We traveled to Denver earlier this month to attend DynamicsCon. The week was jam-packed with educational sessions, listening to stories from end users and other partners, and learning about the ever-evolving marketplace.
It’s impossible to summarize everything (there were over 250 sessions and over 1,500 people there) we saw. Suffice to say it was an amazing experience and we are so grateful to the city of Denver and the team at DUG for putting on this awesome event.
We met people from many different industries and functional areas, but most of the individuals we met were either in Finance or IT. We also noticed that many of the people there were users of more than just one app. The most common combination was Business Central or Finance and Supply Chain Management with Customer Engagement or Power Platform.
The most popular industry represented at the conference was manufacturing and distribution, which is no surprise given investment that both Microsoft and the partner ecosystem is making in both industries.
Here’s what you missed:
Cloud Migrations
We are going to be talking about cloud migrations for the foreseeable future. There are plenty of people who were using GP or NAV and planning a migration to Business Central or F&SCM. Like Summit, this was one of the most popular topics.
At Summit, we encountered many GP users planning a migration to Business Central. At DynamicsCon, we spoke with an equal number of companies using NAV and GP.
The process for planning a migration from GP to Business Central is very different from the process of planning a migration from NAV to Business Central. Regardless, there are several ways to de-risk a migration from legacy to modern ERP.
- Use a business value assessment to unpack the value and identify the most important outcomes.
- Optimize processes and build a blueprint ahead of the implementation.
- Use a proof of concept to build confidence in a mission critical process.
One of our favorite sessions on this topic was hosted by an end user who was in the process of migrating from GP to Business Central. She told us her story and then we had an interactive discussion about data migration and some of the tools & strategies available.
Looking towards optimization
The number of companies live on Business Central (and the rest of the Dynamics 365 platform for that matter) is growing every day. There was more talk about how to optimize after going live at DynamicsCon than there was last year at Community Summit.
One of our favorite sessions on this topic was led by another Business Central partner and an end user that was focused on the concept of an “ERP Health Check”. This session was from the perspective of an IT leader and we learned about several ways to proactively ensure your ERP is driving business outcomes. There was a lively audience discussion at the end where we drilled into best practices or prioritizing tasks in a health check.
The big takeaway from this session (which we wholeheartedly agree with) is that ERP is a living, breathing part of your organization. There is not “set it and forget it” option. ERP drives business outcomes. Without proper care and feeding, ERP can become a blocker to outcomes.
AI, AI, AI
AI should be top of mind for every business. The Dynamics and Power Platform ecosystem is fully embracing AI to help customers unlock hidden potential and move faster. The keynote energized everyone – and for good reason. During the keynote, we got a peak at Copilot for Finance. This tool connects to your financial data and adds automation to some of the common activities finance teams spend time on.
- Balance sheet reconciliations
- Trend analysis
- Pulling information together for customer communications (e.g., collections)
The transition to cloud unfolded at a reasonable pace. The transition to AI is moving at lightspeed. IDC research predicts 40% of net new apps in the marketplace will incorporate AI by 2026.
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