For many small and midsize businesses (SMBs), growth brings complexity. The classic systems that worked at one stage (spreadsheets, QuickBooks, on-premises ERP) really start to show their limits when trying to scale.
My bias towards the ideal solution continues to be confirmed… Forrester Total Economic Impact study, which concluded that organizations that migrated from on-premises Microsoft ERP systems to the cloud-based Dynamics 365 Business Central platform reported significant benefits, quantitatively and qualitatively.
Their study was based on interviews and surveys with companies that made the move and models a composite SMB of 150 employees and $15+ million in annual revenue (coincidentally, our bread and butter).
I listed what I thought were the key findings:
Measurable Results
Over three years, the composite organization achieved:
- Return on investment (ROI) of 265%
- Net present value (NPV) of $529,000
- Payback period of less than one year!
These outcomes mainly came from increased productivity, reduced costs, and improved decision-making.
Productivity Gains
Organizations reported that moving to Business Central allowed them to replace manual reporting, reconciliations, and fragmented data gathering with real-time, centralized insights. This led to:
- 12.5% productivity improvement for operations staff
- 15% improvement for sales staff
- 15.6% improvement for finance staff
Teams were able to focus more on higher-value work and respond faster to changing conditions.
Cost Savings
Two notable areas of savings emerged:
- Third-party consulting and reporting costs dropped by more than $80,000 annually because, after implementation, internal IT teams could handle customizations and integrations without outside help.
- Legacy infrastructure, maintenance, and upgrade costs were avoided, saving up to $53,000 per year by eliminating on-premises servers and support fees.
These savings were usually then redirected towards growth functions rather than maintenance.
Additional Benefits
Some benefits reported by participants were harder to quantify but still worth listing:
- Better decision-making from real-time visibility into operations and finances
- Improved employee experience thanks to an intuitive interface and reduced manual effort
- Increased customer satisfaction because staff could access accurate information more quickly in the field
- Tighter integration with other Microsoft tools, maximizing existing investments and minimizing additional training
Questions to Consider
If you’re thinking about the future of your business systems, here are a few questions worth asking:
- Are your current systems supporting or hindering your ability to grow?
- How much time and energy does your team spend reconciling data or waiting for reports?
- What would more real-time visibility into your operations allow you to do differently?
These are the kinds of conversations we’ve had with organizations prior to their decision to migrate.
If you’d like to review the study in full, you can find it here: Read the Forrester Study
If you’re interested in exploring whether a move to Business Central makes sense for your business, feel free to book a meeting on my calendar directly. I’d be happy to talk through your specific situation and help you think through the options.
— Brendan Murphy Chief Executive Officer | Custom Systems
