7 Ways business leaders optimize ERP systems to mitigate risk
An enterprise resource planning system (ERP) is a vital part of any company’s operation. It supports critical functions such as accounting, financial reporting, manufacturing, inventory management, supply chain management, and human resources. The first ERP systems, as we know them today, were created around 1990. This was before smartphones, before graphical interfaces and before the internet became public-facing worldwide. It is not easy to change your backbone whether you are a person or a business. Many modern, internet-driven, and growing businesses still rely on decade-old ERP systems that were built when business processes needed to be adapted to the ERP. Relying on on-premises legacy ERP systems can lead to inefficiencies that can directly impact a company’s bottom line. Modernizing ERP systems is a priority for businesses that are looking to grow. To streamline operations and ensure that they are always running the latest version of ERP software, more businesses are migrating to the cloud-based ERP solution. This is a critical requirement for modern ERP. Gartner, a research firm that coined “enterprise resource plan” in the 1990s estimates that 53% of all ERP systems were cloud-based in 2021. The cloud will also increase its share of ERP installations to 58% by 2024. Modernizing your ERP system can be a challenge. It is important to know what ERP modernization means for your business and how to modernize your ERP systems in the most efficient way. What is ERP modernization? Modernizing ERP starts with upgrading an ERP system to a newer version and then migrating from on-premises ERP to cloud-based ERP. ERP Modernization can be done for many reasons. These include removing inefficiencies, better-supporting business growth, better meeting business requirements, and improving the ease of use. All these reasons revolve around flexibility and choice. Consider the example of employees who need to access business data remotely while on the go. Cloud-based ERP solutions are required to allow users to log into their accounts from anywhere, on any device. Mobile access to data makes teams more productive and agile which, in turn, increases their business’ competitiveness. An organization may choose to have all its business functionality from one ERP software provider, allowing for flexibility and choice. Cloud ERP: How can it deliver modernization and mitigate risk? Modernization of ERP systems is becoming more popular due to new technologies and business changes. Cloud-based ERP solutions can do much more than just modernize business operations. They remove barriers between data sources and teams, which transforms how employees in your company make decisions. This makes it possible for your teams to collaborate and work more efficiently, which in turn leads to improved enterprise productivity and better customer experiences. Here are seven ways cloud-based ERP solutions can modernize your business. Efficient processing Cloud ERP systems automate and simplify business workflows. This includes an accounting system, financial reporting, vendor and inventory management, and HR tools. They also provide a consistent interface between business processes across departments which makes it easier for employees to work efficiently and simplify their lives. Increased data visibility ERP systems are the core of your business operations. They store and manage data from many critical processes such as accounting and supply chains, warehouse inventory, human resources, and logistics. Modern ERP systems enable companies to consolidate all this data in one location. This allows business leaders to make more informed decisions based on a better view of their operations. Multilayered security Secure access and utilization of data are one of the key reasons modernization is important. These days, businesses are becoming increasingly data-driven. Data that is valuable becomes more susceptible to cyber-attacks. Modern cloud-based ERP software provides a multilayered security architecture model. This allows you to create user-specific authorization so that only authorized personnel can access the database. You can also keep track of user activity to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. Stress-free customer delivery ERP modernization, like any other technology transformation, is ultimately driven by the desire to better serve customers. Customers, directly and indirectly, benefit from improved business processes. This is dependent on the ERP system’s ability to allow teams to access mission-critical data and make decisions. Cloud-based systems consolidate all this information in one place. This makes customer-facing teams more flexible and less likely to make mistakes, allowing them to deliver better customer experiences. Lower cost Modern cloud-based ERP systems can reduce or eliminate upfront expenses. Instead of paying upfront costs, businesses pay recurring fees to access their ERP software. They also get automatic updates to the most recent version. When delivered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), a cloud ERP also automates many back-end processes, including the transfer of ERP data between systems like finance and sales, or between procurement and supply chain management. Seamless integrations with other technology Cloud-based ERP systems can also be integrated with third-party IT systems, such as your CRM solutions for marketing or your talent management system for HR. These seamless integrations allow these teams to operate more efficiently and make informed decisions without having to deal with the IT headaches associated with patchwork ERP integrations. Boundless scalability The cloud platform can help you to eliminate the need for IT staff and hardware. Your ERP solutions company will only need to charge a monthly or annual subscription. This is enough to ensure that your ERP system runs smoothly and has no downtime. A cloud ERP system is more flexible than an on-premise solution. You can purchase what you need right now and then scale up or down as needed. The system can rapidly adapt to meet the needs of your business, including users and operations. Modernize your ERP system with Microsoft Business Central: To reap the benefits of ERP modernization is among the primary reasons for many growth-oriented companies switching to the cloud-based Microsoft Business Central. SMEs who utilize Microsoft Business Central see benefits all around, from internal improvements like better efficiency and decision-making to improved experiences for workers that increase productivity and employee retention to enhanced customer service, and better cash flow. ERP modernization is becoming a
