| Posted by George Delp Are you running older Enterprise Resource Planning software? Are you curious about the latest Microsoft offerings? If you answer yes to either of those questions I encourage you to spend a few minutes learning about Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. |  |
Q: What is Business Central?
| A: | Business Central is basically the next iteration of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The last release of NAV was version 2018. There is no NAV version 2019. Dynamics 365 Business Central is the proper successor. |
Q: Is Business Central the Same as NAV?
| A: | Yes and no. For those that have used NAV in the past, they will recognize that Business Central shares a lot in common. But Business Central has done away with the thick client interface and only has a web-based user interface. Therefore, some of the navigation and such has changed a little bit. The customization and development environment has also undergone a lot of changes. The old model of importing objects for customizations is gone. Everything is now done with Extensions. More on that in a later post. |
Q: Can I Run Business Central On-Premise?
| A: | Yes! Business Central is available online hosted by Microsoft or on premise hosted by yourself. You can also have Microsoft partners host the on-premise version for you. The Microsoft hosted version is paid monthly. With the on-premise version you have the option to front load your costs, similar to how you used to pay for NAV. |
Q: What Makes Business Central Unique?
| A: | Business Central has turnkey plugins and integrations with other Microsoft products like Outlook, PowerBI and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (aka CRM). It has out of the box, responsively designed, apps for phones and tablets. It has an app store, called AppSource, that has hundreds of apps that you can try out. It is easy to learn and to configure the screens to meet user requirements. |
Q: What Does It Do?
| A: | Business Central offers a broad range of rich functionality, including financial management, supply chain management, manufacturing, project management, service management and customer relationship management. |
Q: What Does It Look Like?
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Q: Can I Take It for A Test Drive?
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Q: How Does It Compare to Sage, SAP, Oracle, etc.?
| A: | It really depends on your situation. Your prior experience, functional requirements and preference of other applications/ecosystem all factor the decision-making process. Business Central competes well in a variety of situations and is usually worth having on your short list. |
