7 Key Steps For a Smooth Transition from Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Moving to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central? Here’s our SmartList of 7 key steps to ensure a smooth transition.

Microsoft has been making huge investments in their “Ground to Cloud” initiative, which is a different way of saying that Microsoft is no longer investing in their on-premises ERP platforms like Dynamics GP (GP).

For many businesses using GP, the next logical step is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Business Central). If your team has been using GP for a while, they will be familiar with the concept of SmartLists.

A SmartList can be used to create customized inquiries to provide easier, faster access to information stored in the GP system, including information about accounts, customers, employees, vendors, transactions, and items. You can print or export the search results or display them on the screen.

When thinking of the transition to Business Central, there are many important steps and considerations that can be the difference between your transition being successful or stressful.

This is why our team created our own SmartList with 7 key steps to ensure a smooth transition to Business Central.

1. Custom Reports. Where are they? SSRS? PowerBI? Management Reporter? Jet? Solver? Somewhere else? Pull this list together, then find out who is using them. Ask if they are still relevant. If they are, this should be a consideration in the migration. If they aren’t, you just gave someone valuable time back each month!
2. 3^rd Party Products. Increasingly more 3^rd party products that companies using GP know and love (Kwiktag & Binary Stream MEM, for example) have made their products available for Business Central.
3. Customizations. Do you have any dexterity or VBA customizations? What do the customizations do? Business Central is highly customizable, so the customization you had can very likely be replicated; however, it’s also possible that it may no longer be needed.
4. Version Numbers. If you plan to use the migration tool, make sure that your GP and SQL versions are compatible. If you are planning to deploy Business Central on-premises, you should share the hardware requirements with your hosting provider and/or IT team.
5. Integrations. What applications do you have that integrate with GP today? Common examples are CRM, Warehouse Management, 3^rd party payroll systems, and line-of-business billing systems. You should understand what each 3^rd party does and compare it to existing Business Central functionality. You should also have a clear understanding of how each integration works.
6. Data. Now is the time to determine whether you want to realign your chart of accounts. If you choose to do this, there’s a simple way that will allow you to still use the out-of-the-box migration tools from GP to Business Central, and that’s using the account modifier tools available in GP prior to the migration. Use this as an opportunity to clean up other data too. Remove duplicate customers/vendors and obsolete items prior to migrating. Also, consider your requirements for historical reporting. Remember that the more historical data you want to bring with you, the longer the project will be.
7. Scale. What server(s) and on-premises hardware can be decommissioned or scaled back? You should work with your IT team to build this list out. This is one of the biggest cost savings areas.

Download our 7 Key Steps to Ensure a Smooth Transition from Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 65 Business Central infographic here. 

Have questions about migrating from GP to Business Central?

Once you have gathered this information, the next step is to carefully evaluate implementation partners. Our team has also compiled a list of best practices for evaluating ERP implementation partners here. Have questions about migrating from GP to Business Central?

Contact me directly at [email protected], or schedule an introductory call here.

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