Microsoft Business Central: The next step for SMEs
As the CEO of Advaiya Solutions, a leading Microsoft Gold Partner, I have had the opportunity to work with numerous SMEs and help them streamline their operations and increase efficiency through the adoption of Microsoft Business Central. I have seen first-hand the tremendous impact this solution has had on the success and growth of these businesses, and I believe it is time for SMEs to start considering this solution for their operations. As a CFO, you are undoubtedly always looking for ways to improve your company’s financial performance and stay ahead of the competition. Microsoft Business Central can help you achieve this. Here are some of the key reasons why SMEs should adopt Microsoft Business Central: Improved financial management: Microsoft Business Central offers a comprehensive financial management solution that can help you streamline and automate your financial processes. This includes everything from cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger to budgeting and forecasting. With Microsoft Business Central, you can gain real-time insights into your financial performance and make informed decisions to drive growth and profitability. Enhanced supply chain management: Microsoft Business Central provides a robust supply chain management solution that can help you manage your procurement and inventory processes more effectively. This includes everything from vendor management, purchase order processing, and inventory management to sales and inventory forecasting. With Microsoft Business Central, you can ensure that you have the right products in stock at the right time to meet customer demand. Improved customer management: Microsoft Business Central provides a comprehensive customer relationship management solution that can help you manage your sales and marketing processes more effectively. This includes everything from lead and opportunity management, customer segmentation, and campaign management to customer service and support. With Microsoft Business Central, you can better understand your customers and build stronger, more profitable relationships with them. Better collaboration and communication: Microsoft Business Central provides a unified platform that can help you and your teams collaborate and communicate more effectively. This includes everything from task and project management, document management, and communication tools to reporting and analytics. With Microsoft Business Central, you can ensure that everyone in your organization is on the same page and working towards common goals. Seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions: Microsoft Business Central integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft solutions, such as Office 365 and Power Platform, to provide a comprehensive business solution. This integration allows you to leverage the full power of Microsoft technologies to drive your business forward. Increased efficiency and productivity: Microsoft Business Central helps you automate your business processes, freeing up valuable time and resources that can be used to drive growth and profitability. With Microsoft Business Central, you can streamline your operations, reduce manual errors, and improve overall efficiency and business productivity. Scalability and flexibility: Microsoft Business Central is a scalable and flexible solution that can grow with your business. Whether you are a small startup or a large enterprise, Microsoft Business Central can meet your needs and help you achieve your goals. Want information about our comprehensive business management solutions? Click here. In conclusion, Microsoft Business Central is a powerful solution that can help SMEs streamline their operations, improve financial performance, and drive growth and profitability. If you are a CFO looking to take your company to the next level, I highly recommend that you consider adopting Microsoft Business Central. At Advaiya Solutions, we are committed to helping SMEs adopt Microsoft Business Central and realize its full potential. Our team of experts has extensive experience in implementing and customizing this solution to meet the unique needs of SMEs. We would be honored to work with you to help you achieve your goals. Contact us today to learn more about how Microsoft Business Central. Manish Godha, CEO of Advaiya Solutions Manish has over 17 years of IT, technology consulting, and marketing experience. His experience spans the areas of software development, enterprise architecture, marketing, assurance, risk management, security and IT governance. Having founded Advaiya, Manish currently contributes towards shaping overall business strategy, and provides direction and vision to the organization’s various business initiatives. He has worked for engineering industries, large banks, and start-ups, contributing on various areas including marketing, business analysis, solution development and enterprise sales. He specializes in enabling individualized solution sales and has developed analysis based frameworks for allowing effective profiling and solution discovery. Manish has been involved in cloud and big-data initiatives for companies like Microsoft and Google. A practitioner of statistical analysis and systems approach, he has an evolved perspective on potential and fallibility of data-led decision making under complex contexts. Manish is a Chartered Accountant, MBA, Certified Information Systems Auditor, and Certified in Governance of Enterprise IT. A technology professional and enthusiast, Manish is particularly interested in the ways in which technology can have a transformational impact on business. He follows the evolving enterprise architecture perspective and is involved in the architecture, design and development of technology solutions.
