Unleashing the power of Business Central: Supporting SMBs

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I'm your host, Shelby Skirhawk, and today our guest is Pam Johnson, Director of Partner Marketing for Business Applications for Microsoft. Pam, welcome, Thank you so much, Shelby, I'm excited to be here. Yeah, well, thank you and welcome back. So today we're talking about unleashing the power of Microsoft Dynamics through sixty five Business Central, and specifically we're talking about some of the marketing, marketing aspects and.

Trends for SMBs. So soft though, to acquaint ourselves, what is best Business Central? Yeah, great question. It is the first comprehensive business management solution that uses Microsoft Copilot to boost productivity and improve decision making, making it the next generation AI.

And which Dynamics Business Central It's really a single, easy to use solution that works seamlessly for the Microsoft three sixty five that connects finance, sales, service, and operation. And so this is an ERP that integrates AI specifically Microsoft Copilot. Right, there's Copilot within Business Central, and Business Central is an ERP solution. You are one hundred percent correct, got it?

Then, looking at the SMB market, what are some of the trends that you're seeing and the things that we're that they're facing. Yeah, we actually worked with IDC and connected a survey with SMB customers and the top three that I play out that I thought were very relevant for customers that are thinking about Business Central are the first one. SMBs are really continually balancing complex and challenging priorities. They're thinking about growth, how they drive efficiency, productivity, and of course security is top of mind for SMB leaders today.

Absolutely. The next one is SMBs are really continuing to invest in technology. They need to become more digitally resistant and capitalize on the change marketing conditions. And one impressive stat is seventy percent of SMBs will have significantly increase their IT spend by twenty twenty six.

And significantly is significant. Then because we're not talking about just maybe keeping up with or just some small updates. They're significantly increasing their spend correct. So it's a great opportunity for partners.

Yeah, and then the third one is something I think we can all relate too about working from home and highbred work models are here to stay, which is driving the increased focus on security as SMBs are going to focus on keeping their company and their customers data secure and cyber attacks are targeting SMBs are becoming more prevalent, and they're driving companies to take more proactive measures to mitigate the risks. That are out there. Yeah, it really is. It's everywhere, it is, and I think sometimes customers feel like I'm okay staying what I'm on because it's not going to happen to me.

And I talked to a partner just yesterday that a customer came to them because they were actually attacked. And now the partner is going to work with a customer to get the data back, but it's going to definitely be a costly investment for that customer. Yeah, definitely. Well, so what are then the pain points?

I mean, security is something that are keeping them them up at night, but what are those pain points specifically that SMB customers are experiencing today. Yeah, especially if you think about it from an ARP perspective. I think like one of the things we're seeing a lot of is multiple software programs, paper based systems. What it's doing is creating data silos that make decision making harder, and it's hindering business growth and it's also reducing the ROI.

Yeah. The second one is manual workarounds that are happening that result in inefficient processes, data airs, They're driving up costs, and they're also reducing the business's profitability. Yes, the manual ones the solution that well, because we didn't have this or because that legacy program didn't talk to that legacy program. We're doing xyz all of these steps, when if they were all connected and digitally transformed, if you will, that would make that process so much easier, right.

Yes, for sure. And then the less errors when you do things manually versus if you can automate it is critical, yes, yes. And then to your point earlier, the disconnected systems, it makes it really hard to collaborate and share information, and it's also impacting employee's ability to solve those critical business problems and really effectively serve their customers. Yeah, well, let me ask you, so, I mean, yes, the SMB customer is facing these things, but is that also a challenge for the partners themselves, the ones that are trying to help these SMBs if they are not fully digitally up to date.

Yeah, it's a great question, and I would definitely say some partners are experiencing this because some partners haven't made that transition over into a seamless ERP solution, and so I think it's important that partners are able to run an efficient ERP solution as well as their productivity apps. It definitely makes it easier to have the conversation with the customer. Well, so getting into the mindset of the partner and when they are talking to various customers. I wonder if you can and give us some of those common customer scenarios where Business Central would help those SMBs.

