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AccSoft

Master Data

Migrating from Legacy ERP to Business Central: Lessons Learned
06
Apr

Migrating from Legacy ERP to Business Central: Lessons Learned 

Migrating from a system is not just about the system; it is about transforming the way your company works. If you are about to embark on the journey to the cloud, here are the hard-earned lessons we learned along the way.  1. “Lift and Shift” is a Trap  The biggest mistake companies make is treating the migration as a copy-and-paste operation. They want to take their messy, convoluted processes from the old system and copy them over to Business Central.  The Lesson: Don’t automate a bad process.  Legacy systems are often messy because the software couldn’t do what the business needed. It required workarounds. Business Central is a much more capable system. Take advantage of the migration to think about your processes. If your old system required five steps to approve a purchase order, see if Business Central can’t do it in two. If you try to make Business Central look and act exactly like your old Legacy system, you will be throwing money away.  2. Data Hygiene is Non-Negotiable  Business thought they had clean data. They didn’t. On extracting data from the old system, we usually discover that there were thousands of obsolete customer data, duplicated vendor data, and inventory items that were not sold in the last ten years.   The Lesson: Don’t boil the ocean.   Don’t migrate everything. You’re moving into a new house. Don’t bring the trash with you.   Archive the old data. Keep the old system accessible. Make it read-only.   Cleanse the master data. Customers. Vendors. Items (GL accounts).   Bring the opening balances. Do bring relevant historical data but not ten years of closed transactional history.  3. Configuration vs. Customization  This is the Golden Rule of Business Central. In the old days, we used to customize the code for everything. We wanted the button to be blue, not grey. We wanted the report to be printed in a specific font.  The Lesson: Stay Standard (Standard = Good).  Every time we customize the code in BC, we make it harder and costlier for future upgrades.  Try and configure the system using standard settings.  Try and look for App Source extensions/add-ons rather than customizing code.  Customize only if it gives you a competitive advantage.  4. The “Excel Trap” is Real  One of the most powerful features of Business Central is its native Excel support. However, be warned that it is also one of the most insidious “features.”  During the go-live of our project, we had users who were afraid of the new UI. Instead of learning how to enter a sales order in BC, they were trying to download everything into Excel, manipulate it there, and paste it back into the system.   The Lesson: Train Early and Train Often  Change management is harder than the technical implementation. People need to be convinced that Business Central is easier than their spreadsheet hell. Invest in “Champion Training” find super users in every department who will be able to pressure their co-workers into using the system correctly.  5. Your Partner Matters More Than the Software  Business Central is a wonderful product, and it’s a platform. It needs a partner to implement it. Chose a partner based on a bid price, and it was a disaster waiting to happen. Chose the lowest bidder, and they treat like a number.   The Lesson: Find a partner that understands your industry, not just the software.  A retail implementation versus a manufacturing implementation is vastly different. Changing partners halfway through the project to one that specialized in the industry costs you more.  6. The Go-Live is Not the Finish Line  Go Live day is, crossing the starting line at a marathon.  The First Month Was a Bumpy Ride  Users forgot passwords. Reports looked a little different. Changes needed to posting groups etc.  The Lesson  Plan for a “Hypercare” period. For the first 4 to 6 weeks after Go Live, be prepared to need extra support. Keep your implementation partner on speed dial. Don’t consider your project complete until you have successfully closed a month-end and run your payroll.  The Bottom Line  Migrating from a legacy ERP system to Business Central is hard. It takes money, time, and a thick skin.  But is it worth it? Yes.  You will have a real-time visibility into business. Can close financials in days instead of weeks. Remote workers can access data from anywhere and you don’t have to think about server maintenance anymore.  If you are considering making the move from a legacy ERP system to Business Central, take the leap, clean your data, and trust the process for your journey to the cloud.
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From NAV to Business Central Migration: What Businesses Should Expect
16
Mar

