Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are looking for ways to improve their business operations. Whether that means boosting their productivity, improving their financial performance, streamlining their management practices or all the above, they recognize the power of digital transformation to support their growth. Despite this, some SMBs might not be sure where to start their digital transformation journey or know which tools will best help them achieve their desired outcomes. Therein lies an opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) to act as their trusted IT advisor. The tool they’d be well suited to recommend? Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
According to IDC, 70% of SMBs intend to significantly increase their IT spending by 2026 to help modernize their digital capabilities, and 86% intend to leverage digital apps and platforms specifically by 2028. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is perfectly positioned to meet this demand and satisfy the digital transformation needs of SMBs in a multitude of critical areas. That said, it makes sense for MSPs to have a solid grasp on what Business Central includes and the value it can deliver for clients.
What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Business Central is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that combines finance, sales, service and operations functions within a single comprehensive platform. It brings together components of Microsoft Dynamics 365 specifically designed to meet the needs of SMBs. Simply put, Business Central consolidates key business processes that, when disconnected, slow businesses down, decrease productivity and risk the creation of data silos.
Who uses Business Central?
Because Business Central unifies multiple process areas on the same platform, it goes without saying that it’s useful for a wide range of different company roles. This is one reason it’s attractive for the SMB market; it works for smaller businesses where one person wears multiple hats just as well as it does for slightly larger organizations with more defined departments and business units. It excels at integrating functionality across an entire business environment and facilitates handing off tasks from one unit to the next in such a way that everyone involved—no matter how complex the workflow—stays on the same page.
Keeping this in mind, here are some roles that commonly benefit from access to Business Central:
- Client relationship managers
- Financial managers and accounting staff
- Manufacturing managers
- Project and resource managers
- Sales executives
- Service order managers
- Supply chain managers
- Warehouse managers
Key capabilities of Business Central
Primary functions of Business Central surround financial management, operations management, supply chain management and customer service. While the full list of features is long, here are some key capabilities of interest to SMBs looking to transform how they work and collaborate:
Supercharge business operations
Business Central allows SMBs to be more productive, collaborative and innovative. With so many essential tools under one roof, users can implement custom workflows that facilitate task completion and reduce repetitive data entry. They can also speed up decision making with access to centralized reporting dashboards that pull in data from sources across the entire organization. Backed by more reliable business intelligence that can be shared between departments, Business Central effectively sets SMBs up for goal setting and growth.
Enhance customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a fundamental success factor that can be difficult for any business to manage without proper tooling. Business Central puts powerful CRM resources into the hands of SMBs, enabling them to discover and track opportunities along the sales funnel, facilitate the entire purchase journey and deliver an exceptional customer experience. Users can keep an eye on customer interactions, maintain accurate sales data, identify leads for cross- and upselling, and even improve their marketing efforts.
Improve financial visibility and performance
Business Central gives users end-to-end visibility of their finances. From overseeing budgets to forecasting cash flow, tracking assets and automating bank reconciliation, it empowers businesses to say goodbye to complex accounting spreadsheets and manage their financial performance using a single source of truth.
Fully control the supply chain
Vendor management, e-commerce, inventory organization—overseeing all these moving pieces separately can be a major pain point even when things are running smoothly. Business Central brings these areas together so SMBs can keep purchasing, manufacturing and distribution working together in harmony.
Integrate with Microsoft 365 and other Dynamics applications
By seamlessly integrating with popular Microsoft 365 products that most businesses already use—such as Outlook, Teams and Excel—Business Central saves SMBs time and effort spent switching between apps. For example, users can update sales records and place orders directly from an Outlook email. They can also share data from Business Central in Microsoft Teams, giving read-only access to relevant stakeholders without having to purchase additional licenses for full use. Additionally, Business Central integrates with tools like Power BI and Power Automate, making it easy for users to connect other custom workflows and dashboards.
Harness the power of AI with Copilot
Nine out of 10 employees are interested in using AI to automate repetitive tasks (Microsoft, 2023). Business Central gives them the power to do so and then some with Microsoft Copilot embedded within the solution. Using Copilot, SMBs can quickly and efficiently draft marketing materials, easily identify trends in data that can lead to more sales, and quickly find answers to a variety of queries using plain, conversational language. If using Business Central to consolidate business operations and intelligence wasn’t already enough, Copilot takes things to the next level when it comes to working smarter, not harder.
Preserve data security and compliance
Considering all the ways Business Central can leverage and illustrate various data to help SMBs achieve their goals, it helps to know that that data is kept safe and compliant. Users can rest assured they have oversight of data accessibility and classification, including the ability to set role-based permissions for any dashboard or report they create. Employees using Business Central can also securely share files and implement audit trails by leveraging Microsoft’s automatic datacenter encryption, among other security functions.
How MSPs can take advantage of the Business Central opportunity
Now that we’ve covered some of the key things Business Central can do for SMBs, it’s important for MSPs to understand how they can capitalize on the opportunity Business Central represents and offer it to their clients. First and foremost, working with an expert partner goes a long way.
Reselling Business Central through Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program gives MSPs access to incentives and sales enablement resources to help make their offering a success. Billing can be offloaded to a provider partner, allowing the MSP to focus on client acquisition, building customer relationships and other revenue-generating activities. The right partner can also support MSPs with expertise and additional resources for deployment and implementation, helping them become a Dynamics 365 Business Central experts in their own right.
Beyond teaming up with an experienced Microsoft partner, MSPs would be well advised to scope their existing customer base for interest in Business Central. What are their growth goals? What processes and procedures are currently holding them back? What kind of CRM software are they currently working with, if any? Could they benefit from an ERP system? Once the door has been opened to offer Business Central to clients your MSP business is already serving, you’ll be well on your way to cultivating relationships with a whole new subset of customers.
Ready to add Dynamics 365 Business Central to your service offering? Sherweb can help
Sherweb is an award-winning Microsoft indirect CSP partner with years of experience helping MSPs grow their business using Microsoft products and many other cloud solutions. Contact our Dynamics experts today to get started or check out our partner guide for more information about how Sherweb can help position your MSP business for success.
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