Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Columbus Start your cloud journey Cloud services Cloud transformation series
If you agree that modern cloud computing is a great way to benefit from innovative, powerful technology that can make your business more productive and competitive, Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the Azure cloud offers the most direct path to success. Columbus puts decades of business and technology expertise to work for you to prepare, facilitate, and support your move to the cloud and ensure that it yields the benefits you want to achieve.
The opportunity of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Maybe your business is outgrowing its current technologies and it s time to explore full-fledged ERP and CRM capabilities with intelligenceenabling analytics. Or maybe you already run on a Microsoft Dynamics ERP system and want to reduce your cost of ownership while taking advantage of the economy and scalability of the cloud. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is for you. Powerful functionality, delivered at a rhythm that works for you. In Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft makes extensive ERP and CRM functionality accessible in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Artificial separations between ERP and CRM fall away. Instead, you get to plan which capabilities you need, when you need them. You can deploy them in the Azure cloud, run and integrate them with your on-premise systems, and add functionality as you like. That also means you never implement software functionality you don t need. Microsoft Dynamics 365 delivers business workloads in a modular manner, so you are always in control of the growth of your cloud business infrastructure. Connects applications. Microsoft Dynamics 365 plays well with all your other Microsoft applications. In Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrates easily with Office 365, making your users lives easier. Integrations with Active Directory, Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server, and SQL Server in the cloud are native and robust.
Facilitates hybrid cloud deployments. When you run Microsoft Dynamics 365 on Azure, you can maintain the usefulness of your onpremise applications. If it makes best sense to run Windows Server, System Center, or specialized solutions at your own facility, the Azure cloud ensures a seamless connection. Analysts and reviewers have consistently praised Azure for its simplicity and reliability in facilitating hybrid environments that combine cloud and on-premise systems. Such solutions as Azure StorSimple, Hybrid SQL Server, and Azure Stack are designed to enable highly manageable hybrid environments that deliver a consistent, flawless user experience. Integrated intelligence. Microsoft Dynamics 365 incorporates Microsoft Power BI and the Cortana Intelligence Suite. You can use intuitive, powerful analytics to translate data from multiple sources and of any type into meaningful intelligence that drives sound decisions and effective planning. If you are getting into the realm of big data, you can gain advanced, enterprise-level analytical capabilities with HDInsight, the fully-managed cloud Hadoop offering. User empowerment. With Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can to a high degree take care of your IT business on your own and involve your technology provider when you need more in-depth expertise. Using Microsoft Power Apps you can connect to your systems and data sources, and build new apps, without coding. Microsoft Flow lets you simplify your business by building automated workflows that connect your cloud apps and services.
8 reasons for the cloud The Microsoft Azure cloud delivers on all the advantages of cloud technology and architecture. Columbus business and technology experts know how to bring them into your business. Economical No need to purchase servers, software, or networking equipment as a capital expenditure to meet your computing requirements. Instead, subscribe to a cloud service for the capacity and resources you need, paying a predictable, scheduled fee. Scalable Your computing resources in the cloud can quickly scale to support changes in your business. That includes applications, such as ERP and CRM systems, as well as servers, networking hardware, and storage.
Immediate You can test and launch your high-priority workloads in the cloud quickly even within minutes. Smart The Azure environment provides sophisticated analytical tools that you can use to understand, direct, and control your business. Encompasses the IoT The cloud is the most effective, economical, low-risk, and scalable way to harvest and analyze the data from sensors connected to the internet of things (IoT) on machines, equipment, and products.
Enables mobility The cloud facilitates mobile access to company systems and data, no matter how many users are involved or which devices they prefer. Reliable and secure Cloud providers like Microsoft combine rich arsenals of physical and cyber-security and develop cutting-edge technologies that directly benefit you. Flexible When it s time to change processes, corporate entities, and other business conditions, you can make such adjustments immediately in the cloud.
In the cloud and on the ground, Columbus takes care of you If you want to build your business on a powerful, affordable infrastructure that incorporates the best of cloud, ERP, CRM, and business analytics, Columbus can be the one technology provider to provide all the business and technical consulting and solutions you need. We speak cloud. Columbus was an early adopter of the cloud and has been instrumental in developing hybrid and cloud-based, public and private deployments of ERP, CRM, and other software systems. We know how to help you take advantage of the cloud s scalability, elasticity, and economy. When it comes to evolving cloud technologies such as microservices or containerization, our teams are in the forefront of scoping opportunities and translating them into business advantages for our clients.
