Understandably, the decision to migrate from one system to another is not a simple one, i.e. upgrading from Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365. Significant time, expenses and effort go into deciding which features are aligned with your company’s business needs, not to mention the resources invested in the actual implementation.

 

If you’re running Microsoft Dynamics AX, you’re well aware that mainstream support has been phased out. One course of action is to pay for extended support, which can provide limited support for a few more years. Another option is to migrate to Dynamics 365.

 

This article addresses what your business misses out on if you decide to stay with Dynamics AX and not upgrade to Dynamics 365.

Staying with Dynamics AX costs you time that you would have saved by leveraging tighter integration between Dynamics 365 and other Microsoft solutions. While AX did a great job at integrating data silos, Dynamics 365 does that, plus offers more seamless integration applications. Better app integrations within Dynamics 365 to other applications like Excel and PowerBI means you can do all your work in one interface. You don’t have to jump to different pieces of software and duplicate work or clumsily customize, filter or manipulate data in different applications.

 

Another advantage of using Dynamics 365 is that the apps you deploy are scalable, meaning you can deploy only the applications you need. As your business grows and as your daily operations demand additional applications, your business can adopt additional capabilities at a later date.

 

Because Dynamics 365 was created to live in the cloud, namely Microsoft Azure, your team has the advantage of using cutting dge business intelligence. Additionally, the web based nature of Dynamics 365 is more agile and scalable, and better able to respond growth and increased customer demand.

 

Not taking advantage of increased flexibility can hinder the opportunity for your system to grow with your business. Having a deficient system leaves you with spending more employee hours to get things done instead of your system doing the same amount of work in less time.

 

Access to state of the art business intelligence saves you time in a similar fashion. Business intelligence tools collect and process large volumes of disparate data, including health records, files, images, video and other sources that you use. Dynamics 365 has improved business intelligence tools over AX. Saving you more time in compiling and analyzing data in customized reports from all parts of your business.

 

Dynamics 365 is always changing and improving. Its cloud-based instance no longer requires you to wait for new versions or features. As new developments and fixes are rolled out, your team members simply accept the updates. This eliminates time-consuming individual updates.

 

In conclusion, the opportunity costs in not migrating to Dynamics 365 results in: spending more resources, such as employee hours, spent on time-draining, tedious tasks; loss of revenue because your company is dragged down with a constrained system that isn’t able to scale with your company; and time wasted by your IT department spending resources on cumbersome updates and fixes.

 

For an objective evaluation on the pros and cons of extending the life of your Dynamics AX system or to migrate, watch our on-demand webinar, Your D365 Readiness Checklist: What to Consider Before You Upgrade.