Why implement an ERP in 2021 with Microsoft Dynamics?
See the following Infographic by IDC, sponsored by Microsoft and brought to you by Endeavour Solutions.
Endeavour offers Advisory, Implementation, and Support services for Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV ERP, and Dynamics 365 Sales & Service (CRM) in Canada, and remotely across the USA.
Productivity benefits of Cloud or On-premise ERP: Building business success
– Work more productively
– Make better decisions
– Be more agile
– Increase revenue
Optimizing the value of an ERP
– Move it to the cloud
– Maximize the use of mobile and mobility
– Integrate fully with other apps and applications
Must haves for Next Gen ERP systems
– Fast deployment options with Endeavour Solutions
– Intuitive easy-to-use interface, complemented with ERP training from Endeavour Solutions
– Interconnected with other productivity apps such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power Apps, Dynamics 365 CRM, and Office 365 configured and connected by Endeavour Solutions
Visit our new dedicated website for Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) consulting services – GP Support North to learn more about what’s new for Dynamics GP 18.3 and our support for Dynamics GP USA and Canada clients.
Dynamics GP Support North America – GP Consultants for USA and Canada
April 2019 – Endeavour is aware of an issue caused by a recent update to Adobe Writer / Adobe Professional. This issue is impacting all versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP when creating PDF documents. The issue relates to a new security message that appears when GP attempts to create a PDF document.
The Adobe security message appears BEHIND the main GP interface.
This Adobe security warning affecting Microsoft Dynamics GP is preventing users from interacting with the message. GP may appear to be frozen.
If your organization uses Adobe Professional / Adobe Writer along with Dynamics GP, you will need to make the changes outlined in the Adobe technical article linked below.
Common uses of Adobe Writer and Dynamics GP include the Paystub Emailer add-on from Encore and the Emailer add-on from Binary Stream – to name a few. This issue does not apply to emailing PDF documents via the Dynamics GP Word Template functionality.
If you need additional assistance, or would like to jointly test to see if this issue applies to your Dynamics GP environment, please contact the Endeavour Solutions Support desk by emailing support@endeavoursolutions.ca .
KPI’s, Business Intelligence, Custom Reports and Datamarts are nothing new to Microsoft Dynamics GP, but the potential for user adoption and ease of access has improved significantly with the release and recent updates to Microsoft Power BI – Microsoft’s new cloud based dashboard and reporting tool. As a testament to Microsoft’s backing of this great tool, we’ve been told that Power BI will be embedded across the entire 2018 Microsoft Dynamics portfolio including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
What is Business Intelligence?
Business Intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help corporate executives, business managers and other end users make more informed business decisions.
Embedding Power BI Dashboards and KPIs in your organization
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be used as a defined measure to gauge the performance of how your business operations and strategies are being implemented and executed. Microsoft Dynamics GP can obviously give you the answers, but typically only if you are looking for them, and periodically additional outside information is needed to form a more complete story. Additionally, there are users that may be outside of your core GP team, who would love to gain access to AR, Sales and other KPI. PowerBI can be a good means to help expose such valuable insights. For example, Endeavour’s GP Bistro product connects GP with Dynamics 365 for Sales (CRM) and used Power BI within CRM to provide dashboards for sales by custom, AR aging by customer, and popular products sold. www.endeavour365.ca/gpbistro
Telling a story with KPIs and dashboards via Microsoft Power BI can serve to “keep a pulse” on such metrics, supporting an aggregation of information and a more frequent review of metrics by business users. This higher frequency (weekly, daily, even multiple times a day) of reviewing and taking action based on specific metrics relevant to each department is what is referred to as “embedding KPIs” within your organization. Before we look at user adoption in relation to your efforts to embed dashboards and KPIs, let’s take a quick look into what makes a great dashboard and set of KPIs in the first place.
What makes a great Power BI dashboard and set of KPIs?
Most KPI’s and related visualizations seen on a dashboard (graphics, numbers, pie charts, maps, bar graphs) represent specific metrics. Each metric can tell its own story and together with other related metrics on the same dashboard, can tell a broader and more complete story, including storytelling elements such as a timelines, cause and effect relationships, and a shared context.
Each KPI on your dashboard should follow the M-C-A method for KPIs; an acronym representing: Measurable, Common understanding and Actionable.
Great KPIs require all three (M-C-A) and typically start with a Measure represented by a $, # or %. The measures should be supported by a Common understanding around the source of the data, the timeline represented, the method of calculation, and the desired targets. Periodically our consultants will host a cross-functional team meeting to assist clients in reaching an internal agreement on specific measures such as % Available Inventory. Finally, great KPIs should be Actionable. Actionable refers to the underlying business commitment to keep a pulse on business performance and to hold specific people accountable for the results. Actionable also refers to the documented set of future actions that will be used to adjust the ‘people, processes or technology’ if the KPI targets are missed.
Supporting User Adoption of Embedded KPIs
Once the dashboards and KPIs are designed and published using Microsoft Power BI, there is a need to ensure that the business users are able to embrace and accept these dashboards within their daily practices. Without adoption, your team will be hard pressed to achieve any positive action and performance improvements if the dashboards are not used.
Borrowing from our Project Managers at Endeavour Solutions, user adoption is best supported by facilitating three key inputs: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, or what has also been referred to as reaching the user’s head, heart and hands. Our lead Consultants and Project Managers often include a change management plan (communications and training) that strives to anticipate and address potential user gaps such as the following:
• Knowledge of what the change is, including the difference between the old and the new.
