MYOB Advanced Business vs Dynamics 365 Business Central: Which ERP Solution is Right for Your Business?

The worldwide ERP software market is projected to achieve a value of $78.4 billion by 2026.

In this saturated ERP market, are you also looking for an advanced ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution?

Navigating the diverse landscape of cutting-edge ERP solutions is crucial to finding the perfect match for your business success.

In this blog, we will compare two leading Cloud-based ERP solutions in Australia, Dynamics 365 Business Central and MYOB Advanced Business, to help you understand which one will best fit your business requirements.

But before diving deep into the comparison, let’s first understand the capabilities of cloud-based ERP solutions.

What is the Need for a Cloud ERP System?

ERP systems are pivotal for businesses seeking to consolidate and manage information across their organisation. Historically, the ERP system was installed on local servers and infrastructure owned by the company, known today as on-premises deployment.

Given the rapid pace of technological evolution, relying on-premises systems for sustained growth and success is becoming less viable. While on-premises solutions have enabled businesses to operate more intelligently and yield significant benefits, they do have limitations in key areas such as cost, agility and maintenance.

Cloud ERP systems address numerous challenges associated with on-premises solutions and provide several advantages over traditional, on-site counterparts. The scalable Cloud ERP solutions minimise the need for extensive IT infrastructure and enable businesses to pay for only what they use.

Cloud ERP typically means reduced upfront investment, fast deployment schedules and less reliance on physical infrastructure and personnel. Cloud-based systems enhance organisational agility by their inherent flexibility and scalability. This shift also allows business leaders to concentrate on core operations and strategic initiatives as the vendor manages routine maintenance tasks such as bug fixes, patches and system upgrades.

Cloud ERP empowers employees to access real-time information at any time from anywhere, fostering collaboration. Additionally, it supports real-time updates and maintenance, ensuring the system is always up-to-date with the latest features and security updates.

A Brief Overview of Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a comprehensive cloud-based solution for managing back-office operations efficiently. It unifies sales, finance, service and operations for small and medium businesses, simplifying the management process.

The single solution to work smarter and perform better is based on Microsoft’s flagship Dynamics NAV product, which has been around for 30 years. The advanced ERP solution optimises the flow of information, cash and material in an organisation.

Business Central eliminates duplicate data and fragmented systems, encompassing accounting, supply chain, operations, and sales, by integrating them into a single application database. This centralisation results in more accurate and comprehensive reporting and allows your team secure access to data from anywhere, at any time.

A Brief Overview of MYOB Advanced Business

MYOB Advanced Business is a flexible cloud-based ERP solution that provides businesses with comprehensive real-time visibility and control. It integrates essential business functions into a single platform, minimising the need for manual processes and delivering real-time accurate insights.

Designed to scale with your business’s growth, it offers a comprehensive solution for resource planning, and inventory management, ideal for large and growing businesses. MYOB Advanced Business streamlines management of financials, customer relationships, projects and reporting from a unified system. It empowers businesses with a holistic perspective, enabling informed and strategic decision-making.

What are the Capabilities of Business Central and MYOB Advanced Business?

Before diving into a comparison of these two solutions or deciding on the best choice for your business, it’s important to note their features and capabilities. Both options represent advanced ERP solutions aimed at addressing modern business complexities and facilitating operational advancements.

MYOB Advanced Business Financial Management

Streamline financial processes by syncing data across operations for accurate cash management and real-time insights while automating reporting, payments, consolidation and tax management to improve workflows.

Inventory Management

Manage multi-site inventory seamlessly with an integrated solution. Enhance visibility and streamline operations by automating order management and supplier interactions while optimising costs with real-time financial and inventory tools.

Warehouse Management

Streamline warehouse management through automated inventory movement, order fulfilment and stock replenishment. Maximise orders through cross-selling and upselling techniques and ensure accuracy with barcode and tag scanning, picking, packing and shipping to customers.

