Change Management

Migrating from On-Premise ERP to Microsoft Dynamics 365

Global Data 365
May 21, 2021

Importance of Reporting Tools in Business Management

Many software companies are adopting a cloud-first strategy for designing, deploying, and selling their products. ERP is no different. Microsoft has been improving its range of ERP and CRM business applications to suit a cloud-centered strategy for many years. Customers of Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL will eventually move to one of the two cloud-based ERP products, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC) or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O).

Microsoft will target its resources in the future on only those two ERP products. Microsoft D365 F&O is aimed at mid-sized companies, while Microsoft D365 BC is more suited to smaller businesses with simpler needs. Both technologies have their origins in one of Microsoft’s current ERP code lines (AX and NAV, respectively), but the company has redesigned its technology and made major improvements. Microsoft is likely urging you to consider moving to the cloud if your company is currently using any of the Microsoft Dynamics legacy products. Microsoft continues to support its legacy products until at least 2028, but potential investments in enhanced features will be focused on the two latest Microsoft D365 products.

Making the transition to cloud ERP comes with a slew of advantages. It offers a reliable, scalable IT infrastructure and enhanced integration capabilities, allowing wider implementation of digital transformation technologies. Moving to the cloud, on the other hand, would necessitate yet another large project, with all of the associated expense, difficulty, and risk. How do companies navigate the process to achieve beneficial outcomes while staying within budget and risk constraints?

Some of the best practices for migration to Microsoft Dynamics 365 include:

- Starting the Process Early

Despite Microsoft’s determination to support its legacy Dynamics products for at least another eight years, business leaders should begin considering cloud migration now. The big picture of the migration process allows companies to better prepare for the future and divide the process down into smaller steps that are easier to handle and lower risk. Companies can better identify their needs if they provide enough time for thorough preparation and review. This includes determining which Microsoft D365 components the new platform would need. Microsoft is using a more flexible licensing model for its cloud-ERP apps than it does for its legacy on premise ERP applications.

Microsoft D365 Finance and Operations, for example, is made up of two main parts: Microsoft D365 Finance and Microsoft D365 Supply Chain Management. You may buy user licenses for specific subgroups of the entire experience, but they function together as a cohesive whole. As a result, rather than paying a premium price for unrestricted access, you’ll only pay for the features needed for each user. Current Microsoft Dynamics customers are eligible for discounts, which should be noted by business leaders. Microsoft has encouraged consumers to make the transition by providing competitive subscription rates to customers of their current legacy ERP solutions, while the company seeks to rapidly expand its position as a pioneer in cloud ERP.

- Deploying a Test Setting

Customers usually also create vendor specifications to simplify the management of incoming inventory. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the default for obtaining the sales order and delivering advanced shipping notices (ASNs) to customers used by big-box retailers. Larger consumers also enforce barcoding conditions. Although those are well-known examples, large companies are increasingly requiring suppliers to adhere to other requirements as well. Walmart declared its plan to reduce CO2 emissions in 2017. Project Gigaton, as the program is called, aims to reduce the company’s carbon footprint across the supply chain. In other words, Walmart will demand that its suppliers keep track of the carbon footprint of the goods they sell to the company.

Only a few ERP vendors have built processes into their software to monitor this type of data. It is starting to happen in the biggest, most costly programs, but for most organisations, the problem can be solved with a blend of custom user-defined fields and versatile reporting tools. Whatever potential requirements can entail, reporting tools may help companies remain in compliance.

- Divide the Project

Trying to break up a cloud-ERP migration into smaller chunks is a smart idea for business leaders. This may include initiatives that can be done in advance, providing immediate benefits to the company and a reduction in cost and risk when it is time to migrate the ERP to the cloud. An improvement of reporting tools, procedures, and designs is another big project that you can do ahead of time. This is simpler than it seems, and it’s particularly critical in the sense of migrating to Microsoft D365 in the cloud because Microsoft is making significant technological improvements to the way you manage data for reports and also the reporting set of tools for its ERP applications.

Microsoft has limited direct access to the Microsoft D365 F&SCM server to boost security, substituting it with an abstraction layer made up of “data entities.” The new strategy to migration to Microsoft D365 F&SCM necessitates a significant investment in the creation of data entities that will push reporting against the cloud-ERP framework. The effort would necessitate highly trained technical experts and will take a long time. Microsoft’s latest reporting strategy is motivated by the company’s willingness to transfer customers to Azure Data Lakes and Microsoft Power BI.

What can Global Data 365 Offer for Migrating ERP to Microsoft Dynamics 365?

The reporting and analytics tools from Global Data 365 minimize complexity, lower costs, and reduce the possibility of lengthy implementations. They remove the need for experts by allowing finance, accounting, operations, and other departments to generate and adjust reports without relying on IT. We have advanced reporting and analytics solutions that integrate with more than 140 different ERP software systems, including the entire Microsoft Dynamics product line. One of them is Jet Analytics. It greatly simplifies and reduces the expense of cloud migration. Reports produced for legacy systems Microsoft Dynamics products can operate in the Microsoft Office D365 setting without a lot of changes.

