Microsoft Dynamics SL Life Expectancy and the Future of Your Business
Microsoft Dynamics SL Is a Strong On-Premises ERP Solution That’s Facing a Changing ERP Landscape
Microsoft Dynamics SL has been a high-performing ERP for many years now, and it will continue to be a strong solution for quite a few years more. Since Dynamics SL has been on the market, many organizations have changed their ERP expectations.
These days, busy business leaders often make statements like this:
- “I don’t want to be in the IT business. I don’t want to have to manage servers and updates. I just want a solution, so I can focus on my business.”
- “Our newer employees complain because our system is so outdated. They’re used to using tablets and smartphones – we’re putting them in old client-server systems.”
- “To approve a document, I’m forced to open my VPN, and connect to my server and RDP – all so I can log in to my apps. I’d prefer to simply open a doc on my phone, click approve, and get back to my life.”
Often, companies find that complex workflows and a lack of modern tech tool support can impact their ability to train and hire new employees – and that’s why easy-to-use cloud ERP has been increasing in popularity quite a bit over the past few years.
Business agility has been the main driver for and the main benefit of the move to cloud, with 64 percent of respondents saying the use of cloud has increased their organization’s agility. (Harvard Business Review, Cloud Computing Comes of Age)
Simple Things You Gain by Moving to Modern, Cloud ERP
Although many types of businesses across many industries choose modern cloud ERP solutions like Acumatica Cloud ERP, all of these businesses have one thing in common:
They all have clear objectives for what they want from cloud ERP – features they simply can’t get from their on-premises ERP solution.
Some of these objectives include:
- Access anywhere, anytime on any device with a common browser
- Reducing complexity between eCommerce and the ERP by fully integrating the two systems
- Updating to a modern, faster field service solution that utilizes mobile technologies (and eliminates paper-based tracking forever)
- Maintaining the competitive edge over competing businesses that are already using the cloud
And, of course, there’s agility to consider. Only cloud ERP platforms offer the cycle of continuous improvement that many modern companies thrive on. An on-premises environment lends itself less to the expectations that an increasing number of organizations rely on for the simple reason that on-premises software features fewer updates and releases.
By 2022, organizations that continuously improve their SaaS ERP will realize 60% more business value through adopting the latest best practices in frequent vendor releases. (Gartner, 2019 Strategic Roadmap for Postmodern ERP)
If your on-premises Microsoft Dynamics SL solution is still working for you, you’re good – you don’t need to think any longer about ERP changes at this time. However, if the statements and objectives we’ve listed here resonate with you… well, we’ve heard all these comments from other companies too.
It might be time to look out in the marketplace for your next solution.
What’s Going on with Microsoft Dynamics SL in 2020?
To be clear, we’re not trying to push any specific ERP solution. That would be silly. After all, there is no one-size-fits-all ERP that works for all companies in all situations. You should research which solution is best for you. In many cases, and for many companies, Microsoft Dynamics SL is still a great choice.
Support and development continue to be ongoing for Dynamics SL in 2020 and beyond. Microsoft has expressed specific plans to expand SL connections for their Intelligent Cloud offering, which combines intelligent AI with the cloud’s anywhere/anytime access, and users can expect 2 cumulative update releases, starting in 2020.
In other words, Dynamics SL still works great, it’s still supported, and it’s still advancing its capabilities.
As an on-premises solution, it is significantly different from cloud ERP.
“Acumatica is working on technologies that we aren’t even ready to use yet but will be available for [us] when we are.” (Nucleus Research, Guidebook: Acumatica Platform)
What Is the Leading Cloud-Based ERP Option?
The cloud ERP world is growing in leaps and bounds. One of the top performers in the cloud ERP space is Acumatica, which integrates with today’s top technologies to create the “go-to” cloud ERP for wholesale distributors, service companies, and other long-term ERP users.
As a modern cloud ERP, Acumatica is designed for both breadth and depth.
Not only does Acumatica feature robust financials that support flexible functionality for modern businesses in our globalized world, the true cloud ERP also delivers tailored capabilities across a wide range of industries.
As Acumatica has steadily increased their Industry Edition offerings, industry pundits have been keeping a close watch on the cloud ERP company.
At this point, experts agree that supported industries have a lot to gain from using Acumatica Cloud ERP.
“Acumatica has a strong core set of functional capabilities including support for financial management, customer relationship management, sales order management, project accounting, etc. Acumatica has these core capabilities and delivers significant depth to a number of industry verticals. This depth is delivered through the growing list of Acumatica ‘editions.’” (Ted Rohm, Senior ERP Analyst)
What Makes Acumatica Different?
