Organizations that are competing in a rapidly changing business environment must confront the double concern of maintaining competitiveness and managing complex operations. This is where Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems come into play; the platform centralizes different functions such as finance, human resources, supply chain management, and project management in one system.
Unlock new levels of efficiency, agility, profitability, and innovation by modernizing your outdated ERP
Currently many organizations still depend on outdated or legacy ERP systems. This can be detrimental to efficiency, agility, data security and innovation. More efficient and secure operations often translate into significant cost savings for the business. These are some of the reasons organizations choose to modernize their legacy systems into an improved and integrated solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP.
Challenges inherent to maintaining legacy systems
Most legacy ERP systems were developed many decades ago and are adapted to previous business environments. Although they may still work well enough today, they present several obstacles for firms in today’s evolving landscape. Due to this, it is important to modernize your legacy ERP systems. Some of the obstacles inherent to maintaining legacy systems include:
- Limited scalability and flexibility: Business growth often necessitates the scalability that most legacy systems do not possess. Additionally, their integration with modern technologies may prove difficult, impeding flexibility.
- High maintenance costs: There are excessive costs associated with maintaining and supporting outdated platforms. Generally, the manual nature of operating legacy systems requires more staff time, or a larger technical team, to keep everything running. Additionally, it is increasingly difficult to source staff who already have the hands-on skills needed to support outdated systems; therefore, organizations must also invest in niche training to ensure employees have the skills required to do the job. On top of being time-consuming, running a patchwork technology stack built from ad hoc solutions for department needs often means you’re paying for a lot of different software licenses (without capitalizing on economies of scale or bulk user discounts). So, there is often an opportunity to save on those recurring costs when moving to a consolidated system instead. Plus, migrating to the cloud can save on hardware costs associated with on-premises configurations.
- Data silos and integration issues: Legacy applications often function independently, meaning that data silos obstruct collaboration efforts, hindering decision-making. In addition, there is a lot of complexity involved when trying to integrate these apps with contemporary software.
- Security risks: There are often outdated security protocols and infrequent updates coming through older versions, thus making many legacy systems more prone to security threats.
- Lack of real-time insights: Organizations need real-time data to make informed choices. Legacy systems take too long to offer valuable insights, hence creating a gap for missed opportunities and inefficiency.
8 steps to modernize your operations by migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP
In the process of migrating from an obsolete ERP system to Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, we have set up certain steps strategically for a smooth transition and full exploitation of these benefits. Here are the main stages of this process:
- Conduct a comprehensive ERP assessment: Start by assessing your current legacy ERP system’s condition. Identify any pain points, constraints, or areas that could be improved on. Lay out the migration’s scope, timeline, and resource needs in a comprehensive plan.
- Align stakeholders for modernization success: Engage key stakeholders from across departments to win their support and ensure they align with modernization objectives. This important communication and collaboration will help address concerns while building consensus on what should be done.
- Develop a strategic data migration plan: Develop a strategy for moving data from the old system into Microsoft Dynamics 365. Data cleansing, mapping, and validation should be performed so that your data is accurate in the new system.
- Customize Microsoft Dynamics 365 for your business needs: Customize Microsoft Dynamics 365 according to your organization’s specific requirements. Through its flexibility you can personalize workflows, forms as well as reports so that they conform to your business processes more closely.
- Ensure seamless integration with existing systems: Connecting other crucial systems within your organization with Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help maintain seamless flow of information across various functions.
- Implement user training & change management: Provide comprehensive training for employees so that they become accustomed to the new software platform itself; then also implement change management techniques aimed at overcoming resistance and ensuring a smooth transition.
- Perform rigorous ERP testing and validation: Before going live, one must conduct extensive testing toidentify any potential glitches or bugs that might be present in the system. System performance as well as functionality will also be validated while checking if the data it contains is accurate enough for proper deployment.
- Execute a strategic go-live plan with ongoing support: Execute the go-live plan, monitor the system’s performance and set up post implementation support to address any issues and maximize the functionality of the system.
Top benefits of implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for enhanced business performance
It is important to recognize that the selection of an ERP system depends as much on platforms as they do on individual features. A good platform forms the underpinning for scalability, integration, and future adaptability, ensuring the system can accommodate changes in your organization, market, and technological advancements. Generally speaking, individual system modules address immediate needs; while a strong platform ensures that there are no barriers within the software or between other applications and systems. For example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP modules include Finance, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, and Talent Management – which are all unified under the D365 platform.
Switching over to Microsoft Dynamics 365 has several advantages which can significantly improve an organization’s efficiency, agility, and competitiveness. Some of these benefits include the following:
- Leverage a unified platform: Instead of using separate ERP, HCM, and CRM systems, you can consolidate your operations under a single platform for unified data and processes. Dynamics 365 brings together ERP, CRM, and suite of core business applications onto one platform, which allows smooth passage of data across multiple departments within organizations. Its cloud-based infrastructure ensures scalability, enabling businesses to expand their operations as they grow without any inconveniences whatsoever. It leverages artificial intelligence capabilities to offer real-time insights along with predictive analysis, which are helpful in making informed decisions and enhancing operational efficiency. Integration with other Microsoft products such as Office 365, Azure, and Power Platform drive productivity through the creation of a single digital ecosystem.
- Improve your customer experience: Dynamics 365 comes with robust CRM capabilities that assist organizations to have better control of customer relationships. It enables personalized interactions and better service by giving a 360-degree view.
- Ensure robust security and compliance: Microsoft Dynamics 365 complies with strict security measures and compliances laws. It has advanced security features, regular updates, and data protection techniques for safeguarding sensitive information.
- Achieve significant cost savings: Organizations can cut down on maintenance costs connected to legacy systems by adopting Dynamics 365. Also, the cloud-based model eliminates the necessity for local infrastructure, thus minimizing more expenses.
- Benefit from continuous innovation: Microsoft keeps enhancing its Dynamics 365 system. This way, they ensure that their customers are always up to date with innovative technologies and innovations in the market, hence remain competitive against other firms.
How Alithya can help you seamlessly modernize your operations with Microsoft D365
Organizations that want to be competitive in their industry and adopt digitalization should consider modernizing their legacy systems or migrating to Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP. This transition incorporates a series of well-thought steps including assessment and planning followed by data migration, customization, and user training. With unified operations, real-time insights, increased productivity, robust security among other qualities offered by Dynamics 365; the system can be quite useful in today’s businesses.
Alithya is an ideal partner for organizations embarking on this journey because of the specialized skillset in ERP modernization and implementation. By providing custom tailored solutions, data migration skills, integration services as well as continued support, Alithya makes sure your organization will obtain the maximum value and success in terms of transitioning into Microsoft Dynamic ERP. To learn more about our digital transformation services for your legacy systems, please contact us.