Project Accounting

Ensure real-time visibility across projects, financials and customers from a single source of truth. Utilise flexible billing functions to invoice materials and labour based on project or customer needs while controlling project costs through real-time reports, dashboards and work-in-progress tracking.

Sales Order Management

Centralise control over your sales system for accurate insights, facilitating informed decision-making. Streamline operations with integrated workflows that automate tasks across your sales funnel, providing real-time visibility into stock levels and upcoming orders.

CRM Capability

Gain a competitive edge with CRM software that integrates accounting, inventory management and financial reporting. Sync your sales team in the cloud, collaborate on deals and boost conversations with integrated sales and marketing automation.

Purchase Order Management

Automates procurement from supplier quotes to invoice payments. Enhance vendor experience with central purchasing control, automated purchase orders, and connected workflows while gaining full visibility with detailed audit reports and transaction drill-downs.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Financial Management

Handle finances comprehensively by managing budgets, automating bank reconciliation, tracking fixed assets and more. Utilise AI for accurate cash-flow projections and make profitable decisions with robust reporting and analysis tools connected to Excel and Microsoft Power BI. Support multiple currencies, languages, exchange rates, consolidations, intercompany transactions and tax regulations.

CRM Capabilities

Track customer interactions and identify upsell, cross-sell and renewal opportunities. Manage the entire sales process from Outlook, ensuring seamless transitions from sales to service, tracking returns and repairs and managing service agreements. Enhance customer experience by integrating Dynamics 365 sales, Customer Service and Field Service.

Project Management

Efficiently manage projects with advanced timesheets, job costing and reporting. Improve profitability with detailed budget, plan capacity and sales for resource utilisation, and track customer invoicing. Gain real-time insights on project status, profitability and resource metrics. Empower employees with role-based access and enhance collaboration by sharing project links in Microsoft Teams.

Supply Chain Management

Enhance your supply chain with vendor management, purchasing, Shopify e-commerce, order fulfilment and returns. Optimise manufacturing with detailed BOMs, assembly-to-order and production and production orders. Replenish inventory using AI-powered forecasting and streamline storage with easy pick-and-put-away processes supported by bar-code scanners.

Enhanced Productivity

Work seamlessly with familiar Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Excel and Teams, reducing data entry and app switching. Leverage AI and automated workflows to streamline tasks and improve decision-making while ensuring data protection and compliance with top-tier security. Eliminate data silos and access real-time business intelligence with dashboards, reports and KPIs.

Dynamics 365 Business Central vs MYOB Advanced Business

Having examined the capabilities of both solutions, it’s now necessary to uncover their differences. Both ERP solutions possess advanced features for seamless management of back-end operations. Nonetheless, we need to identify specific distinctions to ascertain which solution aligns best with your business requirements.

Both solutions offer robust financial management systems with support for multi-currency transactions, automated invoicing, real-time financial reporting, and more. However, the key differentiator is the AI (Artificial Intelligence) capability of Business Central. AI-driven insights enable businesses to make informed financial decisions and manage complex global operations more effectively.

Real-time inventory tracking, automated reordering and extensive reporting are the standard features in the case of both ERP solutions. Yet, Business Central excels with AI-driven forecasting and more advanced inventory functionalities tailored for the global supply chain.

Essential for a streamlined sales process are sales and purchasing workflows, integrated CRM, supplier management, and order processing. Both the ERP solutions include these robust features, but Business Central excels with AI-driven sales insights, which enhance CRM capabilities for customer relationship management and sales processes.

To manage projects seamlessly, both the ERP solutions include project accounting and budgeting features with time tracking and real-time project performance insights. Being a member of an extensive Microsoft ecosystem, Business Central has the added advantage of seamless integration with the Office 365 suite of applications for enhanced project management and collaboration.