Six steps to a successful ERP implementation
An enterprise resource planning or ERP implementation solution offers significant benefits, especially in today’s mobile-savvy marketplace & complex business processes. If your corporation needs a software suite to manage its financial, human resources, supply chain, and other business operations, a centralized and integrated comprehensive business management system like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central may be the useful and advantageous choice to go to. Dynamics 365 ERP enables your organization to access a shared database on any device reliably and offers easy customization, reduced technical costs, and improved productivity. However, there are a few key phrases in the ERP adoption process, each with its own objectives. These phases could be distinct or overlap, depending on the specific requirements of the company. Successful ERP implementation & upgradation of new business processes Phases of an ERP implementation plan – A typical ERP implementation life cycle includes six stages starting from discovery and planning, design, development, testing, and deployment to support and updates. Phase 1: Discovery and planning ERP offers comprehensive solutions to a wide range of business problems. It’s important to determine the true reason for putting ERP into place for your company, though. Your ERP implementation partner assesses your existing systems and procedures to identify the requirements, project scope, milestones, and modifications required. Once your vision and requirements are identified, the implementation partner will prepare the project plan. Want information about our ERP solutions? Consult with our experts As per the study by Panorama, 61.1% of ERP implementations take longer than expected and 74.1% of ERP projects exceed the budget. Although the primary cause of delay and overbudgeting is unclear definitions of ERP implementation. The ERP features must be evaluated in accordance with the barometer of synchronization within the needs of the company. The ERP demand list should be created in accordance with the budget and fundamental requirements to ensure a seamless and obstacle-free ERP deployment. Phase 2: Design phase ERP deployment includes several goals, including improving financial control, supporting organic growth, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as other typical procedures. The team will work on the specific criteria here in order to create the precise design of the new ERP system that your business needs. This entails creating a new, more effective business procedure and workflow. Since they have the most detailed knowledge of the current business process, users must be involved in the design of the new workflow. Additionally, it will also ensure that they will accept and use the new ERP solution. Phase 3: Development The development teams put up the standard solution using agreed-upon configurations and customizations of the ERP solution to support the newly specified process after they had clear design requirements. ERP software is designed after a significant amount of research and according to the needs of the specific industry. In some cases, there may be no need for customization. Additionally, the development phase also entails creating integrations with other work management and business productivity tools that ERP systems won’t be able to replace. Phase 4: Testing Testing is an important phase of the implementation process, which takes care of system and user acceptance testing. In many cases, testing and development can occur concurrently. For instance, the team may test-specific modules and features while implementing fixes and adjustments based on test results or may test one module while the other is in development. Sometimes this phase also includes beta testing, where some employees test the system for their day-to-day activities. This process ensures the ERP solution meets the requirements and is ready for deployment. During the pilot testing, management must evaluate the realization of the value of the system against the desired value of the company. After the successful testing and ensuring the ERP readiness for deployment, data migration activity should be performed before go-live. Under this process, the data from the old system is mapped to the new ERP. To ensure a smooth transition and future use of the software, only the most essential data should be transferred, and great care should be taken to ensure the data will be retrieved from the software whenever required. Training is also the most important aspect of the ERP software implementation process. It ensures there are fewer issues and more success, especially when ERP is implemented for the first time in the company or when the platform is changed from one ERP solution to another. Phase 5: Deployment This is the phase you’ve been striving toward: the go-live date! This is the day when you can officially get started with your new ERP software. Be ready for problems because, despite your best attempts to prepare for them, there may be many moving pieces and confused staff. Your ERP implementation partner will give your staff the necessary instructions and directions to comprehend the system, and they’ll be on hand to respond to inquiries and try to resolve any problems. The majority of data will be moved in the development and test phase. However, other information such as current open transactions should be transferred immediately before it goes live. Phase 6: Support and updates As you become