MICROSOFT DYNAMICS GP TO BUSINESS CENTRAL UPGRADES THOUGHTS

EPISODE 1: CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR OPTIONS

PART 1

Our guests on this episode, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics, walk us through some of the reasons today’s on-premises SMB ERP customer may be tomorrow’s SaaS enterprise ERP customer – or not.

SHOW NOTES

• 2:00 – Karen’s background in the ERP channel
• 3:00 – On being challenged to think about more than just Business Central for today’s GP customers
• 5:00 – When a GP customer should stay on GP
• 7:45 – Microsoft’s advantage by improving GP to BC cloud migrations
• 11:00 – The importance of master data cleanup
• 14:00 – Why GP customers may not be aware of the extent of the customization and ISV add-on solutions in their ERP
• 18:30 – Consolidating legacy systems
• 20:30 – Why leaving GP ought to be a move to the cloud in some form – whether BC, F&O, or another

EPISODE 2: ADVANCED STRATEGIES

PART 2

In the first episode of this series about upgrade strategies for Microsoft Dynamics GP customers, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics joined us to discuss the wide-ranging the experiences of these organizations and varied viewpoints they hold today when it comes to the much-hyped promise of moving from on-prem ERP to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud.

On this second episode, we go deeper on the needs of GP customers today. The tens of thousands of GP customers in the world are a diverse group. Some have watched carefully as Microsoft and other vendors have released their new generation of ERP solutions, while others need someone to come in and start from the beginning on what cloud is all about. Peter and Karen agree that GP customers should expect their partners to take a consultative approach rather than acting as an extension of their IT team. And they discuss some of the signs that a company is a good candidate for moving to pure cloud ERP as opposed to some other alternative.

SHOW NOTES

• 1:00 – When talking about upgrades, why talk about the GP market’s decisions?
• 4:30 – Why don’t companies have a great understanding of what a newer ERP system can do for their businesses?
• 6:30 – The challenge of taking a consultative approach rather than a technical approach to ERP discussions
• 10:30 – Signs that an organization really needs to consider a new ERP
• 15:30 – What roles or groups tend to support new technology investments and why is there resistance in other areas?
• 19:30 – Distinguishing between different types of GP deployments and why the broad use means different future needs
• 22:30 – Why executive vision is the critical foundation to enterprise application investments, both for the organization and the success of an implementation partner
• 24:30 – How coronavirus has impacted the ERP and broader IT priorities of organizations

EPISODE 3: CLOUD OPTIONS AND STRATEGIES

PART 3

Examining the Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 BC upgrade conversation

In the first episode of this series about upgrade strategies for Microsoft Dynamics GP customers, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics joined us to discuss the wide-ranging the experiences of these organizations and varied viewpoints they hold today when it comes to the much-hyped promise of moving from on-prem ERP to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud.

On this second episode, we go deeper on the needs of GP customers today. The tens of thousands of GP customers in the world are a diverse group. Some have watched carefully as Microsoft and other vendors have released their new generation of ERP solutions, while others need someone to come in and start from the beginning on what cloud is all about. Peter and Karen agree that GP customers should expect their partners to take a consultative approach rather than acting as an extension of their IT team. And they discuss some of the signs that a company is a good candidate for moving to pure cloud ERP as opposed to some other alternative.

SHOW NOTES

• 2:15 – Why now is the time to talk about GP customer upgrade options
  
• 8:45 – Defining two of the unique reasons why GP customers are
  motivated for a change
  
• 16:45 – Are GP customers moving to cloud hosting?
• 20:15 – Multi-tenancy – what it means that GP doesn't support it
  
• 22:45 – Peter makes the case for why GP to BC is not an upgrade
  
• 24:45 – Are GP users educating themselves?
  
• 28:45 – Why Karen is seeing interest in Intelligent Cloud
  
• 30:15 – Where should this series go from here?

EPISODE 4: The BC vs F&O Question

PART 4

This is episode 4 of our GP to Dynamics 365 migration series. We cover a range of topics today, but the primary focus is on looking beyond Business Central when it comes to GP migrations. In this episode we will explore:

• Finance and operations
• What kind of gp customers might be suited for it and which might not be
• Challenges partners face
• Suggesting F&O or solutions other than BC
• Impact of other solutions
  

EPISODE 5: What Dynamics GP customers will hear from Microsoft in 2021

PART 5

On this episode we welcome back Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics and Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies for a discussion of the new year's Dynamics GP outlook for customers and partners.

Dynamics 365 Business Central is Microsoft's SMB ERP product of the future, so changes still to come are to some extent predictable already starting to play out: incentives for legacy ERP customers to plan for a transition to BC; greater urgency on partners to transact via Microsoft's CSP program, and a GP product roadmap that has shriveled to almost nothing.



But given these realities, what is to be done? The economics of ERP are changing along with the rest of IT and enterprise software. We discuss the impact of some of Microsoft's latest moves like new cloud assessments for on-prem customers (not necessarily through their partner of record) and the latest channel sales incentives. These changes will impact customers both in terms of whom they consult with and what types of partners can really serve their needs in the future.

SHOW NOTES

• 2:30 - Microsoft's interest in getting customers to assess a transition away from Dynamics GP
• 4:30 - Why aren't GP customers more interest in transitioning to cloud ERP?
• 7:00 - Pressure on partners to manage their GP customers
• 10:00 - Finding an optimal way to engage with Microsoft customers: Can a partner talk to both IT and the CFO?
• 12:00 - What should a customer really expect from their partner in terms of making sense of Microsoft's offerings?
• 16:30 - How difficult is it for GP customers to do a full assessment of their next steps?
• 20:15 - The economic challenges of ERP for Microsoft partners
• 25:00 - What does the subscription-based ERP model mean for Microsoft's goals and partners' challenges?
• 32:30 - How well has GP served its user base during the pandemic?
• 36:30 - How many GP to BC transitions are really happening?
• 39:00 - Who is doing GP to BC transition assessments for Microsoft and what are the outcomes?
• 44:30 - How will Microsoft's newest incentives shape the partner channel in 2021?
• 47:30 - Do partners and Microsoft have a responsibility to encourage their clients to evolve enterprise IT?
• 48:30 - 2021 predictions