Making transformation strategic and rewarding. If you don t want to fall for the hype around digital transformation, we help you launch and complete your transformation initiative to be successful and deliver to your goals. From working with many different businesses around the world, we understand business transformation and what it takes for companies to successfully implement and use technology to become more nimble, competitive, and productive organizations. Our clients include large, leading enterprises whose transformation resonates through their entire industry as well as smaller, innovative companies that stake their fortune on offerings and opportunities nobody else can provide. Minimizing your risks. Working with Columbus, our clients mitigate the risks of owning and operating innovative technologies that impact their people and processes. Columbus teams have completed hundreds of successful, on-budget, on-time customer engagements, often centered on Microsoft Dynamics ERP. More than 1,800 companies in 42 countries run their businesses and advance their transformation initiatives with the help of Columbus solutions and insight. Short road to benefits. We have for many years helped companies deploy leading technologies, in the most efficient ways possible. We offer particularly strong expertise and solutions for the manufacturing, food, and retail industries. Our industry solutions have always been modular in architecture, which is a great fit for the cloud and workload-driven deployments of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Already using Microsoft Dynamics? Staying on-premise exclusively limits your technology options and strains your budget and resources. You can save money and operate more effectively if you take advantage of the cloud and the innovations it delivers more economical and implemented for you by Columbus with immediate user uptake and a short time-to-benefit.
Software solutions for all your needs. Columbus solutions and technical expertise span a wide range that includes ERP, CRM, cloud, analytics, IoT, industry-specific capabilities, business process management, integration, ecommerce, mobility, and productivity tools. Many of our solutions are already certified for Microsoft Dynamics 365, and others are in the process. New solutions under development will be cloud-native and are created in close collaboration with our customers. Lifetime commitment. We aim to serve and retain our customers for life, supporting them through all the growth, successes, and challenges of their business. Long past initial deployments, ColumbusCare takes care of your infrastructure in the cloud and on-premise with upgrades, consulting, education, and new solutions. Experts going to work for you. Our team members are known as thought leaders and expert speakers in their fields of expertise. On team Columbus, a consultant has on average delivered 24 ERP implementations over 13 years. We provide our people with the resources and work environment to provide a long-term, professional home where they can succeed and grow. That continuity fosters strong, lasting relationships between customers and our associates. The better we know you, the more we can help you.
Your local one-stop shop. As a worldwide company with more than 40 offices and a global delivery center, Columbus can be your partner wherever you engage. Our people know local business cultures and can be with you whenever and wherever their expertise can be of value. Solid, successful company. Columbus is a stable, financially secure company. We look back at 27 successful years in business. We look forward at many more. We have the vision, technology roadmaps, and strategic alignments to create and evolve business cloud solutions that can grow with you as long as you are in business.
Fast start for business transformation in the cloud Cloud-based computing and the software tools that come with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Azure are designed to be highly usable, manageable, and resilient. The timeto-benefit for businesses can be much shorter than in many conventional software deployments. Columbus expertise makes the difference between a cloud project that merely gets the job done and one that helps you get to the next level. Groundwork matters. Each business is unique, even if some challenges and concerns may be found across entire industries and in many organizations. How they play out in each case and how they impact people and processes is likely to be highly specific. As with every change in how you run your operation, the proper preparation and planning can accelerate desirable outcomes and minimize needless complexities.
Creating a powerful cloud business environment. We help you take to the cloud in the most productive and low-risk manner possible. It s part of our discipline to be accountable to you and hold ourselves to the KPIs and goals that you want to achieve. If, for instance, you want to make use of such resources as Power BI or Power Apps, we put our expertise to work on your behalf. Just like we do with ERP systems, we configure your cloud software solutions as close to the standard as they can be, but also sync them to your concerns and your company s operating environment. The work we perform at the back-end in exposing data and connecting systems pays out visibly in terms of business results. Enabling companies to thrive. Columbus team members excel at assisting companies to challenge the status quo and become better at what they do. Even before we facilitate your transition to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the cloud, we set the stage for your sustained success. Together with your leadership team and process owners, we review your business processes and current infrastructure to assist you in eliminating any inefficiencies and productivity obstacles that should not carry over to the cloud. When it comes to analytics, we assist you in strategizing the most effective approaches to processing data and producing meaningful intelligence even before you begin your cloud-based or hybrid project. New to Microsoft Dynamics? Microsoft Dynamics 365 delivers the most powerful, usable, and future-proof business management infrastructure available today. In the Azure cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is scalable and resilient. Columbus expertise helps you create the cloud environment that best fits your goals, business model, and industry.
Next steps If you want to explore the Columbus and Microsoft Dynamics 365 cloud opportunity or see a demo of what we can help you accomplish, please contact your local office. To take the next step e-book: How to start your cloud transformation journey Video: The Age of Digital Business is Here Contact Your Local Office
At Columbus, we help our customers digitally transform their businesses and improve the value realization of their business application investments. We mitigate the inherent risks associated with implementing, upgrading and replacing legacy ERP systems. We lead our customers with best-practice consulting services we have refined over thousands of engagements. We take care of our customers and aspire to keep them for life. To learn more about how Columbus can help you get the most out of your Microsoft solution, contact your local Columbus office. www.columbusglobal.com