more accustomed to the software, you might need help to create a plan to scale up your ERP solution along with your business. After deployment, your ERP partner will help to keep you satisfied and ensure your business achieves the desired benefits. During this phase, your implementation team may still be in charge of the ERP solutions, but they will now be more concerned with gathering feedback and making necessary adjustments to the system. Some organizations aim to focus on specific high-priority modules or processes and add others later, thus, some additional development and configuration will be integrated into the system later whenever needed. Implementing an ERP solution is a big investment decision by the company involving a large number of resources, therefore, management must continuously maintain tabs on the ERP software and maintenance schedule. Bottom line – Successful implementation of ERP software requires a significant amount of time and effort. The
Microsoft unveils 2022 Wave 1 plan for Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft has released the latest plan for enhancing and updating Dynamics 365 Business Central on April 1, 2022. The Business Central 2022 release wave 1 documents the list of features that are planned to release from April 2022 through September 2022, including the general availability of a Power Platform connector, country expansion, and Teams integration enhancements. However, some functionality may not be released as scheduled due to which certain features may not be released in defined timelines. So let’s take a look at what Microsoft has brought up with its Business Central 2022 Wave 1. But before heading to the feature enhancements, let’s first briefly introduce Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is comprehensive business management, a.k.a. ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution offered by Microsoft for small and mid-sized organizations. It allows businesses to automate and streamlines their business process to produce and maximizes their profit. Business Central was released publicly On April 2, 2018. While bringing Dynamics 365 Online, Microsoft announced a semi-annual feature update model that will release in April and October. In this year’s April release, Microsoft introduced many features. Here are a few highlights from 2022 release wave 1: Application – In 2022 release wave 1, business central’s supply chain and finance capabilities are improved based on the most popular requests for improvement. Better with Microsoft 365 – Microsoft also improved the collaboration on business central data in Microsoft teams and invested in stronger reporting, including better integration with Excel, Enhancements to Microsoft Teams integration, Outlook add-ins popout window enhancements, add email attachments to Business Central records, OneDrive file sharing. Country and regional – In 2022 release wave 1, Microsoft brought the availability of Business Central to over 70 countries. Development – Microsoft continues to invest in enhancing tooling capabilities for developers, including stronger AL language, new Telemetry features, and other tooling capabilities. Governance and administration – In 2022 release wave 1, Business Central delivers the new governance and administration features to help IT professionals and administrators to set up managed licensing and permissions. Microsoft Power Platform – In 2022 release wave 1, Microsoft improves the integration with Microsoft Dataverse. Power Automate capabilities with the newly available Microsoft Power Platform connector are also improved, making it easier to automate workflow directly from Business Central pages. Modern clients – Improvements to the portfolio of clients with the goal of improving usability, accessibility, performance, and stability with features like – copy link from Share menu, new desktop app delivering full web client experience on desktop is listed in the Microsoft Store, control add-in resiliency, usability improvements to the web client. Simplified customer onboarding – Onboarding is one of the keys focuses in every release wave. Dynamics 365 Business Central continues to simplify and fasten the customer onboarding experience by providing an option for guided introduction to personalize their system, increase productivity, and process adoption. Reporting – Reporting is one of the main features for every business user from both perspectives to get insight into new growth opportunities to share data as a foundation for business planning discussions. In Business Central 2022 release wave 1, Microsoft added the new capabilities for financial reporting with account schedules, new pages for report layout administration, and a new excel design layout feature. Service and platform – The 2022 release wave 1 offers better performance and support-related enhancements to keep Microsoft Business Central a dependable service and platform for you to run your business regardless of the small or midsized business (SMB) industry type. For more information about Dynamics 365 Business Central Release Wave 1 2022, visit the Microsoft blog. Also read: 8 reasons Dynamics 365 Business Central is the right business management solution for your business Kirti Sethiya Kirti, Senior Consultant at Advaiya, is a technology enthusiast specialized in business applications and analytics. She has been an integral part of Advaiya for over seven years, contributing to myriad deliverables involving business intelligence, technology marketing, and business consulting.
