dynamics 365 Business Central can help save the day as it allows you to reduce costs, provides you with the required functionality needed now and can be easily scaled up or down whenever you require it to be. Better still, it also enables you to take advantage of any opportunities quickly in addition to being more effective when it comes to managing costs.
The Cloud helps to keep your business up & running
Your business is in a much better place if you are able to keep your systems running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This will allow your business to rely on having full business insight for decision making all the time no matter where you are working from. Better still, critical finance management processes & reporting can be achieved automatically, meaning that all your business records are up to date with transactions, purchasing and invoices. This means that you have a highly accurate picture of your finances at all times.
As well as this, by using the Cloud you can work from anywhere you want so don’t need to be in the office to be able to access your finance system. This can have some positive effects on the environment by reducing your carbon footprint as well as enabling employees to have the choice of working from home also. It can be safely assumed that your competitors may have already done this!
You will find that the Microsoft Dynamics interface is practically the same across multiple devices. In addition to this, you will find that accessing this system is totally secure as the data and systems used are stored in Microsoft’s own Azure Cloud which is protected by the latest in cyber technologies. Therefore, you will no longer need to have a third-party provider to host your on-premise system or any additional infrastructure around this.
Comprehensive functionality perfect for both initiating change and growing your business
Through the use of a cloud-based finance management system will enable you to have a comprehensive & accurate overview of the performance of your business.
With Business Central, you will find that it has a whole host of new and improved features. As a comprehensive business management solution, it is fully equipped to offer deep functionality that all modern businesses require in order to successfully manage finances such as connecting finances, sales, purchasing, operations to make processes more streamlined, increase overall customer engagement and allow better decisions to be made. With all this functionality included, configuring the solution to align with your business requirements can be achieved with relative ease.
If you have somewhat more complex requirements or need to integrate third-party applications for your finance needs, this will also be able to work seamlessly in your system. You will find that Business Central has a number of APIs to allow it to fully support robust integration with all kinds of third-party software.
In depth and visual reporting
Being able to have accurate data insights as well as accurate reporting is vital for any business. The best thing about Business Central in this regard is the fact that you can access over 600 out-of-the-box reports as part of your solution. If you decide to work with more familiar tools, data can also be shared with Excel and reports created in tools you know. If you are a business that has already invested in Microsoft’s Power BI for reporting, you will find that there are a number of out-of-the-box reports available for use with your Business Central data.
Improved performance and innovation
One of the best parts of Business Central is the fact that you are automatically updated on the latest features from Microsoft. This will mean that you will never have to worry about an upgrade again or have to use any add-ons – you can get the very best from Microsoft from the start automatically! Within Business Central, pricey upgrade projects can be left in the past. Updates, back-ups and disaster recovery options are applied automatically meaning that your business will reduce costs & downtime.
Reduced costs
Being able to reduce both maintenance and upgrade costs from your finance management system can lead to significant savings in overheads when compared against the current on-premise solution. Better still, Business Central is on a subscription-based model which means that you are only charged for what you use so one per-user per month with no additional costs. This sort of model goes completely against the market where hosting, storage and upgrades usually come at a cost on top of the subscription and implementation costs.
Through the use of Business Central can also help your business to increase its value from its Microsoft investments. You won’t need to look at other productivity or communication tools: your team will be able to continue using the Microsoft 365 apps that you love such as Word as it all integrates together with Business Central.
Make sure you select the best Cloud provider for the job
You will find that Microsoft’s Cloud solution is one of the best when it comes to providing security and resilience. On top of this, Microsoft invests billions of money each year in keeping the enterprise-level security up to date to fight against cybercrime. When you decide to buy Business Central, you get the application, the cloud platform and the security from just one place.
Next Steps?
If you are a business that is looking to take the next step towards a full Cloud migration by implementing Dynamics 365 Business Central first or if you want to discuss other things like a full digital transformation then please give our team of Business Central experts a call today.
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