From NAV to Business Central Migration: What Businesses Should Expect 

For years, Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been the workhorse ERP solution for thousands of businesses around the world. It is reliable, robust, and has become an integral part of many business operations. But as technology continues to advance into a cloud-first world, the days of the on-premises legacy server are numbered. Enter Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It is the successor to NAV, but Migrating from NAV to Business Central is more than that it is a complete overhaul of your business operations.  If you are a NAV user considering making the jump to Business Central, you are likely asking yourself what it means to migrate from NAV to Business Central. Will it hurt? Will I lose all my customizations? How long will it take?  What to Expect  What can businesses expect when making the jump from NAV to Business Central?  1. It’s Not Just an “Upgrade”; It’s a Platform Shift  The largest mental shift for you will be in understanding that this is not just installing Service Pack 2 on your existing server. This is a move from a strictly on-premises solution to a Cloud-first solution, a true SaaS (Software as a Service) model.  What to expect: You will no longer be responsible for managing Windows updates, SQL backups, and server hardware.   The Benefit: Your IT team is free from above tasks, and you’re always running the latest version.  2. The Code Change: C/AL to AL  The “technical stuff”, a necessary evil that will impact your project timeline and/or budget. Also classic NAV uses a coding language called “C/AL.” Microsoft Business Central uses a new language called “AL,” which is “cloud-ready” and “modern.”  What to Expect: If your NAV implementation is heavily customized (and most are), these customizations cannot be “copy and pasted.” They must be “re-written” or “ported” as “Extensions.”  The Impact: Now is the time to clean up those customizations. Do you really need a customization written five years ago? Migration time is a good time to go “standard,” which makes future upgrades easier.  3. The “Extension” Model vs. Object Modification  In previous versions of NAV, developers would often make modifications to the system’s core objects. This would cause problems if they tried to upgrade the system, as these modifications would interfere with new updates from Microsoft.  What to Expect: Business Central utilizes an extension model. This means instead of modifying the code, customizations and add-ons sit on top of the system, stacked on like blocks.  The Benefit: If Microsoft updates Business Central, the extensions will be preserved. This means you will no longer have to re-create customizations every time an update is rolled out.  4. Data Migration: The “Clean Slate” Opportunity  Data migration is usually the biggest concern for a business. You have years of historical data.  What to Expect:  You may not actually need to migrate all that data. While Master Data like Customers, Vendors, and Items is a priority, as is Open Ledger Entries like unpaid invoices, migrating data for the last 10 years of historical data may be unnecessary and expensive.  The Strategy:  Most businesses will end up migrating open data and possibly the last two years of historical data. The older data can be kept in a “read-only” NAV instance for reporting.  5. A Shift in User Experience (UI/UX)  The user interface for Business Central is quite dissimilar from the classic NAV interface.  What to Expect:  The interface is a browser interface that is very similar to Outlook or Office 365. It is a responsive interface, meaning it works well with tablets and smaller screens.  The Adjustment:  You will need to adjust your staff to the new interface. However, as it is a standard Microsoft interface, most users will find it quite intuitive after a short training period.  6. Integration is Native, Not an Afterthought  With NAV systems, integration to Office 365 was sometimes required to be done through third parties or extensive configurations. With Business Central, integration is now native.  What to Expect: Expect to be able to see your Business Central data within Outlook, be able to edit Excel data that is synced to Business Central in real-time and be able to use Power Automate to automate business processes.  The Benefit: No more living in a silo. The sales team can be working in Outlook and be putting data into the ERP system without even realizing it.  7. The Timeline and Process  The typical phases of a migration project are as follows:  Analysis – Reviewing the existing NAV customizations and data.  Code Upgrade – Converting the customizations to AL extensions.  Data Migration – Migrating the data and open entries.  Training – Educating users on the new interface.  Go Live – Switch over.  The project duration for a simple upgrade may be a few weeks, while a complex project with heavy customizations may take several months. The project is full of surprises, and data cleanliness is a problem that may need resolution.  Conclusion: Embrace the Change  Migrating from NAV to Business Central is not only a technical imperative; it is a business enabler. It offers accessibility (work from anywhere), scalability, as well as access to new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Power BI.  The secret to success is to work with the right experts and see this as an opportunity to improve your business processes, rather than simply moving your old system into the cloud.  Are you ready to future-proof your business? The cloud is waiting. 
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