Should you upgrade to Dynamics GP 2016, or wait for R2?

As enhancements and new features become available in Dynamics GP releases, we often find customers asking themselves if they should upgrade to the latest version or wait for the R2 release.

In the past, when Microsoft was on a 2-year release cycle, customers would often wait for the first service pack or R2 release because they were nervous about bugs with new features and wanted to wait until all the kinks were ironed out.

Well, that mentality as become outdated.

This blog will look at how upgrades were approached in the past, and the shift to staying current with GP updates going forward, the right path for your business, and what’s new in GP 2016.

Upgrades are a thing of the past

Conventional thinking with software, and technology in general, has been to not rush in on the first release or introduction of a product, but rather wait for 2.0 where you can be confident that everything is working smoothly.

This more conservative thinking has held true with how Microsoft Dynamics GP customers have approached upgrades in the past. With upgrades historically taking a big effort on the customers’ part and temporarily disrupting business, it was more common to space upgrades out over a couple of years and stay one version behind.

Move forward with updates

As people continue to adapt to the cloud in both business and their personal lives, the expectation for technology and applications to be always up-to-date and on the latest version has grown.

Microsoft has responded to the shift and sped up the rate that new features become available to GP customers with their rapid release cycle. They have also shifted the way that they refer to releases, encouraging customers to update their solution to the latest version. This is in line with a more cloud-based mentality and applying quick updates versus the old upgrades that we used to know.

Microsoft is now releasing updates to GP about every 6 months and not holding back major features for the next big version release. So, the old thought process of waiting for the next version (2013, 2015, 2016) for big enhancements, or R2 for bugs to be fixed is no longer critical.

What’s best for you?

Accelerated release cadence encourages you to think what’s best for your organization and if missing out on new features will impact your efficiency and operations or not.

Staying on the latest version helps your organization remain modern – keeping employees happy and attracting talent. Plus, the more current you are, the lower the cost is to update to the latest version. If you are 2 or 3 versions back, there is a lot more work needed as you may still need to update through each version to get to the latest.

It is really in your best interest to keep your Dynamics GP application current to also ensure that it is fully supported and your financial data is secure and reliable.

Modernize your Business with 2016

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 will really help modernize your organization. The exciting introduction to HTML5 and Power BI business intelligence dashboards will provide your team with the enhanced access and insight they need to make smarter decisions – from any device or web browser.

GP 2016 also includes new workflow capability, all-in-one document view for sales and inventory, among other functionality that will improve the way you work.

With all of these exciting new features available, why wait for R2?

See GP 2016 in action!

Are you in Southern California, and looking to update your GP system to 2016? FMT Consultants will be showcasing the new features and product enhancements in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 in San Diego and Los Angeles on June 14th and June 16th, 2016.
Visit our events page to register and reserve your seat!

Can’t make it to our event, but want to learn more about updating your solution to Dynamics GP 2016? We’re happy to help! Fill out the form below to request a consultation.

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