Microsoft Dynamics 365 represents the next generation of business applications. Within Dynamics 365, Microsoft offers two Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) solutions – Business Central and Finance & Supply Chain Management.
Both products are comprehensive end-to-end ERP solutions capable of meeting complex business requirements and operational needs so it can be difficult to decide what solution is right for your organisation. There are some clear-cut cases where Business Central or Finance & Supply Chain Management is more suitable than the other, however for most organisations careful consideration and assessment is required to decide what ERP solution will best fit their requirements.
When comparing the two Dynamics 365 solutions, it is important to understand that there is a large amount of overlap. For many organisations, their ERP requirements can be met with either solution. Every case is different, and each organisation’s assessment of the two solutions is highly dependent on its internal skills, resources and growth plans.
There are however three key factors that every organisation should assess against when selecting between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.
Complexity – how complex is your organisation?
The more complex and unique your requirements are, the more likely you will require Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.
Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management offers more flexibility in the configuration of the solution than Dynamics 365 Business Central. For example, if your manufacturing process is a simple five-step process with a bill of materials in one site, then Dynamics 365 Business Central could support you. If you have more complex manufacturing processes that involve the manufacture of sub-components, complex manufacture routes and operations, or you manufacture across multiple sites and resources involving different skillsets, then your needs will be better met with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.
Scale – how big is your organisation?
Similar to complexity, the larger your organisation is the more likely you are to require more complex capability. If you have many legal entities or over 100,000 monthly transactions, you might find the out-of-the-box capability in Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is better suited to your needs.
This also applies to integrations. If you are looking to connect only one or two systems, then Dynamics Business Central is perfect for this. If you are looking to connect more applications or import a large number of transactions through interfaces on a regular frequency to Dynamics 365 then Finance & Supply Chain Management is better equipped to deal with this flow of data.
Another consideration for scale should also be the future scale of your organisation. What size will your organisations be in three to five years, as this may alter what solution is best suited to your needs.
International – is your organisation global or UK only?
The more legal entities, tax locations and localisations required, the more likely you will be better served with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management.
Dynamics 365 Business Central is equipped to support multiple locations, but if you require multiple tax locations, then selecting Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is the better option. With Dynamics 365 Business Central you can implement multiple tenancies to support different geographical locations using Dataflex Pro (formerly Common Data Service), however this can result in more complexity in reporting at group level and managing regular updates.