How Dynamics 365 Business Central Outperforms Acumatica

Why Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a flexible and realistic ERP subscription option that meets the ideal needs of small and mid-size companies and their need for an affordable solution that still offers all the power and sophistication of the best of Microsoft’s ERP solutions.  Business Central is offered in two versions – the first option is called Dynamics 365 Business Central “Essentials” which is a comprehensive ERP solution including modules for Financial Management to Customer Relationship Management to Supply Chain Management to Project Management and more. The second option is called Dynamics 365 Business Central “Premium” which gives you the option to upgrade with Manufacturing and Service Management modules.

Dynamics 365 BC is intimately interwoven with the full Microsoft 365 Business suite – with integrations to Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel.  There are native integrations with Power BI, Microsoft’s data visualization, and BI tool.  This tight interaction with Microsoft 365 significantly reduces employee hesitation when it comes to learning a new application or process. Stable and consistent commands and controls across the different components increases user acceptance and adoption.

This backed up by the fact that there are more than 160,000 companies around the world running on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly known as Dynamics NAV), it eases owners’ minds that they can easily find employees to hire that have previous experience with the product.

More Importantly, Why NOT Acumatica?

Interoperability between applications within an ERP system is a must and when various project management features don’t collaborate together, as experienced with Acumatica’s ERP system, then the end result can be costly.

• Acumatica lacks direct integration with the Microsoft Office products, because, well, it’s not a Microsoft product. Acumatica can’t replicate anything like BC when it comes to editing D365 BC data – like master records and open transactions in Excel – and then the updates can be published back into the D365 BC database. Little things like exporting reports, analyses, and tables, and all the values coming over in the right form are little struggles you won’t deal with in Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC.

• While Microsoft offers D365 Business Central in just two versions, Acumatica is far more modular. D365 BC includes the majority of modules like Finance, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Fixed Assets, and other modules as standard in it’s “Essential” package (only thing that requires an upgrade to Premium is Manufacturing  Service Management). Acumatica will charge for the add-on of any modules in it’s standard package, increasing the monthly subscription costs for all of your users very quickly if you don’t need a “vanilla” package…..which most customers typically need more.

• Some other issues are deployment options, or the lack of choices in the case of Acumatica. Microsoft offers On-Premise, True Cloud Subscription, or Hybrid models for all types of businesses that want flexibility with how they deploy their ERP solution. Acumatica can only be deployed in the cloud, so depending on how your company grows, acquires other entities, etc. you are painted into one box with Acumatica. With BC you have multiple options to fit as needed for your company.

• This raises issues with data migration if you decide to migrate off your ERP system in the future. You won’t have direct access to the database and system, and simply will be relegated to export CSV files. The same is with all solutions born in the cloud like Acumatica or NetSuite. With D365 BC, Microsoft offers the free ability to have a full back-up made of your full database and delivered on a scheduled basis to a system that you own, maintain, and have physical control over. You aren’t “held hostage” like you are with Acumatica/NetSuite when trying to migrate to a new system.

• Acumatica has less than 10,000 customers……just 150,000 shy of Dynamics 365 Business Central’s number.

• Lastly, Acumatica has only been around since 2008. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly NAV) has been around since 1987. So while Acumatica is still working out the “kinks” and trying to build its partner network, ISV portfolio, etc. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is tried and true after many years of perfecting its product. It was the industry leader in the ’90s and continues to be the industry leader in SMB ERP solutions in 2020 & beyond. The support of the Microsoft Stack (SQL, SharePoint, Office 365, Teams, etc.) and the flexibility of Microsoft Azure cloud gives companies peace of mind that they can invest in a Unified Business Solution with Microsoft.