Bridging the Gap: Migrating from Great Plains to Dynamics 365

Learn the key differences between Dynamics 365 and Great Plains to make an informed migration decision for your business.

As a long-time Great Plains user looking to modernize your ERP, you may be considering migrate Great Plains to dynamics 365 — but what sets these solutions apart?

Getting clear on the distinctions will ensure you choose the best path forward.

I’ll compare the core features and migration considerations between the platforms, providing key insights for evaluating if Dynamics 365 is right for upgrading from Great Plains.

Background and Overview

First, let’s ground ourselves in what each solution offers…

Great Plains provides robust financial management tools for small to mid-sized businesses. Owned by Microsoft, it gives you:

• Financial reporting
• Supply chain and manufacturing modules
• Business intelligence and analytics

Dynamics 365 delivers an end-to-end intelligent ERP via the Microsoft Power Platform. Key strengths include:

• Deeper customization and extensibility
• Advanced intelligence through AI
• Omnichannel sales and marketing

While both share the Microsoft foundation, Dynamics 365 introduces major technological advances — evaluating if these meet your growth goals is essential in determining migration value.

Key Feature Comparison

From an architecture and functionality perspective, Dynamics 365 begins to differentiate itself:

Integration and Scalability

• Dynamics 365 natively integrates with other Microsoft cloud services like Power BI and Teams
• The Power Platform facilitates easy low-code customization
• Cloud-based SaaS model allows scaling as you grow

Great Plains offers solid core financials but lacks the extensibility of Dynamics 365.

Intelligence and Insights

• Dynamics 365 is infused with cutting-edge AI to guide better decisions
• Actionable dashboards and interactive reporting through Power BI
• Predictive forecasting and automated workflows

Great Plains reporting has basic analysis but doesn’t provide predictive insights.

Omnichannel Customer Engagement

• Dynamics 365 has robust CRM capabilities for sales and marketing
• Tools to manage customer service and e-commerce under one platform
• Integrated view of the customer across channels and touchpoints

Great Plains isn’t positioned to support comprehensive customer engagement.

Evaluating Migration Value

In assessing migrating Great Plains to Dynamics 365, consider if you need:

• Greater customization of business processes
• Advanced analytics and intelligence
• Omnichannel customer engagement
• Scalability as growth demands

If these are priorities, Dynamics 365 will deliver next-level capabilities — but comes at an increased license cost.

If you need basic financials and light manufacturing tools, staying on Great Plains may be suitable for cost savings. However, lack of extensibility can constrain innovation.

Evaluate tradeoffs to make the best strategic platform decision aligned with your digital transformation vision. Microsoft partners can further guide migration planning.

The choice ultimately depends on your appetite and readiness for more sophisticated ERP cloud capabilities.

Assess if Dynamics 365 is the next step forward your business needs for maximizing success and progress — or if Great Plains still provides enough value at less expense.

Either way, I hope mapping the landscape of these Microsoft solutions brings clarity for your upgrade evaluation and future ERP journey.