A Forrester report found migrating to Dynamics 365 from Dynamics AX could lead to productivity increases of between 3% and 9% among back-office operations staff and an average of 10% across all employees.

This is largely due to the fact everyday users no longer need to struggle with tedious tasks like receipt entry and finding data. Culture siloes are also dismantled, thanks to integrated systems and data sharing. This means efficient cross-team collaboration across multiple geographical locations is now possible, which boosts productivity.

And a quantifiable result of this is that you could save £3.6m in operational efficiency gains and £1.5m in employee productivity (according to the same Forrester report).

More integrations are available when you migrate to Dynamics 365 in the cloud. Dynamics AX already integrates with the Dynamics CRM, Office 365 and third-party software. The cloud-native Dynamics 365 takes it one step further by seamlessly integrating with the latest Dynamics 365 CRM (Customer Engagement), Power BI and Cortana.

Smooth integrations to these vital business systems and applications further enhances productivity, especially if your business’ supply chain features several Microsoft solutions. This means a simplified integration, shared user intelligence and a friction-free experience.

Moving to the cloud means you no longer need to rely on on-premises infrastructure and front the costs of setup, maintenance and security. This then means hardware-related failures, downtime and losses in productivity as a result aren’t a concern.

Unlike Dynamics AX which used to feature major alterations, Microsoft will deliver progressive, incremental updates for Dynamics 365 at regular intervals and you even can pause up to three updates in a row. Larger changes are delivered as parameters or configuration keys and you can choose whether you want to turn these new functionalities on.

Either way, your business will always be on the latest version, ensuring optimum performance, efficiency and security.

This continuous monitoring and updating of the Dynamics 365 software also lessens your IT departments need to ‘solutionise’, reducing your business’ maintenance responsibilities.

Migrating to the cloud can result in significant cost savings. Here are a few key statistics:

• Over £2.2m in on-premises licensing and support fees
• £1m in on-premises infrastructure costs
• Over £2.8m in IT systems admin labour costs

In contrast to Dynamics AX which is software-based and you’re required to launch the application from a desktop to access it, Dynamics 365 is browser-based. So, you work anytime, anywhere and from any device. All you need is:

• An internet connection
• A browser installed

In other words, Dynamics 365 allows you to work on-the-go – perfect for your field staff. This also means you can benefit from enriched external relationships, as suppliers, partners and customers can access selected data remotely.

Working with a variety of applications to carry out daily tasks is rather demotivating for any user. Not with Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 creates an ecosystem of products that are seamlessly integrated with one another: from Office 365 to Power BI, SharePoint to Office. Within this connected ecosystem, you will be able to access the apps of your choice, view, edit, and share data, collaborate with your teammates, and make smarter decisions, faster. Such integration allows for a seamless transition between apps, allowing you to improve your individual productivity, team performance, and organizational results.

Improvements in performance, reliability and overall service agility equips businesses with the ability to provide a more superior customer experience. For example, the cloud-native Dynamics 365 comes with built-in elasticity so the system can handle more work/load without the overall performance taking a hit.

This is one of the key benefits of cloud SaaS systems over on-premise. It means your system is less likely to crash or operate slowly, your customer issues can be resolved more quickly and overall customer experience is boosted.

Mainstream support for Dynamics AX 2009, 2012, 2012 R2 ended in October 2018. Mainstream support for AX 2012 R3 lasts until 12 October 2021. After which time security updates will be offered under Extended support until 10th Jan 2023.

Move to the cloud and you’ll benefit from automatic updates, smoother operations and full support from Microsoft.

Dynamics 365 features enhanced business intelligence (BI), utilising the power of AI, and is driven by analytical services and extensive data-sets. This gives the solution superior capabilities which improve your reporting potential.

You will also benefit from updated user-centric interfaces which encourage greater individual and collaborative experiences through personalisation.