Good ol' Microsoft Dynamics GP! The 'gateway' ERP that allowed our solutions team to gain significant ERP experience through the implementation, support, and management of countless Dynamics GP deployments. Dynamics GP projects have given us the opportunity to work with hundreds of businesses across many industries including service, warehousing, and manufacturing. These projects involved us helping these businesses maximize the value that Dynamics GP can provide in all aspects of their business including operations, reporting, and forecasting. While our team has since had the opportunity to branch out and gain experience in several, more modern ERPs, we'll always have a soft spot in our hearts for Dynamics GP.
And what's an ode without a bit of history? Established in 1993 as under the name of Great Plains, and then purchased by Microsoft in 2001, Dynamics GP has had a steady presence among Small-to-Medium sized businesses (SMB) over the last 30+ years. The prolonged popularity of Dynamics GP is based on the strength of its core functions including financial accounting, inventory, and manufacturing, as well as the ability to establish reliable integrations between Dynamics GP and other systems to optimize business processes.
That said, Dynamics GP differs from more modern, cloud-based ERPs in that a SQL backend has to be established to support the Dynamics GP implementation. In recent years, Microsoft has made it clear that Dynamics GP will not become a cloud-based ERP like its other ERPs, specifically Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. Below is the Dynamics GP Lifecycle as published by Microsoft. Overall, while Microsoft will maintain support of Dynamics GP for the foreseeable future, the reality is that Microsoft is taking the approach of trying to convince Dynamics GP users to adopt one of its cloud-based ERPs.
For Dynamics GP versions that are in the Fixed Lifecycle, there are fixed mainstream support (active functional & technical, including payroll updates) and extended support (mostly security-focused) end dates. The Modern Lifecycle requires businesses to upgrade to the latest version of Dynamics GP and carry out annual upgrades to stay on the latest version. The current version of Dynamics GP is 18.5 with 18.6 being released in October 2024.
If you've gotten this far, the assumption is that your business currently uses Dynamics GP. So where does all of this information leave your business? Well, like most questions, the answer is 'it depends'; it depends on how your business currently feels about your current Dynamics GP deployment and if the continued use of Dynamics GP aligns with your business' future plans.
If your business is currently satisfied with Dynamics GP and doesn't see that changing any time soon, then there may be opportunities to optimize your current deployment with either upgrades, integrations, or the adoption of 3rd party solutions to derive additional business value. If you're not quite sure if Dynamics GP fits your long-term plans, then defining those plans and determining the ERP that fits aligns with those plans is the next logical step.
So if your business currently uses Dynamics GP, we can help. Our experience with Dynamics GP as well as our love for the solution (while still being very aware of its limitations) puts us in a great position to develop an overall ERP roadmap for you. Whether that roadmap involves the implementation of a new ERP, or modernizing/maximizing your current Dynamics GP implementation, EEZEE Solutions has the Dynamics GP experience and know-how to help. Long live Dynamics GP!
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