In a year of economic uncertainty, it is especially difficult to trust your numbers and use them as a basis to plan for future success.  That is why the same ERP solution that you use to extract your financial data provides tools to help you analyze that data and leverage it to plan and set your budgets.  Each ERP solution has slightly different tools for budgeting, but all will influence the decisions you make and confidence with which you make them. 

Sage Active Planner

If you are a Sage MAS 90, 200 or 500 user, you can take advantage of Sage Active Planner to improve the flow of key information such as business drivers and transaction data, through templates, automatic distribution and consolidation of the budget, central control over budget revisions, real-time seamless integration of data sources, and built-in security mechanisms.   To learn more and see Sage Active Planner in action, attend this Sage software webinar on December 8th at 1:00 PM:  Control Your Budget – Don’t Let it Control You

Microsoft Forecaster

Microsoft Dynamics ERP users (those that use Microsoft Dynamics GP, Great Plains, Solomon, or Microsoft Dynamics SL for example) can take advantage of can build budgets that incorporate market conditions and specific business objectives. When the business environment changes, Microsoft Forecaster can be used to adjust forecasts and budgets so that managers can respond effectively.  Additionally, it allows you to quickly view current budget-to-actual comparisons to help you understand the effect of changing numbers on your plans.  Read how Socius’ client Bellefaire JCB/Wingspan Care Group is using Forecaster with Microsoft Dynamics GP to create budgets that stear them toward their goals while reducing administrative costs by 5%. 

BIO for Microsoft Dynamics SL

While BIO provides a wealth of business intelligence tools to Microsoft Dynamics SL users, for the purpose of this post, we’ll focus on it’s budgeting capabilities.  Not only can the business insights revealed by BIO help guide your decision making, but BIO also contains the ability to track your business performance and measure it against a goal or budget, so that you can adjust as you go and grow.  Because it is specialized for Microsoft SL, BIO not only helps with organizational budgeting, but also creating project budgets.  Lastly, BIO data is presented in role-based scorecards so everyone in your organization sees the data most relevant to them.  Learn more about BIO for Microsoft Dynamics SL.

There is no arguing that certain Microsoft Dynamics ERP products serve certain industries more effectively than others. You need only look at the industry lists off of each of the Dynamics product pages on Microsoft’s website to see which industries Microsoft thinks their solutions fit best in.  However, as you can see in the chart below (which Houston referenced in his post as well) there is a tremendous amount of overlap in the products functionality. 

As you can see, all four are equally suited to fit the needs of a 250 employee distributor and manufacturers with 500 employees will receive a comparable experience using Dynamics GP, NAV, or AX.  That is why these other two aspects are of such great importance.

ISVs
As Houston mentioned, there are over 9000 independent software vendors (ISVs) providing customized solutions for Microsoft Dynamics products.  Many of these ISV solutions are industry focused.  Pairing an industry specific ISV solution with a Dynamics product can provide you with the proprietary software experience without the headaches of maintaining and updating a proprietary system. 

Partners
When you are considering a Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution, you are not just shopping for software, but a Microsoft Dynamics Partner as well.  The best way to find a solution that fits your industry is to look for a partner that understands your unique needs and has experience working with other companies in your industry.  

Some partners have either worked with ISVs or developed their own industry specific solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics solutions that they take to market.  Others have consultants on staff with industry expertise that they use to manage the software selection and implementation process to ensure that the right ISVs are engaged and the right solution is crafted for each individual organization.  Regardless of which track your partner goes down, if they have experience serving your industry, they will provide you with references and evidence of their expertise that you can use to assess not only the partner, but also the software solutions they offer.  

Often if you select a Microsoft Dynamics partner that has a great depth of knowledge in your industry, the right software solution for your organization will follow. 

Request a complimentary Business Strategy Assessment from Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics SL Partner, Socius