Decision making: Software to make informed decisions

Related Links • Microsoft Dynamics products: Overview • Microsoft Dynamics fuels business productivity • Microsoft Dynamics works with your system • Microsoft Dynamics is familiar to your people • New programs enable workers to snap Microsoft Dynamics into Microsoft Office • Why Microsoft Dynamics and SQL Server are data management's hottest pair • Track performance with Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager

Business needs change, and it's your people who can respond to these changes, make informed decisions, and set your business apart from other organizations. With Microsoft Dynamics (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions), you can follow and act on the evolving needs of your business. So you have a more complete picture of your organization's progress and the events that impact it. And you can spend less time guessing if something is right for your business and more time making informed decisions that you feel confident about.

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	Address concerns rapidly with real-time data and familiar software
	Gain business insight with access to relevant, mission-critical information
	Comply with regulations
	Analyze and share data at all levels of your organization
	Next steps

Address concerns rapidly with real-time data and familiar software

People need tools to analyze and report data to make intelligent decisions. Microsoft Dynamics enables integration with familiar software and systems, enabling employees to build on the skills and familiar software they already have.

For example, an accounting manager is assessing accounts payable and receivable and wants to know how much money came in versus how much went out in the last six months. With Microsoft Dynamics, the accounting manager can find the answers to her questions quickly with accurate, automated reports. Using drill-down capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet software, she then creates an intuitive chart to present to her manager.

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Gain business insight with access to relevant, mission-critical information

People need access to information to perform their daily duties and to make changes that affect the broader organization. With RoleTailored access to information, Microsoft Dynamics helps you access the data that's right for you. It also can help you gain business intelligence that drives future growth of your organization.

For example, a financial executive needs data to track and measure her performance against high-level business goals, or key performance indicators (KPIs). By analyzing her specific projects and tasks against the high-level business goal, this manager can clearly see what she must do to accomplish her goal by the end of the year. The KPIs also send alerts when a business area is off track. So the business manager knows exactly where to focus her time and attention.

Integration with Microsoft SQL Server enables optimal access to business intelligence information. For example, you can generate reports within Microsoft Dynamics using SQL Server Reporting Services, build and analyze data warehouses, and organize and use data efficiently—so you can make your important business decisions in less time.

Sharing information is important, but helping to ensure that information remains private is also a need of many business managers. That's why Microsoft Dynamics enables managers to control access to sensitive information to help ensure that it's only available to the people who need to see it. You can feel more confident knowing your information is protected.

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Comply with regulations

People need consistent, structured processes to help ensure compliance with regulations. Microsoft Dynamics can help you put these processes in place to help guarantee accountability and reliability throughout your organization.

For example, compliance with industry legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA, and corporate quality initiatives such as Six Sigma are an important part of many people's jobs. Compliance with these regulations requires you to be aware and in control of all information and events that can affect your business and its performance. With Microsoft Dynamics, you can: Be better equipped to recognize and report events, help to ensure the integrity of your information and communications, and keep the right stakeholders informed—all in a timely manner.

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Analyze and share data at all levels of your organization

People share information at all levels in a business. Executives share information that helps them make decisions about profitability. Managers analyze and share information to help ensure that business processes are running smoothly and that employees share information about specific projects.

For example, a line of business owner might want to check current inventory of a product to determine if she should reorder. Or, an executive might want to use employee data to more effectively plan and allocate resources to open a new office in another location. For either of these examples, the employees can simply gain access to Microsoft Dynamics information and work with it in a familiar environment. The business owner can then adjust his resources to account for the new office, while the line of business owner can make the decision to order more products for inventory. Both are able to make their decisions with Microsoft Dynamics—and both feel confident with their actions.

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Next steps

Now that you know how Microsoft Dynamics can help you make important decisions that you feel confident about, take the next step:

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