There’s a good reason why Forbes Advisor named Microsoft Business Central the best overall ERP system of 2024. It described the solution as being “both affordable and scalable, so it can support growing businesses that scale rapidly.”

A host of in-built functionality covering sales, service, operations and finance makes it easy for retailers to manage all facets of their business and add new capabilities as they evolve. And because Business Central is cloud based, they avoid the overhead costs of having to maintain a physical IT infrastructure as they scale up.

One of the top benefits of having all functionality and data managed centrally in the cloud is the ability to see the bigger picture and make decisions based on the information you have in front of you. With Business Central, retailers can support their employees to work even more productively by automating repetitive tasks and making connections between data. They can also adapt the solution to suit their specific needs and workflows.

“You can use it to register shipped goods and store details in one place automatically, assign employees to certain work orders and move items between locations easily,” Forbes Advisor noted.

Another advantage is the familiar Microsoft interface, which makes the transition to a new solution less challenging. Users will pick up how to use it much faster than relearning an entirely different system.

Business Central has built in real-time dashboards to connect employees and decision makers to all the information they need without switching between applications and folders. And if they need to see different information, businesses can generate custom financial reports and analytics. Business Central also enables companies to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities thanks to features like Power BI and Copilot for Dynamics 365. This AI assistant automates certain tasks, helping increase productivity. Its natural language processing technology allows it to understand and respond to everyday language queries, enabling users to get more tasks done without needing to input complex commands or do any programming.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described AI tools like Copilot as “the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing.”

Business Central users benefit from a whole host of industry-leading security features to keep their own data and their customers’ data safe – all with the reassurance that Microsoft complies with major standards and certifications including SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001.

Retailers don’t need to worry about handling their own round-the-clock security either, as it’s managed for them. Role-based access makes sure that the right people securely access the information and functionality they need within Business Central. And there’s no risk of data loss, thanks to automatic backup and recovery.