Yeah, it's a great question, and this is a question we typically get a lot from partners, like how do I know which customers I need to be targeting for this? And we've really found three common scenarios where our solution really fits. The first one is the businesses really outgrowing systems such as QuickBooks zero and there's some others out there. And some of the triggers that are making that happen is scalability.

They're unable to support the required number of users or transaction volume is one of them. Reporting requirements is critical because they might need more dimensions than the current system allows. What do you mean by that with the flexibility for reporting to make sure that you can have different types of reports? Okay, okay?

And then the last one is the inefficient workflows, which we talked a little bit about where you're switching between apps see time and causing data entry airs. So that's the first one. The second one is really where the business has an old solution that needs updating and this could be more legacy systems potentially on prem and some things to keep in mind there that are triggers is they're out of warranty or support. So then again it's a huge risk for the end customer.

Or maybe that's broken, not reliable and not secure where the existing solution has fundamental problems that's actually holding the company back. And then the third is really it's missing critical capabilities where the business has changed and grown and they need additional capabilities and what their existing system has. So that's really thinking about from an old legacy system perspective. And then the third is the business has a very specific need and the capability becomes a must, and that's where think about compliance auditory requirements.

There's certain compliance standards that customers need to make sure they're maintaining. Then you also have specific feature and capabilities. This could get into where you need warehouse support, tracking inventory or rebates. And then the last one is really the facts fast and flexible deployments and more of a hub and spoke and this is where companies really want to decentralize an operating model, but they might want to standardize across various divisions and they need that solution that can quickly and easily deploy across the different business units.

What would you an example of that. With the fast and flexible deployments, think about organizations that might have manufacturing or they might have retail, because you're going to have your general edge of your account clubile accounts pable, but then you're also going to have the manufacturing and inventory. That you're going to want to make sure is up to date. So that's when you think about different departments and different units, that would be a specific scenario.

Got it, got it? Got it? Okay, Well, so for the partner that's listening to their customer, you mentioned three really common customer scenarios. The business that's outgrowing their systems, the business that just has old legacy software that is, you know, not supported anymore and desperately needs needs help.

Or the business has a very specific requirement like correct with like HIPPA and you know, government compliance that sort of thing. Well, so in talking about those those customer scenarios, though, again going back to the partner that's sitting at the table having this discussion, they're going to be talking to traditionally the IT department, but there's really so many roles with an organization. And I guess because we're talking about a large scale ERP system that's not just a it's large scale.

So I guess, how did they. Expand their thinking and think, Okay, well, who else do I need to be talking about. You're talking to not just the you know, the the IT department or the CTO, but what are some of their considerations that they should be I guess having when they're sitting at that table. Yeah, and that's one thing I think that's super important when you're thinking about an EERP solution is you need to make sure that you expand the rooms in the house or expand across organized in the organization, the individuals you're talking to, So having an engagement with the owner the CEO is super critical.

And the other one is really on the operational side. It's your finance controller CFO because they're the ones that are going to make the decision to write the check. In addition, you can be talking to the IT manager, but it's super important that you're getting a seat at the table with the owner, CEO and or the financial individual. So the executive, the owner, the CEO.

Yep, I wonder if you can break that down a little bit. So, okay, so when you're talking to the CEO, what are you saying, what are some of the things that they need fixed and that you might be able to offer that solution. Yeah, so that's a great question. I think it's important for partners to think about the personas that they're talking to.

What are some of the core challenges that that individual season the organization, and then what are some of the key impacts and so when you put your CEO hat on, if you're in a customer organization, A couple of the ones that come talk to mind to me is you've got the remote work empowerment, you've got potentially increasing fraud risk, and you've got increasing regulatory and compliance reporting, and then there's penalties if you don't do that. And so some of the key metrics that's going to be top of mind for that CEO is going to be profitability.

So what are the operating margin? What are my IT costs? And what about revenue growth? So they're looking at, yeah, the revenue growth opportunities there and balancing that with all of the challenges that they're already facing.

