Exploring ERP on the cloud
The ERP application moved to the cloud in response to the business needs of global reach accessibility, agility, scalability, and standardization. The cloud offering changed the game for ERP, shifting deployments from local on-premises servers to cloud data centers, managed by specialized professionals. The customer no longer needs to procure, operate, and maintain the hardware, infrastructure, and security. The cloud gives the customer the room to direct infrastructure resources, money, and manpower to business-related activities that impact customer efficiency.
Decision makers should think differently when it comes to an ERP-on-the-cloud decision. There are three main pillars that should be considered whenever a company has this discussion on the table:
- Total cost of ownership: A cloud ERP is accessed via a web browser from anywhere using any PC, rather than on-premises deployment, which requires building your own data center and infrastructure. The initial investment of the cloud ERP is lower than the on premises, which requires upfront investment. The time to deploy the environment on the cloud is a great deal faster than on premises; it is an automated process and is monitored by Microsoft.
- Upgrades and maintainability: Upgrades are smoother than ever; it is an automated process initiated from Dynamics LCS and monitored by Microsoft engineers. Of course, the customer has the ability to do the upgrade on his own on a user acceptance test (UAT), or a development environment for testing purposes.
- Performance and accessibility: Performance was one of the most challenging tasks when designing on-premises ERP and, based on the customer business requirements, this may increase the cost and the hardware performance trade-off. With the on-cloud version, this is not a challenging task but it may be tricky to identify a reasonable deployment which fits the customer's needs.
The benefits of cloud ERP are evolving and it is being developed and enhanced over time. Currently, customers have the ability to scale their Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations as per their business needs, by adding additional users, additional hardware to cover the peak times, and then reducing it whenever it needed.
End users access the application from a web browser or mobility devices, such as smartphones and tablets. With the cloud offering, customers who have global operations have no need to worry about the consistency of their ERP deployment across all regions.