Case study prepared by Microsoft. Learn more: Power Platform partners and Dynamics 365 partners
ISV Dev Center helps partners meet demand for Business Central
Microsoft created its ISV Development Center program to ensure that its partner ecosystem has access to qualified third-party technical enablement, business process development, and management consulting services that can help partners grow faster, keep up with customer demand, and ensure high levels of customer satisfaction. Simplanova, as one of the newest ISV Dev Centers, is focused on providing these benefits specifically for Dynamics 365 Business Central partners.
“Business Central is the fastest growing Microsoft business application product, so there are many partners looking for help in migrating their customers or solutions to the latest version, doing new implementations, or creating added functionality,” said Domas Zimkus, Head of Sales at Simplanova. “We’ve helped more than 200 partners around the world with our highly specialized upgrade tools and services for Business Central.”
About Simplanova
Simplanova is a Microsoft ISV Development Center that helps partners successfully deliver IP development and migration solutions for Dynamics 365 Business Central to reduce time to market and achieve business goals with greater efficiency.
Headquarters
Lithuania
Microsoft partner since
2013
Business Applications focus
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Migration services are one of the key focus areas for Simplanova, which has a dedicated team that supports 50-60 Business Central migrations each year. Because each resource is 100% focused on migration, the team is able to deliver migrations much more efficiently than partners that only do two or three upgrades a year.
I compare the partners we work with to experienced mechanics—they are able to help customers solve any problem they may have—but we are like a specialized
mechanic that only works on gearboxes. If you just need your gearbox fixed, we are going to be more efficient because that is all that we do all day, every day. Our specialized expertise around Business Central migration provides that same level of efficiency.”
Another reason that Simplanova is a go-to ISV Dev Center for Business Central migration is its development of a broad set of automated migration tools that further streamline the
process. This includes the Simplanova AL Tools platform, which automatically applies fixes, offers suggestions, implements useful developer functions, and provides partners with guidance throughout the process via a cutting-edge chatbot. In many cases, these automated tools can reduce migration time by as much as 50%, and also help eliminate human error.
We started building these tools because we were looking for ways to help our team avoid manual work. We have ended up with a comprehensive set of tools that we not only use to support our migration projects but license to partners who want to handle migration engagements directly.”
A third reason that partners trust Simplanova for Business Central migration is its fixed price proposals. Simplanova does 200-300 migration evaluations a year and even built an evaluation tool to further automate the process of defining the best path forward for a customer looking to upgrade to the latest version of Business Central.
We created an evaluation tool based on our best practices while working on migration projects. This tool precisely estimates how much time our team will spend on each upgrade step
and, additionally, it prepares the analysis regarding functionality that cannot be migrated ‘as is’ and might require refactoring, so we can inform the customer of any additional work required.
One of the partners that Simplanova works with is Technology Management Concepts (TMC), a Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner based in Southern California that has seen its Business Central business explode over the last three years. Many of its new customers have existing implementations of the legacy Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution—some versions as far back as 2005—that they want to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, so TMC turned to Simplanova for assistance.
There are many intermediary steps needed to upgrade previous versions to the latest Dynamics 365 Business Central. A lot of expertise is required to perform those upgrades – that’s where the efficiency and knowledge of Simplanova really help us. It really frees up our resources.
Part of the reason that Simplanova is such a good fit for TMC is that it has the flexibility to accommodate the unique migration scenario of each client, while also providing fixed pricing. TMC can easily scope the project to be everything from a data-only migration to an in-place upgrade that requires development work to carry forward all existing customizations.
It’s really great to work with a partner that understands the product and understands our business. It’s not set in stone where it has to be all or nothing.
Given that TMC is seeing demand continue to grow, the partner plans on expanding its Business Central team by 50% over the coming year. Collaboration with Simplanova on migration services will be an important part of sustaining that growth while ensuring customer satisfaction.
We see Simplanova as an extension of our team. We’ve built a good foundation together, creating a seamless, cost-efficient way to provide a great upgrade experience for our clients.
The collaboration between Simplanova and Liberty Grove Software resulted in the successful migration of the client’s database from Dynamics NAV 2009 version 6 to Dynamics 365 Business Central version 21. The project was completed within the agreed timeline and met all quality standards.
According to customer needs, Simplanova offered experienced developers to work on the customer’s Dynamics 365 Business Central Development Projects.
Seyfor swiftly converted 6 document reports and several list reports from classic NAV 2009 to RDLC format with Simplanova Report Converter, saving 20 man-days.
According to customer needs, Simplanova offered experienced developers to work on the customer’s Dynamics 365 BC & AX / FSCM Development Projects.
According to customer needs, Simplanova offered an experienced developer to work on the customer’s Dynamics NAV upgrade project to the latest Business Central version.
CMMS solution migration from Dynamics NAV to Business Central
Clean-Start Upgrade: A satisfied customer who is now using the latest Dynamics 365 Business Central version on Cloud environment. The upgrade was delivered in a concise period with relatively low costs.
Add-on Upgrade to Extensions: the Simplanova team saved Elbek & Vejrup more than 5 months compared to if the project was done internally.
Clean-start Upgrade: converted 3 databases to the latest Dynamics 365 Business Central version with low cost and low partner time contribution.
Simplanova Report Converter helped Isatech to save about 1,5 work-day/per report load in comparison to creating RDLC reports manually.
Simplanova Report Converter helped Isatech to save about 1,5 work-day/per report load in comparison to creating RDLC reports manually.
Cost Control Software had the challenge to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics NAV transformation tools and how to use them more effectively.
Simplanova Report Converter saved us 90 – 95 % of time in comparison with building manual RDLC reports.
Partnership with Professional Simplanova Team Helped to Upgrade Dynamics NAV Reports on Time.
Simplanova Delivers Tempo Zero Add-on Upgrade to Dynamics NAV 2016 in One Week.
Managed Dynamics NAV Reports Upgrade Helps to Achieve Project Targets.
Simplanova Shortens Critical Timeline of Dynamics NAV Upgrade at Young & Partners.
Fast and Flexible Dynamics NAV Upgrade Project Led to Continuous Add-on Upgrades.
Partnership with Professional Simplanova Team Helped in Critical Phase of Dynamics NAV Report Upgrade Project.