Automate business processes with Dynamics 365 Business Central
As your business grows in size and complexity and your accounting software isn’t able to keep pace with increasing demands, you are most likely putting your business at risk. Standalone applications, information silos, and manual processes are significant challenges that small and mid-size companies face. As a leader of a growing organization, you always look out for an easy-to-use, secure, scalable, customizable, affordable comprehensive business management solutions that can help you accelerate your organization’s digital transformation journey, something which is a prerequisite to driving your business forward. Deciding to overhaul your accounting software may seem daunting and can confuse you with questions like what kind of solution is right for your business today and for future growth! How can you prepare for change, and how will you know if it’s the right time for a move? But think about the cost of maintaining systems that no longer keep up with what your business demands. The results could be customer disappointment, productivity loss, incomplete or incorrect information, lost opportunities and sales, and much more. There’s never been a better time for businesses to update their legacy systems. The cloud has opened new opportunities for companies of all sizes to affordably expand capabilities, establish greater efficiency and mobility, and be prepared for ever-changing business needs. Upgrading your systems to an integrated and modern cloud solution is easier and more cost-effective than you might think. With several business management solutions available in the market, Dynamics 365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution by Microsoft specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses, connecting people and processes like never before. It offers a range of rich features and advanced functionalities that help businesses get perfect aid to achieve their business goals, transform more rapidly, and deliver better results. Also, as your business will run in the cloud, it is always easy to scale and adapt at your own pace. Comprehensive integration: Deploy one solution to manage your financials, sales, service, and operations with the ability to connect applications like payroll, banking apps, CRM systems, or custom APIs. Connects your entire business: Automatically pulls your systems and processes together, so your people don’t have to. Automates and secures business processes: Improve productivity and get more done with easy-to-create workflows, audit trails, and enterprise-level security—features that essential accounting software can’t provide. Provide an end-to-end view of your business: Centralize your data from accounting, sales, purchasing, inventory, and customer interactions to get an accurate end-to-end idea of your business. All data stays up to date so you can spot trends, prevent issues, and deliver great customer experiences. Enables mobility: Empowers a mobile workforce by delivering the same experience across devices, regardless of their location. Fast from the start: Delivers an easy-to-learn solution that people intuitively know how to use. Despite recognizing the significance of a unified business management solution, companies often fail to implement or upgrade it. Because as important as selecting the right solution is choosing the right implementation partner. You are relying on this company for their expertise and experience in implementing and getting the best out of the software your company has invested in. Advaiya, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, is a technology consulting and implementation services company that provides tailored digital transformation solutions with business applications, cloud, and analytics. At Advaiya, we believe that technology is a great enabler of productivity, creativity, and effectiveness, but only if fully adopted. To learn more about how Dynamics 365 Business Central can streamline your business, request a free consultation with our experts. Kirti Sethiya Kirti Sethiya is a Microsoft certified business applications and analytics consultant at Advaiya. Kirti is a highly experienced technology enthusiast, who has been involved in a wide array of tailored digital transformation projects. Her dedication to solving challenges and identifying new opportunities has provided valuable business-focused results for clients. Most recently, she’s been engaged in helping organizations benefit from Microsoft Dynamics 365.