‘’Why should I migrate from Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations?’’ Since Microsoft released Dynamics 365 F&O a few years ago, many businesses have asked themselves this question. It may now be even more relevant since Microsoft has announced that the extended support period for Dynamics AX 2009 (SP1), AX 2012, and AX 2012 R2 & R3 will end on April 12, 2022. With these developments in mind, this blog will walk you through the key advantages of upgrading to Dynamics 365 F&O in hopes of making your decision somewhat easier. This blog is part of a series about upgrading to Dynamics 365 F&O. The next parts are about Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain Management, respectively.
About Dynamics 365 F&O
Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O is a cloud-based ERP solution in which all of your processes and business departments come together. It stimulates growth by modernizing and automating your operations. This ERP solution is provided in the form of two applications: Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Read more about it here.
Important advantages of Dynamics 365 F&O compared to Dynamics AX
- Cost-effectiveness: As Dynamics 365 F&O operates in the cloud, you no longer need to pay for the costs associated with on-premises solutions. For example, these costs may be related to software and hardware maintenance, disaster management, security demands and many more. In addition, your IT personnel that was previously occupied with these issues may now work on other urgent business.
- Significantly lower cost of ownership: Clients often think that using legacy systems does not cost them anything. However, Dynamics AX provides data to a lot of other systems that your employees spend time on (e.g., Office, BI), which thus costs you money. In Dynamics 365, these applications are all connected, which increases efficiency and saves you money.*
- Security & reliability: As your data are stored in Microsoft’s own high-security data centers, your data are secured, access is reliable, and privacy is safeguarded.
- Accessibility & flexibility: The cloud-based solution provides you with real-time data on all devices, wherever and whenever you want.
- Scalable: The solution is suitable for evolving businesses, so it can be scaled according to your needs.
- Updates: Dynamics 365 provides you with the latest releases, so you are sure to be up-to-date regarding new regulations and technology.
- Support: As mentioned before, the extended support period for four versions of Dynamics AX will end in 2022. After this, you will not be able to request support from Microsoft anymore. An upgrade to Dynamics 365 will eliminate this issue.
What now?
Of course, there may be even more advantages of migrating to Dynamics 365 F&O related to your specific business and its needs. If you are thinking about upgrading your current solution, Kaya can help you. With our experience and services, we can provide you with insights into whether it would be beneficial for your business to migrate. If you are interested in discussing this possibility, please feel free to contact us.
See you in the next blog of this series!
*Clients often have the illusion of Dynamics AX being free to use because investments into the hardware are already financially depreciated. Due to the interconnectivity of applications in Dynamics 365, your employees can work on other tasks rather than waste time on transferring data between these apps.