While MYOB Advanced Business lacks extensive customisation options, Business Central excels with its versatility. It offers a broad selection of extensions and integrations via AppSource, powered by the Microsoft Power Platform, enabling businesses to tailor the system to meet diverse operational needs effectively.

MYOB Advanced Business offers strong reporting capabilities with basic analytics and dashboards. Whereas Business Central provides customisable dashboards. It is possible through built-in AI and seamless integration with Power BI, enhancing its reporting features significantly.

MYOB Advanced Business meets industry standards for compliance with basic security features and data encryption. Whereas Business Central utilises Microsoft Azure’s robust security infrastructure. It allows Business Central to offer comprehensive compliance and security features, addressing enhanced security needs and global compliance requirements more effectively.

Why Choose Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Since both Dynamics 365 Business Central and MYOB Advanced Business are two leading providers of ERP solutions in the market, their features and capabilities are quite similar to each other. Consequently, to identify the solution that best suits your business needs, it’s essential to recognise which solution is fortified with modern advanced capabilities to address the growing needs of the ever-evolving business landscape.

In today’s dynamic business environment, AI is crucial in driving innovation and efficiency to help businesses remain competitive. AI has the capability to empower businesses to automate processes and perform thorough data analysis for enhanced decision-making and personalised customer experience.

As already discussed, Dynamics 365 Business Central is equipped with robust AI capabilities, which act as the key differentiator while selecting the best ERP solution for your business. AI empowers Business Central with accurate forecasting trends, data analysis, and potential risks and opportunities identification to enable businesses to make right financial decisions.

With AI’s capability of automating data entry, invoice processing and report generation, Business Central has the ability to free up employees to concentrate on more important and urgent tasks at hand. For a seamless supply chain operation, AI empowers businesses to predict potential issues, market trends and the required inventory levels. It helps businesses to identify and resolve supply chain issues in advance.

Using AI is crucial for optimising inventory levels and guaranteeing product availability at the required time, thanks to its precise demand forecasting capabilities. Empowered with AI-driven tools, Business Central seamlessly analyses customer information to offer accurate and fast responses to all inquiries for a tailored customer experience.

Another highlight of Business Central’s capability is its seamless integration with the Office 365 suite of applications. The integration offers streamlined communication and collaboration through familiar tools like SharePoint, Outlook and Teams. It empowers real-time data sharing to improve project tracking and overall productivity.

Last but not least, Business Central is empowered with Microsoft Azure’s robust security features to safeguard sensitive business data and operations. To protect against cyber threats, Azure’s security features offer multi-factor authentication, threat detection, and encryption for secured financial and operational information. Additionally, it aids businesses in ensuring adherence to compliance standards with greater ease.

Conclusion

In the fast-paced world of business, conditions are always in flux. Achieving a competitive edge requires real-time visibility, empowering full control over all business operations. a robust ERP solution leveraging AI capabilities holds the key to unlocking unlimited business growth.

Therefore, finding the right solution tailored to your specific business requirements is essential. This blog compares two leading business management solutions, equipping you with the insights needed to make an informed decision.

To have more clarity, contact our team of experts at Dynamics Square today. We are at your service always! Start your digital transformation journey today.

FAQs

What is MYOB Advanced Business?

MYOB Acumatica, previously known as MYOB Advanced Business, is a flexible cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that provides comprehensive, real-time visibility and control over your business.

Is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central an ERP system?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, previously known as NAV, is a powerful ERP system designed for small and mid-sized businesses. It offers cloud-based management for finances, operations, sales and customer service.

Initially announced in 2017 as Dynamics 365 ‘Tenerife’ and launched in October 2018 as Business Central, this ERP solution is widely adopted by Businesses across various industries worldwide.

Is MYOB Advanced Business an ERP system?

MYOB Advanced Business is now known as MYOB Acumatica. It is a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning solution that unifies essential business functions on a single platform. It reduces dependence on manual processes and delivers accurate real-time insights while being designed to scale your business’s growth.