Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs. Sage 300

It addresses well some integration and connectivity issues with other software and adapted technologies: formulation and manufacturing batching software, scanners and bar codes, inventory, financials, emailing of invoices and statement, sales and purchasing... etc. I believe it to be better suited to a medium to large company. Not as simple and seamless as we expected for migrating from another Microsoft Dynamics software product (we moved from GP to NAV). Our staff is going through a tougher time than we thought to learn some procedures. Normal growing pains?!

Incentivized

I believe that Sage 300 ERP is appropriate for a wide variety of companies looking for a system to maintain information in a concise manner. The level of complexity with which it is used is determined by the user group. Therefore, this product is great for companies that are just starting to grow right through to more mature companies looking for detailed data and analytics from their systems.

• All of the Dynamics ERP systems are fully integrated with the full family of their Office products (Word, Excel, etc.) but the true power behind Dynamics-NAV is that it comes with complete access to the source code. Although most ERP packages provide some type of a development environment, it is always a third-party software package and requires an additional expense. NAV comes with full source code access and devolvement tools out-of-the-box and requires no additional purchase. The user is able to modify pages, reports and even add additional fields to the standard tables. If your company has an internal development staff you have the ability to purchase the same full development license that the VAR has, allowing you to handle all system customizations and support in-house. The sum total of this high flexibility is that you are able to make NAV conform to your business rather than you conforming to the software.
• In addition to the available source code, NAV provides the user with an unlimited ability to modify and build within the rich environment of C/AL code. In over 20 years of modifying the NAV product I have never had a client ask for a modification or custom functionality that I was not able to provide. Add to this the fact that NAV now includes many development points that allow the user to place their custom code inside of the system without impacting the base code. This makes the upgrade process quick and easy and avoids the common occurrence of being version locked.
• The user interface of Dynamics NAV has been well thought out and provides a very easy to learn and use package. Master records (Customer, Vendor, Items, etc.) have been laid out in a standard format. Once you learn where fields are located on one record you have learned them all. The forms (called Pages in NAV) have a very similar structure and, by design, are uncluttered and easily customized by the user without impacting the base code. This allows each user to configure the Page to the way they work, easing the learning process and speeding up daily work and data entry.
• The NAV environment has grown to be very feature rich in the functionality offered and provides the user with almost everything they need with the purchase of the base product. Advanced features can be added if required as can a large number of third party add-ons made exclusively for the NAV environment. Additionally, user licenses are sold as concurrent and not as named. Concurrent licenses control the number of users allowed into the system at any one time meaning that anyone can be provided with the ability to log into the system. This allows the company to setup an unlimited number of users with the ability to access the system at any given time. This allows the occasional user to share a license with other users who only need to access the system to enter a small amount of data or run a few reports. This functionality is a plus for the company with a large sales staff or outside workers who only need limited access to the system. Named licenses would require that you purchase an access license for every person who needs to access the system.

Incentivized

• The installation directions are clear and easy to follow.
• The ability to import and export data is also easy allowing you to perform mundane tasks easily and efficiently.
• The security features allow you to fine tune the permissions for the end users so that they cannot see data that you do not want them privy to.

Incentivized

• There are not a lot of "out of the box" automation processes, for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Different versions of NAV, have had various job scheduling functionality. However, each process that is automated, must be confirmed that it will function correctly, in an automatic mode. In our installation, most of the automation processes have been custom-developed.
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV could have better documentation. Much of the documentation is original, from multiple versions ago. There is generally no step-by-step instructions, on performing various functions. Instead, most help is context-sensitive, obtained by pressing F1, on a particular field.
• Older versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV had a built-in WYSIWYG report builder, which made designing reports fairly straight-forward. Later versions (2013 and forward) rely exclusively on Visual Studio and SQL Reporting Services, which require a greater technical level of expertise, to use.

Incentivized

• Although I do like the Bank Reconciliation module, I wish it was a bit more advanced and less clunky. Some transactions cannot be reversed and the module seems slower than others.
• When using copy and paste on all modules, sometimes I receive an error message and the program closes.

We've already decided to continue using this software. It is too expensive for us to upgrade so we made a workaround by using the virtual computer with Windows XP installed on it. We did research replacing this software, but it was a better financial decision to keep what we had instead

Incentivized

It is a solid stable product with a large user community and large ISV community. Support and Training are easy to access and obtain and there is larger reseller channel to ensure the firm you work with is honest. It is scalable and there are multiple deployment and payment options.

Best in terms of reporting or coming up with a great dashboard. Seamlessly collaborated with teams without depending on particular device as its web version is the buddy for people with work flexibility. Licensing price and integrations can be the areas of improvement and can simplify the interface which will be easy for a new user.

Incentivized

Sage 300cloud is intuitive and user friendly after some training. It does require implementation and training but once that's done, this software is easy to use and navigate. Support for Sage 300cloud is spot on and offers assistance over the simplest to [the] most complex of tasks. Finding information or learning new tasks within Sage 300cloud is relatively easy and educational.

Incentivized

It provides one to efficiently be able to manage bookkeeping and inventory without much challenges. One can easily navigate through workflow processes while managing usages and budgets. Being able to produce reports in Word, Excel or PDF means one is able to have a working document to produce trends and graphs or produce pivot tables.

Support for Sage 300cloud is similar to Sage support. Depending on which channel you get to and which Specialist you get, the Support can be spot on and rapid. However, there can be wait times and [occasionally], new functionality isn't always well supported. Support documentation is great and [easily] accessible. Additionally, Support Consultants are great resources when it comes to learning and troubleshooting Sage 300cloud.

Incentivized

Dynamics fits the modern world, integrating new technology to ensure a complete business process is readily accessible in a rapidly moving world of "in-office" and "remote" work. It solves the need for several departments and streamlines procurement, warehouse, and finance processes.

Incentivized

Sage 300cloud is a great cloud/web based option when stacked against Sage 300 and Sage 100 Contractor. These other two systems are on premise and require licenses to access. Sage 300cloud can be accessed from any web page and is a pay as you go model. Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle JD Edwards World are better for larger organizations that are heavy into Service and Work Order Management.

Incentivized

• Better visibility of ROI throughout each period. Orders entered, shipped, and backlogs are very visible to authorized users upon login.
• Purchasing and inventory turns have been better realized. Out of stock parts reduced.
• A future customer portal will enhance the customer experience by pulling NAC data into a web-based UI. However, the portal is a separate expense.
• Time savings realized by being able to generate views or reports versus asking IT or accounting to pull a custom report.

Incentivized

• Hard to say - Accpac (in one form or another) is all we have ever used, thus there is no real comparison to make to show impact vs another application.
• Sage 300 ERP is the backbone of our organization - efficiently dealing with payroll and budgets in excess of 30 million dollars per year.

Incentivized