Correct. I was just going to say, like if we go think about the finance and the controller, like a couple core business challenges that come top of mind for them on why they would be considering a new ERP solution is going to be limited visibility into real time data for payment predictions or forecasting or cash flow management, which is super critical especially within SMB organizations. And you've got the manual and inefficient financial processes that are going to increase time and costs.

And then I think the other one that we hit on earlier too is the ability to enable that remote digital selling and support to make sure no matter where individuals are on the organization, they're still driving productivity for the bottom dollar. Well, so let me ask the partner is probably used to talking to the IT manager or the CTO. They may depending on theirization, they may be talking to the CEO. But I don't know, it could be wrong.

It seems like you wouldn't normally be talking to the finance guy the controller. How important is that element? I mean, is that something that the partner would would normally be facing. Are they really just talking to the CEO or the IT guy?

No, it's super important from an ARP that you actually have the finance or the controller in there to have that discussion because they're going to be the one that's going to write you the check. And some of the key impact metrics top of mind for them is what's my operating expense ratio or what's the percent of revenue coming from new versus existing customers? How many average days does it take to close the books? Like, it's going to revolve around the financial metrics as well as the productivity.

Oh okay, and that's something that I hadn't that. I don't think a lot of us would really have thought about that. Yeah, it's the finance guy that's cutting the check, so he really needs to be assured that this is this is something that the organization absolutely needs. It's I would like to have.

It's really becoming a must have correct. And then on the IT side of the house, like a couple of things, which is probably no shock if there's it people listening to this is again maintaining security, which we've talked about, and then around the governance trust and the security of the AI language and the decision models that's super important in it. They're going to want to know about budget and they're going to be thinking about attacks, breaches, fraud attempts. And the one thing that we get a lot of questions on is I don't know if I feel secure putting my earp on the cloud.

Yeah. Yeah, And what we typically say to that is you're going to run on enterprise grade security in the Azure environment, and so it's actually safer to put it in the cloud than it is to have it sitting in your server in your office. Well, so you've made a lot of great points there, and I guess, as we start to wrap up our episode, I'd love to, I guess, summarize or give our listeners kind of some takeaways from this episode. So, Pam, what do you want partners listening to this really to understand most about Business Central?

So if you think about Business Central, think about it as that one comprehensive solution that integrates into M three sixty five and runs on the Azure platform for that enterprise grade security. But I also would challenge you to think about when you're meeting with your existing customers to really think about the SMB trends that we talked about, the customer pain points, the scenarios to target it. More importantly, the importance of reaching the right individuals in the organization, because if you're listening for that and you craft a compelling pitch to your client about highlighting Microsoft Dynamics three sixty five or the copilot function in there along with the integration into M three sixty five, there's no other competitor out there today that can offer this comprehensive solution.

And this is where really Microsoft can fight and win, and this is where we need us partners to really go out and help us do that and I know you might be thinking, well, it's ERP, that's not really my area of focus. I don't know if I can do that, And I challenge each one of you. I know that you can do it based on kind of the talk that we had today, and if you're wondering how to take the next step, Ingram is ready to help you. So that's where I would reach out to Dynamics three sixty five at ingrammicro dot com and they're more than willing to engage with you to have the discussion.

You don't have to be the expert because they can also do the deployment for your end customer. Excellent. Well yeah, so great. So we've got that contact information so if if partners have questions about anything that we talked about today, they can reach out.

So well, Pam, I really appreciate the time and the insight today. Thank you so much for joining me. It was my pleasure. Thank you so much.

I'm excited about seeing more partners with the opportunity around business Central. Yeah, and thank you listeners for tuning in subscribing to B to B Tech Talk with Ingram Micro. If you haven't subscribed, be sure to do so and don't forget. You can find all of these episodes on the ingram Micro Expantage platform.

Until next time, I'm Shelby Skirhawk. You've been listening to B to B tech Talk by Ingram Micro. This episode was sponsored by ingram Micro Exvantage. B to B tech Talk is a joint production between Sweetfish Media and ingram Micro.

To listen to this episode and many others, visit ingrammicro dot com.