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Do you really need the Business Central Universal Code Initiative? Are you shocked? Let’s hope not...

What’s the Business Central Universal Code Initiative?
For a while now, Microsoft has been emphasizing the move to the Cloud. We’ve had their ‘Cloud first strategy’ and then more recently, the ‘Business Central Publisher Program’ targeting ISVs to convince and even force them to adopt the ‘Cloud first strategy’. Microsoft forces ISVs to put their solutions on AppSource, even if those ISVs are only serving on-premises customers right now. 

2021 has been a special year in which a lot has happened. Last year, we hoped that Covid-19 would be less present in our lives in the new year, but unfortunately the virus has also been prevalent in 2021, in both our personal lives and our work. As a result, we’ve had to learn to be adaptable and accept that we have to deal with changes in our environment moving forward.

Since April 2021, Microsoft announced the upcoming Publisher program launch. Microsoft ISV Partners were alerted that Business Central On-Premises solutions will have to maintain Cloud requirements, be certified for SaaS, and register on AppSource, or they will face additional fees.

Further details followed during the Direction EMEA event this year, where Kurt Juvyns, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, introduced fees for sales of non-Universal Code offerings to new customers from 2023 onwards. Read on to find out more about what this means for you, your customers, and your product roadmap.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online customer base is exponentially increasing. Having over 15,000 customers on Business Central Online now, Microsoft is seeing a 200 percent annual growth in users, as per Mike Morton’s speech at Directions North America 2021. In tandem, 1ClickFactory observes strong interest in Dynamics 365 Business Central Online upgrades, which increased by 250% since the beginning of 2020. To give the Business Central Online ecosystem a chance to catch up with this growing demand, and to accelerate a cloud-first strategy, Microsoft announced the launch of the upcoming Publisher program.

When choosing between the upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online and On-Premises, cost is often a deciding factor. At first, the initial costs of the upgrade to Dynamics 365 Business Central Online seem more expensive than On-Premises. But when considering all upgrade costs that flood in year-over-year, it becomes clear that the alternatives are not cheaper in the long run. In this blog post, I briefly overview the overall costs of upgrading to Dynamics 365 Business Central Online vs. On-Premises based on the demo 1ClickFactory prices, with the aim to show the whole picture.

Many Microsoft Dynamics Partners have already accepted the fact that the world is moving towards the Cloud. As the migration increases, Microsoft Dynamics Partners are looking for ways to adopt a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. However, migrating customers into a SaaS model might not always be straightforward and easy due to current SaaS model limitations or your readiness to support a customer solution directly on SaaS. Continue reading to learn more about it.

If you are a CSP Direct Bill Partner, you may need to find a CSP Indirect provider due to the new performance regulations announced by Microsoft, which are effective as of January 2021. We understand that this change may have been unexpected for many. However, moving from a Direct to an Indirect partnership doesn’t necessarily mean big changes for you as an organization, on the contrary, it may just turn out to be for the best! Read on to find out more about it.

Given that adding the Power Platform, a low-code development platform, to the product portfolio is a completely different business for a typical Dynamics and Modern Workplace Partner, there is a confusion in the market on the best approach to take. How do you build the Power Platform competence? How do you market the Power Platform? Where is the opportunity for us, as a Dynamics and Modern Workplace Partner?

I was reading back over my predictions for 2020 from last year’s Christmas/New Year blog. Boy was I wrong 😊 (see blog from last year here), but then again, I think most people could not have predicted all that has happened in 2020. 2020 has been the most difficult year to navigate in my professional career, but thankfully, it has not been all bad.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted everyday business operations around the world, with a devastating impact on the global economy. The entire business landscape has changed putting digital technology at the forefront to overcome difficulties. As a result, many Dynamics Partners are accelerating technology projects to help customers as much as possible during this challenging time. In this post, we will review the key technological trends that have been accelerated due to the pandemic, and highlight how Dynamics 365 Business Central can help your organization adapt and increase productivity.