Everything you should know about Dynamics 365 Business Central

Today, many organizations are asking managed service providers (MSPs) to help them leverage the power of digital transformation. They are looking for new ways to help their company thrive.

But if all you’re going to do is shift those clients from a mishmashed collection of on-premises business applications to a similar collection in the cloud, it doesn’t really transform anything. They’re still stuck with the same suboptimal business processes. The real power of digital transformations comes from leveraging the unique capabilities of cloud infrastructure to streamline how organizations operate.

Streamlining disconnected business processes is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central excels.

Is Business Central an offering you should have for your clients? We think the answer is unequivocally yes. Let’s explore how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central works, what it offers your small- to medium-sized (SMB) customers, and why MSPs should include it in their service catalog.

What is Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Business Central is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that is part of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Equipped with customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, it’s specifically designed to meet the needs of SMBs.

Unifying business operations, finance, marketing and sales tasks in a next-generation, comprehensive software solution, Business Central gives clients a comprehensive understanding of their organization thanks to built-in analytics and easy-to-create dashboards. It proactively notifies and guides employees, helping them consolidate data and get an accurate end-to-end outlook of their business.

Who uses Business Central?

Business Central is well-suited for the needs of many different SMB business unit leaders, including:

• Supply chain managers
• Financial managers
• Client relationship managers
• Project and resource managers
• HR managers
• Service order managers
• Warehouse managers
• Manufacturing managers

It includes applications for these business functions separately, but excels at integrating functionality across an entire business environment. It facilitates handing off tasks from one unit to the next and allows every unit involved in complex workflows to stay on the same page.

How can Dynamics 365 Business Central help SMBs?

Business Central lets your MSPs’ clients manage their business with rich and highly adaptable features that offer complete control over sales, manufacturing, finances, project management, services and shipping. However, what truly sets Dynamics 365 Business Central apart is its enterprise resource management.

Financial visibility at a glance

Business Central creates a single source of truth (SSoT). It connects to multiple departments across a business, retrieves relevant data and presents it to the user in an easy-to-understand form. Clients can also access data, analyses and reports through built-in dashboards. That also helps with accelerated financial reporting while ensuring compliance.

Seamless integration with Dynamics 365 applications

Business Central has built-in dashboards for Microsoft Power BI. It also integrates with Microsoft 365 apps like Microsoft Outlook and Excel, which enables many other powerful business functions. For example, if you receive a quote request email, a sales representative can generate a price right in Outlook using Dynamics integration without switching apps.

Supply chain optimization

Business Central also helps optimize supply chains. MSPs offering Business Central can enable clients to auto-create purchase orders and enable predictive stock replenishment while tracking locations simultaneously.

Enhanced client service and support

The CRM capabilities of Business Central allow SMB clients to track customer interactions and access opportunities for cross-selling, upselling and renewal. In addition, the platform enables sales teams to efficiently process payments, service requests, inquiry responses and more.

Manage projects in budget and on time

Teams using Business Central can create, manage and monitor projects using advanced job costing, real-time generated timesheets and reporting capabilities. Additionally, they can access real-time insights that allow project managers to guarantee profitability while meeting all their deadlines.

Compliance and data security

Business Central also offers advanced privacy capabilities, allowing users to set up and classify data. They can also securely share files and implement audit trails by leveraging Microsoft’s automatic data center encryption.

Why MSPs should offer Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has much to offer your clients. But it also offers great value to MSPs who add it to their service portfolio too.

Guaranteed revenue stream

Offering Business Central for your SMB clients can open new monthly recurring revenue streams. Shifting away from project-based work and towards a service model offers more reliable income. Your clients get to distribute their costs more evenly, and you can plan more stable revenue cycles. Win win!

Generate new income from existing clients

Adding Business Central to your portfolio also opens the door to numerous other projects and training opportunities within the Dynamics 365 family of applications. Many clients will need more than just the basic service ↗, and therefore want their MSP to help them develop a more tailored solution.

In addition to this, offering Business Central to existing clients results in a stickier relationship with those customers, positioning your MSP as their go-to for bigger projects as they grow and evolve over time.

Find new clients

Expanding your offerings can help you find entirely new clients as well. Business Central is designed to be a platform for all your SMB clients’ business operations. Once you get them in the door with a new client, you can branch out and offer other services in your portfolio.

Microsoft offers a deep ecosystem of services to fit any client’s needs. Once you’ve connected new ones to Dynamics 365 Business Central, there is no telling how large the scope of services you can offer might grow.

Leverage an expert partner to help you sell Dynamics 365 Business Central

Reselling Business Central through Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program gives MSPs access to incentives and sales enablement resources. Billing can be offloaded to your provider partner, allowing your MSP to focus more on client acquisition, building client relationships and other revenue-generating activities. In addition, the right partner can help provide guidance and resources for deployment and implementation, helping you become a Dynamics 365 expert in your own right.

Ready to start offering Business Central to clients?

Sherweb is an award-winning Microsoft indirect CSP partner with years of experience helping MSPs grow their business using Microsoft Dynamics 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.