Microsoft business applications
You do not need
all of it.
ERP, CRM, Power Platform, Power BI, Fabric, Copilot. Any partner can list them. The harder part is deciding which ones your business actually needs, which system owns which data, and what you are going to have to pay for and support afterwards.
Microsoft partner delivering ERP, CRM, reporting and integration work in the UK.
Decision one
Which ERP, and why it is not about your size.
There are two sensible Microsoft routes. Pick by how complicated your operation genuinely is, because the wrong one is either expensive to own or painful to grow out of.
If the operation can stay fairly standard
Business Central
Finance, purchasing, sales and stock in one place, with warehouse, manufacturing and projects where the standard model fits how you work.
- One core covering finance and day-to-day operations
- Standardising is acceptable, and usually welcome
- Fewer moving parts to own and support
If the complexity is genuinely deeper
Finance & Supply Chain
Enterprise capability that earns its cost when entities, manufacturing, warehousing, planning or control get significantly harder.
- Multiple legal entities and countries
- Advanced warehouse, manufacturing and planning
- Tighter separation of duties and global integration
Decision two
Where CRM stops and ERP starts.
Get this line wrong and you spend years arguing about whose customer record is right. They do not need the same data. They need the right data, and one of them has to be in charge of each piece of it.
CRM answers
- Who is the customer?
- What are they trying to do?
- What have we promised?
ERP answers
- What was ordered?
- What can we deliver?
- What did it cost?
- What was paid?
Decision three
Who owns which numbers.
Almost every complaint that the data is wrong traces back to two systems both believing they are in charge of the same thing. Agreeing this early is dull and saves a great deal of money.
The customer relationship
CRM. It holds the history, the conversations and what was promised.
The money
ERP. Nothing else should be able to disagree with it about what was invoiced or paid.
Stock and fulfilment
ERP, or whatever runs your warehouse. One place decides what is available.
Reporting
Power BI reads from the systems above. It should never quietly become a third version of the numbers.
Who can see what
Microsoft Entra ID, across the whole estate rather than app by app.
Customer experience
Customers describing their own projects.
Worth being straight about what this proves. These are Dynamics implementation and relationship stories. We do not yet publish verified customer outcomes for Power Platform, Fabric, AI or prediction, so we will not imply that we do.
Where to start
Start with what is happening, not the product.
Two questions, and you get a sensible place to begin reading. It will never tell you that you need to buy something.
Pick one from each row. Nothing here decides anything for you.
None of these quite fit?
Before you call
The questions leaders ask us first.
A conversation, not a pitch
Tell us what you are trying to sort out.
Bring the business problem rather than a product shortlist. We will tell you which Microsoft capability we would use, what we would leave out, and what it will cost you to run once we have gone.