What's included in Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Dynamics 365 Business Central was released in April, marking Microsoft’s shift into a cloud-first solution.

Dynamics 365 Business Central brings “the full power of Dynamics NAV” to the cloud, supported with CRM functions in a true cloud Business Management System (BMS) that can manage your organisation end-to-end.

Initially there was some confusion over exactly what Dynamics 365 included. We know that Microsoft’s aim was to cover off some key areas:

• Finance
• Supply chain
• Operations
• Projects
• Customer service
• Sales and marketing

Dynamics NAV sits at the heart of Dynamics 365 Business Central, covering off the financial, supply chain, operations and project elements. This means Dynamics 365 contains standout NAV features including a dedicated manufacturing module, multi-currency capabilities, electronic document management and workflows.

The manufacturing element, which brings Dynamics 365 in-line with Dynamics NAV 2018, caters to the very specific, and sometimes overlooked, needs of the manufacturing sector. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 you can gain better visibility of, and therefore improve, your manufacturing processes. Similarly, with an end-to-end view of all of your business’ operations, you can optimise your supply chain processes with data on order fulfilment and customer satisfaction, as well as built-in intelligence that can help you keep stock levels stable.

The combination of Dynamics NAV and a CRM solution solves one of the pain points of Dynamics NAV users – that there was no helpdesk functionality. Dynamics 365 allows you to manage your customer service effortlessly, end-to-end. Through the Customer Service Cases option, customers can log cases as well as use self-serve solutions like a searchable knowledgebase and interactive webforms.

At a high-level, Dynamics 365 offers a familiar user interface, matching the likes of recent versions of Dynamics NAV, CRM and the much-loved Office 365. In a similar vein, it integrates beautifully with Microsoft’s ecosystem of applications – not that you’d expect anything less. You can connect a PowerApp to D365 that will feed data to your system, get vital business insights with Power BI or even use the quote-to-cash feature natively in Outlook. It’s mobile too, with apps available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, meaning your colleagues can access vital customer information on-the-go. 

Moving to Dynamics 365 is a step in the direction of digital transformation. The unification of two solutions your employees will use every day – ERP and CRM – means streamlined business processes, which results in higher productivity, better customer service and ultimately increased profitability. In fact, as part of our new Director of Business Transformation, Rory McKeand’s transformation process, TSG is replacing standard Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Dynamics 365. As part of this we’re also reviewing every single business process to weed out time-consuming, unproductive tasks and increasing our efficiency, which will impact on our customers’ experience.

Through its per-user-per-month subscription model, Dynamics 365 offers the functionality of Dynamics NAV at a much lower price point, eliminating the upfront capex entirely. This brings what is considered enterprise-level functionality to the midmarket and makes the functionality of Dynamics NAV a viable option to more businesses than ever before.

What next?

Have questions about Dynamics 365? Get in touch with our experts today. You can also check out Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central capabilities.