The Benefits of Dynamics F&O: How to Know if They’re Right for Your Needs?

For medium to large organizations seeking robust Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, there are a lot of options on the market. Plus, there’s typically a lot of complexity to deal with before you can implement one and extract its value. 

Often, the decision comes down to selecting the ERP system that’s the best fit for your business needs, size, and growth goals. For mature, growing, and ERP-educated companies, the most popular ERP solution from Microsoft is what’s now called Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management—though it’s still commonly known by many as Dynamics F&O. (That’s industry shorthand for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations).

If you’re among the scaling enterprises considering an investment in Dynamics F&O, here are some considerations to keep in mind when assessing your business-solution fit.

Which Businesses Reap the Most Benefits of Dynamics F&O?

As of 2020, the powerful ERP solution known by long-time advocates as Dynamics F&O is now made up of two unique modules that can be leveraged with just one implementation. The first is Dynamics 365 for Finance, and the other is Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain Management.

With Dynamics F&O, large organizations are equipped with a robust business and financial management system that can handle the complex demands of organizations operating at scale. Its key capabilities are geared toward boosting efficiency, agility, and profitability, as well as offering end-to-end, real-time visibility into business operations.

This makes it the ideal solution for: 

• Multi-national medium to large organizations and enterprises
• Scaling organizations needing support managing distribution and manufacturing
• Businesses with a large number of users who will need to access and utilize the tool (as a minimum of 20 users is required)

The benefits of Dynamics 365 F&O for organizations like these are numerous, as the ERP solution has more built-in enterprise functionality than those built for smaller businesses with less complicated needs. 

If your business fits the bill, it may be a good idea to consider Dynamics F&O. However, when determining which ERP solution is right for you, you’ll want to consider not just where your business stands today—but what your long-term plans are, and how you anticipate your company will grow.

How to Find Your ERP Fit: 3 Considerations

For those hoping to centralize business data and automate core processes, an ERP solution like Dynamics F&O supports scalable enterprise growth. Primarily through boosting profits, optimizing operations, promoting collaboration, and maximizing financial performance.

Before investing in your ERP, you’ll need to consider whether you’re getting: 

1. The Right Tool at the Right Cost (Including Implementation, Licensing, etc). 

The overall cost of investing in ERP technology can vary depending on a few factors, primarily implementation and licensing costs. While implementation costs can differ depending on your business’ size and complexity, the number of users you expect to need access to the system, any customization required, or any costs related to support and maintenance, licensing costs are very straightforward. Pricing can range from $180 to $300 monthly.

Managing costs with these factors in mind is important, but be sure to consider any added expenses that may arise. Especially if you’ll supplement your Dynamics F&O ERP with additional apps and tools.

2. Impactful ERP Features Tailored to Your Needs (Ideally out of the Box) 

According to Microsoft, Dynamics F&O offers extensive functionality to support the finance and supply chain management functions of large organizations. These include:

• Automated inventory management using Microsoft Co-pilot, which eliminates stockouts and helps refine fulfillment processes 
• Built-in-analytics tools that streamline reporting and data analysis through dashboards you can customize to fit your needs
• Consistent and automatic updates that don’t require any substantial deployments
• Intelligent forecasting to help monitor cash flow and enhance decision-making
• Features like multi-factor authentication and encryption that ensure data security 
• Integrations with other Microsoft products and third-party applications to enhance efficiency and synchronize data between systems (like Power Apps)

It’s also important to keep in mind that Dynamics F&O boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface to make navigation simple, make the user experience seamless, and minimize the learning curve for your teams. Plus, thanks to the power of Microsoft Azure, Dynamics F&O can be hosted on a Microsoft server. This then minimizes maintenance costs for both hardware and servers.

3. A Purpose-Fit Solution That Can Handle Complexity Across Industries

According to ERP Software Blog, those getting the most value out of Dynamics F&O are often the businesses in industries where complexity and regulatory compliance are major hurdles. That includes the distribution, manufacturing, retail, professional services, and public sector verticals.

For these industries, an investment in Dynamics F&O (meaning, in Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 for Supply Chain Management—together) has resulted in:

• Finance personnel productivity improvements (by 55%)
• $3.5M in legacy cost savings
• $1.5M in operational efficiency savings from reduced downtime

The benefits of Dynamics F&O for these industries are even more impactful thanks to dedicated capabilities for warehouse management, asset management, agile manufacturing, demand planning, procurement, and more. 

Getting Started with Dynamics F&O

ERP systems like Dynamics F&O have been proven to offer businesses a wealth of features and tools to manage once-tedious and manual processes. They’ve empowered organizations to streamline operations without disruption, including processes related to finance, supply chain operations, manufacturing, and even human resources.

But choosing the right ERP system for your business can determine how much value—and importantly, how much lasting value—your organization gets out of its investment. That’s why it’s essential to understand if Dynamics F&O is right for your business before you consider making a strategic investment.The good news is, according to a Forrester report, organizations that created data-driven cultures with business intelligence through Microsoft saw a three-year, 366% return on investment. This means that if Dynamics F&O is the ideal fit for your organization, you can count on guaranteed returns, big success, and a solution that will continue to support your business’ growth over time.