There’s a lot that makes Acumatica a different kind of ERP, including:
- Modern, flexible, do-anything-you-want-with-it platform
The Acumatica Cloud xRP platform is fully customizable and grows with you, empowering you to maintain your agility and explore new solutions at any time – worry free. In fact, Acumatica xRP is such a strong platform that other ERPs are built on it! (ACCEO, Visma, Lexware, Senior Software, Censof, MYOB)
- 100% unlimited user model
With no per-user pricing, companies on Acumatica can scale up without fear, and can also connect their partners, customers, and vendors directly to the Cloud ERP for faster, self-serve information sharing.
- Ease of use
As Nucleus Research reported in their guidebook to the Acumatica platform, “For customers moving from legacy on-premises ERP systems, Acumatica provided a modern, intuitive user experience with low hurdles to adoption. The common data model and application integrations simplify data transfer from one application to the next, helping customers streamline the transition from sales order to work order and final invoice.”(Nucleus Research, Guidebook: Acumatica Platform)
- High customer satisfaction levels
Gartner Peer Insights and Capterra both give Acumatica a 4.4 star rating, with more than 91% and 93% of users (respectively) giving Acumatica a 4 or 5 star rating that demonstrates the Cloud ERP’s high levels of customer satisfaction.
- Open learning philosophy
It’s easy and free to learn anything about Acumatica, because the cloud software provides a Help Portal, an always-up-to-date Open University, and an active global user group community in which users share information to drive ERP advances to the cutting-edge.
- Forward momentum
With a recent influx of funding, turbo-charged ERP and third-party solution integration, and an ever-expanding user base, numerous industry experts applaud Acumatica for leading the way in cloud ERP.
- Flexible deployment methods
Although Acumatica is The Cloud ERP, it doesn’t have to be deployed on the cloud. Companies can choose between on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud/SaaS deployments to meet their exact requirements. Acumatica also makes it easy to switch to any other deployment model, whenever you want.
- Cutting-edge tech
74% of Acumatica employees are in R&D, and that focus makes each year a favorite for jaw-dropping conference demos that feature true ERP innovation. Acumatica embraces modern technology with each new release; in the past few years, they’ve released integration with MiR self-driving robots, HoloLens visualization, Google Image searching and smart-tagging, Azure machine learning tools for automatic expense reporting, Alexa voice commands, paperless warehouse IoT devices, and a lot more.
- Cloud modernity
Because Acumatica is cloud-based, it delivers secure, native access to your ERP – anytime, anywhere, and from any device. It also provides a modern architecture written in developer-friendly .NET, with enhanced interoperability resulting from strong REST (Representational State Transfer), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and API (Application Programming Interfaces) capabilities.
In 2019, Acumatica was listed as a champion ERP choice and was named the second highest-ranking ERP out of 100+ reviewed ERPs. #1 was Oracle ERP, which isn’t focused on the midmarket. (Info-Tech, Emotional Footprint Report for ERP)
What Microsoft Dynamics SL Users Say After Switching to Acumatica ERP
Everyone has their own preferences on what they want their ERP solution to do, but Dynamics SL users are particularly impressed with the increased flexibility they get from Acumatica.
Here are just a few comments we’ve heard from companies that recently migrated from Dynamics SL to Acumatica ERP:
- A professional services firm said:
“With Acumatica, I can just start typing the name of the company and it fills it in for me. You couldn’t do that in Microsoft Dynamics SL. I spent countless hours looking for vendor ID’s. With Acumatica, I can type the vendor name instead of the vendor ID. I am so happy about that. What I really, really like is how everything is connected [in Acumatica].”
- A nonprofit organization said:
“We were attracted [to Acumatica] by the flexibility of the [multi-currency] financing and by Acumatica’s unlimited user licensing model—whether we chose to host it ourselves or be on their Cloud, we could always have a fixed price.”
- A manufacturing company said:
“…at the headquarters, we now have exact knowledge of all daily sales activities on the field and real-time information including product display at hundreds of thousands of outlets… Real-time visibility into daily business activities and timely business data now empowers every decision…”
Acumatica leads the pack when it comes to user satisfaction and forward momentum (a calculation of buzz+growth+influence). Acumatica wins Best Usability 2019, Best Relationship 2019, and is named a Midmarket Leader in 2019. (G2 Momentum Grid)
Curious to Learn More About Acumatica Cloud ERP?
As we said, if your Dynamics SL solution is still working well for you, there’s no reason for you to make the investment in a new ERP. Dynamics SL is a well-supported and highly respected ERP, and it will remain stable and secure for years to come.
If you’d like to learn more about your options for cloud ERP, right now is a great time to start because Acumatica currently has a promotion running for companies that would like to make the move away from Microsoft Dynamics SL (limited time offer).
Next Steps
- Watch an Acumatica ERP overview video.
- Explore more Acumatica ERP features.
- Contact us to schedule a personalized demonstration.
Get in touch with SWK Technologies today, so you can learn about the SL to Acumatica migration deal before it’s gone.
Still have questions? Then take your time and learn more about cloud ERP, research ERP solutions, or evaluate the ERP systems you’re considering.