Cloud Reporting for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Business Edition

In this article, financial reporting solutions for organizations utilizing Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business Edition will take center stage, so you can make the best software investment.
 

Last November, Microsoft took the wraps off of Microsoft Dynamics 365. It combines Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions into one integrated cloud product offering. As many of you know, there are two versions of Microsoft Dynamics 365. One, the Business Edition, is the lower end version based on the Dynamics NAV product in its structure. The higher end version, Enterprise Edition, is based on Dynamics AX and is designed for the higher end of the market. Both are architected for and deployed in the Microsoft Azure cloud, and it’s managed and hosted by Microsoft. This article will cover financial reporting tools for your company using Dynamics 365, Business Edition.
Data Integrations are arguably the foundation of financial reporting. Do you need real-time analytics that can be achieved directly through the Dynamics 365 interface, or do you want richer financial reporting functionality and prefer to load your Dynamics 365 data into a cloud reporting solution for more powerful performance? With native Dynamics 365 financial reporting, -any user can pull data right from Dynamics 365 without having to replicate financial information to a cloud reporting tool for up-to-the-minute financial statements. Corporate performance management cloud solutions require an additional investment, but some solutions can store numerous types of data sources in one space and thus allow for more powerful management reports without having to switch from one tool to another. With the cloud, you should have no issues as it is easy, quick and accessible. Solver’s BI360 Cloud represents a modern cloud reporting solution that can collect data from many data sources and thus offer up powerful reports with all the company’s key information from Dynamics 365 as well as other important data sources. When considering which tool to implement, you will have to explore platform options.
When it comes to your software platform options, the offerings have evolved more recently.  Excel won’t go anywhere for a while, but the Web and the Cloud are becoming increasingly more popular, but proprietary platforms are also still enjoying success in the marketplace. You’ll need to evaluate whether you need the familiarity and flexibility of Excel for your report design, or the accessibility of the Web/Cloud – or both.  A few tools offer Web-based financial reporting that is powered by Excel, combining the popular spreadsheet  for easy reporting, also giving you the capability to securely run reports in a web portal anywhere you can connect to the internet.  Additionally, there are proprietary products that offer their own platform outside of the Excel features, formatting, codes, and functionality that most are familiar with, but one of these offerings could be exactly what you need to meet your analytics goals. Keep in mind that with Dynamics 365, there are different features such as report navigation, multi-language accessibility, parameters usage, and report content formatting that are available to decide how reports are displayed. However, there are also weaknesses in the native reporting tool like the ability to easily run consolidated reports across companies, and this is another area where cloud reporting tools with pre-built integrations to Dynamics 365, such as BI360 cloud, can also be of help.
 
Businesses need powerful financial reporting tools to stay competitive in their industry without any disruptions or problems. As you research and look into more CPM tools, you will notice that some of them are on-premises, some of them are cloud-based, and others are hybrid solutions. Modern CPM tools that are true cloud platforms such as Adaptive Insights, Anaplan, Host Analytics and BI360 are great options. If you are skeptical about moving everything to the cloud, choose to keep certain business applications on-premises if you would like, but also plan for the future of your company. You can also learn more on the advantages and disadvantages of cloud and on-premise tools in the Business Intelligence: Cloud-based, One-premises, or Both? article. Studies have shown that moving to the cloud helps solve issues such as lowering costs, gaining flexibility, increasing productivity, and all while giving the right information to the right people at the right time, so business can make smart decisions for their business.
 
The BI/CPM realm for Microsoft customers has changed since Dynamics 365 was released, and vendors are encouraged to integrate their cloud reporting and budgeting solutions so that Dynamics customers can have rich options to for high quality reporting and planning. CPM systems. The cloud is always changing, and as it evolves, cloud reporting solutions will continue to get smarter as well. If your current system is limiting your company from making smarter business decisions, that is all the reason to invest in a new, modern reporting tool. Modern BI tools are providing end users decisions, so they have access to specific data they need when they need it without having to wait for your help, but I still recommend you maintaining a good relationship with your IT team as they are truly the technology “brain” of the organization and will assist in making sure that your various systems can integrate seamlessly to maximize productivity and quality of data. If you want to learn more, you can find information about Microsoft Dynamics 365 here and read what it all means. Solver, Inc. is happy to answer questions and generally review BI360’s cloud-powered, easy-to-use Excel and web reporting with both real-time or data warehouse integrated analysis, budgeting and dashboards as a way to accelerate company performance management for Microsoft Dynamics 365 as well as your other business applications.
Solver enables world-class decisions with BI360, a leading web-based CPM suite made up of budgeting, reporting, dashboards, and data warehousing, delivered through a web portal. Solver is reinventing CPM with its next generation solution. BI360 empowers business users with modern features including innovative use of Excel in the model design process. If you’re interested in learning more, our team is excited to hear about your organizational needs and goals.