• Attitude towards the change, sometimes boiling down to either: WIIFM – “what’s in it for me”, or addressing any issues of ‘trust’ related to the questionable success of past changes.
• Ability to Practice, test, trial, and live through the change. From a Dashboard and Power BI perspective, this would involve a short training session and clear set of communications on what the KPI’s mean, how they are calculated, desired thresholds, future targets and the actions that can be taken to improve results.
Next Steps
Dashboards and KPIs serve to keep a view of specific tactics, keeping a scorecard on the actions and programs that are implemented to support your organization’s efforts and strategic goals. We’ve found that the ease of deployment, when using Microsoft Power BI, has been greatly increased, and thus reducing the cost of deploying Dashboards and KPIs within your organization.
As a next step, we recommend watching our Power BI Demo video (39min) accessed on-demand via our website at www.endeavoursolutions.ca/businessintelligence , then talking with your peers and broader business community around the types of KPIs (that are M-C-A) and dashboards that can help to improve your organization’s performance. In the video, we outline a project methodology as well as additional recommendations and next steps for you and your team.
Need help?
Our consultants at Endeavour Solutions have a number of pre-defined KPIs, sample dashboards and a defined project methodology, that can help to accelerate the adoption and embedding of dashboards and KPIs as part of your next Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Intelligence project. www.endeavoursolutions.ca/about-us
First of all, yes you can have your on-premise server-based software hosted in a Dynamics GP Cloud.
There are a variety of flavours of “Cloud”. The two main ones that we recommend are Public Cloud (Microsoft Azure) or Private Cloud (Endeavour’s Cloud hosting partner).
For today’s insight, lets focus on the Private Cloud, as the Azure public cloud is currently geared more towards technical IT needs.
So, what is the difference between a private cloud and what you may have now?
It depends on what you have now. If your current Microsoft Dynamics GP or Dynamics CRM server-based software is already hosted off-site at a 3rd party data centre, the two may be roughly the same, just a different billing model (per user fee vs a list of monthly service fees) and potentially a different set of support services.
If your current Microsoft Dynamics GP or Dynamics CRM server-based software is hosted in an “IT closet” at your office, there is a good chance that moving to a Private Cloud may be quite a bit different – and well worth considering.
Some of the high level differences between cloud and internal hosting include:
For CRM web clients, the user experience would be roughly the same, though mobile access may be easier to setup via a private cloud.
If you are using the Dynamics GP desktop clients, you will need to RDP (remote desktop) into the server for the private cloud, many clients are already doing this rather than a full direct-connect.
For GP web client and remote access from a home office, this will be easier via a private cloud.
The firewall, anti-virus and other security measures are almost always better in a private cloud.
In terms of Risk, typically the private cloud is a safer bet.
Better disaster recovery, better back-up and better restore times.
Better physical security, better cyber-security and better fire protection.
Often a greater level of IT monitoring and loading of periodic windows and security patches.
Performance may also be better with cloud depending on the specifications and age of your current infrastructure
Does Private Cloud hosting cost more?
The short answer is “Maybe”, (see Endeavour Canadain GP Private Cloud Price)
The long answer is often a resounding “No”, once other costs/risks are considered. The top costs to consider are:
The IT support services that you use to monitor and maintain your IT infrastructure.
The back-up and off-site storage protocols that you have in place.
The ongoing physical security, cyber-security and protection efforts employed.
The level of Risk you are prepared to assume, the consequences and cost of a potential breach (ie Ransomware or theft of customer data)
If your IT team is highly skilled and are backed by a healthy budget, then a private cloud will often cost less, however if your IT team is running on a shoestring budget, or are seen as a sunk cost, then, yes a Private Cloud will be seen as costing more – but may be worth it in terms of reduced risk.
Beware of deals (e-mail SPAM) that are Too Good – To Be True (TG-TBT), as they probably are!
To Good to be True # 1 – Free migration, GP migration with no ISV’s, with free online training.
Migration excluding ISV’s (3rd party products) is of little use as most rely on ISV products.
Free online training is on CustomerSource. Endeavour has many free recorded webinars.
Training and support for your business processes and specific configuration is better via Endeavour Support.
To Good to be True # 2 – Low cost introductory Azure hosting. Our technical team has looked extensively at this.
When 24×7 performance and various consumption fee’s add up, costs are double the introductory fees.
Dynamics GP needs additional server(s) power and memory for remote desktop, for MR and for some of the more complex modules and ISV’s.
To Good to be True # 3 – Dynamics GP in the Cloud as an all-in subscription with no software maintenance.
This is smoke and mirrors unless you are 100% vanilla GP with no ISV and no significant configurations.
This scenario is essentially a net new implementation with high costs to configure to your needs, which I assume are already being met. (if you need help contact support)
With current Microsoft prices, moving from a perpetual concurrent user license to a per-named-user subscription license will cost more in the long run.
The Answer is: Embrace the Endeavour Private Cloud, for those clients where Cloud is a good fit.
Deciding to leave Dynamics GP is bittersweet. Our team at GP Support North will miss you, however, our Business Central migration and support team at Endeavour Solutions is eager to help you succeed.
Productivity benefits of Cloud or On-premise ERP: Building business success
