Why Dynamics 365 Business Central Suits Best for SMBs?

24 Jan 2020

As a Small or Mid-sized business, when you are out on a search for the best ERP solution, whether on-premise or in the cloud, you’re sure to encounter MS Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly known as Dynamics NAV) as the best business management solution that helps you automate and streamline business processes as well as manage your business seamlessly. And if you’re already a Dynamics NAV customer who’s planning to upgrade to D365 Business Central, you will learn why you should hurry in your decision.

So, what is Dynamics 365 Business Central? Why use it? D365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management software solution that turns your current disconnected systems into one and brings people, processes and resources together. D365 Business Central allows you to connect your financials, sales, operations, and services to help you improve customer interactions and make informed decisions.

Features of Dynamics 365 Business Central

Since Microsoft rebranded Dynamics NAV as Dynamics 365 Business Central, we’ve seen increasing adoption by organizations that are moving towards digital transformation. Let’s have a look at some of the dominant features & capabilties of Dynamics 365 Business Central:

• Automatically pulls processes and systems together to help you manage financials, sales, operations, supply chain, manufacturing, shipping, etc. all in one central location
• Allows easy and smooth integration of third-party applications like payroll, CRM, banking, or any other industry-specific tools
• Supports business-specific customizations to help you add new functionalities relevant to your business and region of operations
• Integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft solutions such as Dynamics 365 for Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing, etc.
• Allows automatic sending of sales quotes, invoices to help you complete order-to-cash cycle
• Helps you control operational costs and make smarter buying decisions
• Helps you optimize stock management and enhance inventory control

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Roadmap: Dynamics NAV and Business Central

What functionalities does Dynamics 365 Business Central include?

• Manage Financials

D365 Business Central, Essential lets you manage your financials all in one central platform. You can easily connect your data across sales, purchasing, accounting, inventory, and customer interactions and chart financial performance in real-time. The application lets you streamline accounts payable, accounts receivables, and automatically reconcile accounts to close. The built-in Power BI dashboards help you make informed decisions; Financial Management was never this exciting! With the Financial Management capability, you can manage banking, assets and more:

• General ledger
• Cash Management
• Fixed Assets
• Currencies
• Consolidation
• Cost accounting and more

• Supply Chain Management

Does your business deal with logistics? Are you looking for a SaaS (Software as a Service) which accurately provides a holistic view of your entire supply chain? Business Central is designed to help you keep track of your supply chain cycle, from receiving an order, to order processing, and to product delivery. The SaaS provides you with advanced supply chain management tools that help you manage and process sales orders, transactions, and receivables. Also, are your inventories located across different locations, plants, warehouses or showrooms? No worries! D365 Business Central lets you easily manage your inventory levels, track and account for the inventory in transit. Supply Chain Management capability offers:

• Sales order management
• Receivables
• Purchase order management
• Inventory management
• Warehousing
• Item transfers
• Assembly Management

• Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capability is engineered to manage and support your sales efforts. The features of D365 Business Central allow you to sell smarter, achieve more, and improve customer service. The application lets you manage the sales cycle by guiding you across upselling, cross-selling, and renewal opportunities. The module is developed with an aim to help businesses achieve accelerated sales productivity with capabilities like:

• Contacts management
• Customer interaction management
• Segment management
• Sales opportunity management
• Marketing campaign management
• Integrations with Dynamics 365 Sales

• Project Management

As a Project Manager, we understand you’ve tough time managing projects and you need a 360-degree view of project tasks, support, and operational work to staff the projects. D365 Business Central brings you relief! Mid-Sized and Large businesses look for comprehensive Project Management Software to thoroughly oversee their projects and monitor progress. Business Central, as an end-to-end business management app, covers many of the needed and necessary bases to help you manage projects without much effort. The application provides you with project management tools for managing core project management tasks such as job configuration, resource scheduling, budget management, and progress monitoring. It helps you:

• Stay under budget
• Create, manage, track customer projects
• Manage resource levels
• Track invoicing against the planned cost
• Analyze project performance
• Manage resource utilization and timesheets

• Human Resources

The Dynamics 365 for Talent (basics) is additional! Dynamics 365 Business Central, Essential brings Human Capital Management features that allow you to manage employee records such as qualifications, contacts, and contact information. Organize employee data according to factors such as skills, training, education, experience, etc., and assign codes to each employee and their record. Employee absence management and expense management are added advantages in the application.

• Service Order Management

Dynamics 365 Business Central, Premium provides you access to modern Manufacturing and Service Order Management features. The module helps companies in delivering excellent customer service, boosting customer satisfaction, and enhancing brand loyalty. Business Central enables you to oversee service management operations, from order processing, to issuing contracts, and to managing technicians. The application provides service order management tools to register and monitor post-sales as well as manage new service requests, routine maintenance, set and update service prices.

For production/manufacturing businesses, Business Central, Premium brings manufacturing tools and a range of features to help them manage and streamline their output. As a user from the manufacturing industry, you can effortlessly create production orders, manage production bills of materials, and more. With the Manufacturing application you can seamlessly undertake:

• Production orders
• Version Management
• Agile manufacturing
• Supply planning
• Demand forecasting
• Capacity planning
• Machine Centres
• Finite loading

Already using Dynamics NAV? Here’s Why You Should Upgrade to D365 Business Central!

• Unify business, boost efficiency with automated tasks and workflows
• Gain completes view of business and achieves greater results
• Gain a better understanding of monthly costs, team budget
• Enjoy advanced features such as focus mode, late payment prediction, and more
• Embrace Machine Learning and AI
• Out-of-the-world cloud data security

Conclusion

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is one of the best business management solutions designed keeping at the center the specific needs and business challenges of small and mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based solution helps you streamline business processes, make smarter decisions, and accelerate growth. If you’re looking at implementing Business Central, then Star Knowledge’s Dynamics 365 consulting services can assist you in carving success & achieving digital transformation.