#dynamicsgp

Why You Should Upgrade from Dynamics GP in 2025?

Still using Dynamics GP? In this video, we break down the top reasons why 2025 is the right time to upgrade. From cloud flexibility and better integrations to AI-powered insights and long-term support, we’ll show you how modern ERP systems can transform your business.

Why Choose Business Central Over Dynamics GP?

Still on Microsoft Dynamics GP? Time's running out! Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Discover why this modern, cloud ERP is GP's ideal successor. Learn about GP's end-of-life, Business Central's superior features, cloud benefits, and easy migration. Future-proof your business!

There is a lot of literature in the business world that recommends organizations using Microsoft Dynamics GP to upgrade to its successor, the Dynamics 365 Business Central. 

One can hardly turn the proverbial corner online these days without being virtually bombarded with articles and advertisements touting the virtues of the cloud. In fact, it has become such a force in business today that every company, regardless of size, is being forced to make a decision; cloud or on premise. It therefore becomes vital to have all of the information you need to make a truly informed decision, one that will contribute to your company's success now and in the long run. One of the most important factors to keep in mind is often the hidden costs of on-premise solutions.

These are some considerations to keep in mind:

The initial selection process for products can be quite involved from an on-premise perspective. A company can expend a significant amount of time and resources selecting a software solution or application, not to mention the database and operating system. With the cloud, the primary consideration is only that the software and applications work for your business.

Cloud solutions are handled by experts off-site. What is the real cost of long-term maintenance if your solution is managed on your office premises? Remember to consider annual salaries, electricity, heating, cooling and if your office has enough space.   

Virtually every software comes with seemingly countless small upgrades, patches, and testing that will need to be cared for throughout its life. Then, of course, are the even larger updates that will need to be re-deployed and customisations to be re-implemented across the entire organization each time with substantial disruption to the business. Cloud solutions provide minimal disruption to users as all updates and changes are conducted all off-site.

What are your other operating costs? These can include backing-up and restoring data, increased storage, procurement and maintenance of storage devices themselves, etc.

On-premise services will not only require staff training, but repeated training as changes and updates occur to the system; or with the addition of new staff to accommodate for user and system growth.

Integrating on premise solutions with web servers and online applications are generally more difficult than with platforms that are already web and cloud service ready. 

On premise solutions will rarely come packaged for a specific company's size and needs. Therefore, keep in mind the costs of scalability and adaptability.

For businesses that would struggle with all the large upfront costs required for software licensing, hardware and infrastructure, cloud solutions provide a cost-effective alternative based on a pay-as-you go subscription structure.

Weathering the storm: how well will your business’ software, hardware and networks fair in an emergency?  The answer to this question lies in the backups to your systems that you have in place.  There are also other variables, as every piece of software and hardware in a system has differing specs and will handle situations differently.

Looking at networks first, a cloud based system is one of the safest network options when it comes to local emergencies.  As all information is backed up to the cloud the information would survive a local level catastrophe that would wipe out any local system.  If the emergency were to be of a much larger scale and all the servers that comprised the cloud were to be damaged or compromised there is the off chance that the cloud itself could crash.  The likelihood of this happening is almost zero.

Software is a similar story, although there is a better chance it would pull through any sort of emergency; unless that emergency struck both local system and the cloud simultaneously.  If only one was struck, software, which is generally backed up on the cloud, would most likely survive.  A local emergency would leave the cloud untouched and a situation compromising the cloud would leave your local software untouched.  Basically, software is one of the safest items in your inventory and should cause you the least amount of worry.

Hardware, on the other hand, cannot be protected by the cloud and so you will have to focus on local prevention.  There are products to protect against all sorts of local emergency possibilities.  Protecting a local server is a specialty.  A websearch can reveal products to protect against fire, earthquake, flood, and even dust or moisture build-up.  Preventative measure can and should be taken to secure and protect your hardware.  Some can easily be replaced, like mice and monitors, but others can be irreplaceable and should be treated accordingly.

Bottom line, every piece of equipment and information has varying degrees of vulnerability to emergencies.  The best thing to do is to learn about the different levels of your own technology and know the best way to protect your software, hardware, and your networks.

A long while ago I wondered if it was possible to take an existing SQLConnection created by GPConn.Net and create an EntityFramework context for it.  I have finally gotten around to proving that it can work quite nicely.

For clarity, the Connection property in the code below is a SQLConnection object that was created using GPConn.Net.  This means that my applications can now have the users login with their DynamicsGP username and password.  We get the convenience of the EntityFramework with security and context of DynamicsGP.