3 ways connectivity gives you a competitive edge

Smarter, faster business decisions—identify business opportunities before the competition.
You must have accurate, current information about your business—not next Tuesday but right now. The connectivity delivered by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system helps ensure your bottom line, payables, receivables, and other business information are always easily accessible and up to date.

Flexible reporting tools help you analyze business performance and quickly identify new opportunities. You can quickly make charts, graphics, and analyses to visualize and understand the details of your market and your business. You have instant, on demand access to information like a list of overdue customers, daily sales activities, or year-to-date vendor purchases.

With an ERP system, your vital business information is updated instantly, system-wide, any time authorized members of your staff add or modify data. Decision makers from across your company—and those external business partners whom you've connected to your system—will all be seeing one real-time version of your business data. You can be sure your decisions will be based on the most accurate and relevant information.

Improved efficiency—increase your return on investment.
In a slow economy, customers are not only hard to find, they're tough to keep. One missed call, one lost deal, can mean the difference between making your numbers or being forced to cut back. Connectivity makes it easier for your customers, employees, and business partners to get the information they need, when they need it. At the same time, built-in security features let you select who you open your business to and what they are allowed to see and modify.

With Microsoft Dynamics applications built on the .NET platform, you'll see information shared among multiple systems and will have the ability to act on vital information anywhere, from any smart device. Invest in Microsoft Dynamics, and you'll know your business will be ready for information sharing and integration, now and in the future.

For example, customers can look up their order status, billing information, and personal data, and get information about your company and its policies. All this information is available on demand from "self-help" Web pages. Increase your company's customer service and visibility to customers, without hiring extra staff. And, the ability to track orders instantly lets you analyze your customers' buying patterns, improve the lead-time for ordering from your suppliers, and increase the efficiency of your whole supply chain. That means you save money and achieve higher profits.

Ultimately, the people within your company will spend less time on information-related tasks. Sales personnel will have up-to-the-minute, complete information about customers and sales catalogs, while field service personnel can report hours, expenses, and project status from remote locations.

Stronger business relationships and more satisfied customers.
With connected solutions, your business is always open. Customers and suppliers can access your business 24 hours a day, get information about your products and services, make orders, customize orders, and be instantly notified when an item is out of stock or unavailable. You won't suffer from lost orders, and your customers will never again be disappointed by delays. This kind of connectivity translates into more sales.

Connectivity also removes some of the barriers of distance. When your processes are automated on the Web, your customers and business partners can be across the street, or on another continent. Web services can be used to perform functions like automated online credit checks, automatic ordering from your vendors, or tracking down business supplies if your usual vendor is out of stock.