Are you looking to make your business more agile? One way of doing that is by moving your current Dynamics 365 Business Central instance from on-premises to the cloud. That lets your company unlock benefits like streamlining your operations, cost savings because of fewer server costs, and a greater ability to scale and grow your business. Let’s look at how you migrate Business Central on-premises to Business Central Cloud.
Why Should You Move Business Central to the Cloud?
Making the transition can give you several strategic advantages. For example, if you need more data or expanded capabilities, you can add them to your subscription. That eliminates the need to pay for additional hardware or maintenance, lowering IT costs.
Automatic updates are another advantage you gain from a GP to Business Central migration. Your workers always have access to the latest and greatest. Even better, your IT personnel don’t have to make manual upgrades, leaving them free for other important tasks.
If you have employees working remotely, they can access Business Central from any location. This allows companies to accommodate workers who need to work remotely and collaborate seamlessly with those working in the office.
Prepare for Migration to Business Central Cloud
The information you collected when implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 on-premises will be helpful. Review those Business Central on-premises requirements and update them with any customizations, third-party integrations, and other extensions you’ve added to Business Central on-premises.
You should also catalog your customized workflows, modules, and code that you may need when redesigning your cloud instance. Analyze your data and eliminate any outdated or redundant information. This helps streamline the migration, speed up processing, and lower cloud storage costs.
Finally, decide what features you’ll need from the cloud version of Business Central. You can review the cloud-specific features listing from Microsoft and compare it with your current on-premises version.
Create Your Project Team and Timeline
Pull together a project team to handle your cloud migration. It should contain members from all relevant areas, including IT and business units that rely on Business Central. It also helps to have a partner like Internet eBusiness Solutions (IES) with experience handling these migrations.
Set up a schedule for your migration. The best time to do it is during a period that will cause minimal business disruption. Make sure you create a data backup so your company doesn’t lose critical information during the Business Central cloud migration. Perform tests on your backup to ensure it’s accessible and ready after completing the migration.
Starting the Migration
Once you’ve prepared, you can use the Business Central Migration tool to help with your transition.
1. Select a Subscription and Provision Your Environment
You’ll need to sign up for a Dynamics 365 Business Central subscription, which IES can help you with. Select the licensing options that cover your company's users and the features needed. Then, set up your cloud environment, including your security policies, user roles, and company settings.
2. Prepare Data for Migration
Use the migration tools provided with your instance to export essential data from your on-premises Business Central instance, including vendor, customer, and general ledger account information. Export the information to an Excel and XML format by following the instructions provided. That ensures the format is compatible with Business Central cloud.
Make sure your data is in a standardized format and that all mandatory fields align in the cloud and on-premises instances. Otherwise, you may encounter import errors that could jeopardize your migration.
3. Import Your Data to Business Central Cloud
Once you’ve cleaned and normalized your data, create templates aligned with your on-premises information. These templates let you map your export data to cloud instance fields. Once you’ve validated the mapping, start importing the data.
Once the import is completed, validate the information. For example, check customer records to ensure that historical and recent information is included. If you find errors, run reports to pinpoint any records imported recently. If needed, use your backup data to revert the changes. From there, run a new data package to overwrite any incorrect information.
4. Migrate Your Extensions and Customizations
Remember that some custom code written for your on-premises Business Central instance may not be compatible with the cloud version. Your third-party integrations also need to work within that environment.
If there’s a mismatch, you’ll need to replace your extensions with something that does work as intended, like workflows from the Power Platform. Once you’ve confirmed that your code and extensions are compatible, use the Business Central Extensions Management tool to upgrade the cloud.
5. Test Integrations
Look at the integrations you want to use, like those from SharePoint or Power BI, to confirm that they work with Business Central. Next, create new workflows using Power Automate. Once you’re done, run test cases to ensure your integrations work properly.
6. Set Up User Accounts and Provide Training
Start configuring your user accounts in Business Central Cloud. Administrators should assign roles and permissions based on a user’s job function. Set up single sign-on using Azure Active Directory and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Once you’ve provided them with access, train your end users to work with the cloud version of Business Central. There should be a focus on understanding the differences between it and the on-premises version and how they impact their work functions.
7. Monitor Performance
Once you go live with Business Central Cloud, track system performance using Azure monitoring tools. Once you find an issue, remediate it quickly to minimize potential downtime.
Get Help With Your Business Central Cloud Migration
If you need help implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises into the cloud, IES can help. We can guide you through the transition and get you up and running more quickly with your new cloud implementation. Contact one of our agents for more information on how IES can help.