Schedule a personalized demo with one of our Jet experts. Contact us now.

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Global Data 365 is composed of highly skilled professionals who specialize in streamlining the data and automate the reporting process through the utilization of various business intelligence tools.

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Why BI Implementation Can Be Risky?

Global Data 365
May 21, 2021

Gartner recently published a study on all the stuff that can go wrong with your BI implementation. We have classified them into 8 different risks to your BI implementation based on our team’s insights here at Global Data 365. These risks can easily be overcome, but they are very likely to infiltrate your business plans.

An analyst in Gartner’s report takes great pains to stress that there is far more risk associated with non-technology problems than there is with implementing infrastructure, resources, and applications. Listed below are the 8 different risks of BI Implementation; so you can recognize them and avoid potential problems in the future.

-Building a Project with BI Implementation

Starting a business intelligence project with this mentality means that the program is funded by IT and is usually led from a technological or data-centric viewpoint. The issue is that BI Implementation is being driven by IT rather than the company. Unless IT has a strategic plan or a consumer case of their own to include here, they aren’t interested in the final consumption of the BI deliverable and can only play a minor part in the development.

The solution is to ensure that the project team includes a marking scheme from the business side of the house from the start of the planning phase through infrastructure upgrades.

- Excel Culture

The second potential risks can be Excel. With Excel, you collect data from an internal structure, load it into Excel, and manipulate the figures. Every single person who participates in this would have a different point of view for the BI Implementation. Different methods of converting numbers into metrics will be used. They may also have opposing goals. You’ll get different results from each, and your data will be totally inaccurate. To us, that just means one thing: risk. The company is at risk. It’s the danger that comes with making costly decisions based on inaccurate knowledge.

The solution is to build a data warehouse. This will be the location where everyone has settled on the data that will be used to handle the company, as well as how that data will be combined with the methods that will be used to measure items like total revenue and net income.

- Issues in Data Quality

Everyone deals with issues in data quality. The problems that trigger it are various, and their effect on business intelligence is important. This is because people would not use BI software based on data that is meaningless, incomplete, or suspicious.

Establishing a process or collection of automated controls to detect bad data and prevent it from entering the data warehouse or BI environment is the solution. Surprisingly, a BI implementation can solve this problem all by itself. It’s because having data quality problems in a dashboard will draw attention to them. That should give you a good idea of how to track them down. Learn how to plan your data for business intelligence.

- Diverse Options

You’ll be confused if you search “BI solutions”, attend a related tradeshow, or read quite a lot of BI reports. There are several options available. But how do you know which approach to business intelligence or that the BI implementation is right for you?

The solution is to avoid putting the cart before the horse. First, assess the requirements. Evaluate them from a market and a technological standpoint, and then use the results of that exercise to guide the quest for approaches and solution providers.

- Using Existing IT Provider

BI is unlike any other project. Since you’re working with human beings and their methods, as well as the changing conditions of the business world, there’s a little luck involved. We are convinced that a business that specializes in BI projects will not be able to help you succeed. Seeking a business that specializes in BI environments is the safest approach. For this, you’ll need a professional.

If you’ve decided that they have the technological experience and track record to make you happy, if you want to be good, don’t be afraid to evaluate them on fit, desire, and dedication. Those are the things that are more difficult to determine, but BI implementations usually last a long time, so it won’t cause you any problem.

- Time in BI Implementation

The other threat is about the time it takes in your BI implementation. A BI project can be placed into a low-cost maintenance state, but your company will never stop evolving, and because BI is built to model your business, it must also change.

Having demands is one way to avoid this from being a concern. You should anticipate that the BI success would be a moving target over time. Let everyone know how things will pan out. Prepare for it by scheduling deliverables and budgeting for it.

- Insufficient Training

Many companies spend all their BI budgets on software applications and a few weeks of user training. Today’s BI systems, on the other hand, are dynamic constructs that need much more training for users to derive true value from them. Besides, continuous training is needed to ensure that users are familiar with and comfortable with the system.

Furthermore, companies should ensure that the software they install contains online training videos that help users become more comfortable with the current BI framework or the companies should opt for online training of the BI Software they use.

- Data Collection from BI software

Some businesses gather useful data from their business intelligence tools but don’t distribute, evaluate, or act on it. When deciding what to do with BI implementation, it’s important to think outside the box. Companies may avoid risk and make educated decisions to move their industry forward by using the knowledge collected and adapting it to their own business models.

Companies can use BI software on different data points, analyze risks, and predict trends. To improve the reporting capabilities of their BI software, companies should be able to identify risks and predict trends.

Having a Strategy

Not having a BI strategy can be one of the biggest threat to your BI implementation. BI strategy can change the way you collect, analyze, and deliver data. As everyone works on the same KPIs to drive action and optimize processes, there is no chance of manual error.

Global Data 365 It helps you with its experienced team who considers all the potential risks and avoids them during your BI implementation. To discuss your requirement, speak to one of our BI experts.

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