Thanks for sharing! I would definitely speak to your implementation partner. As other people have said, SaaS is the way of the future and it is what Microsoft is pushing - I would be concerned about future support for on-prem and there are still upgrade incentives to be had going from on-prem to cloud. The other thing to consider (if you haven't already) would be the licensing structure. Not only can you start with the bare minimum and then ramp up and down as needed for the business, but you can license at different levels of usage. You're being charged for consumption, just like any other utility. Also, you get free access to all future upgrades, so no re-implementation down the line as the business changes.
Losing control is a major barrier that I've heard from several people making the switch. The good news is, once you upgrade you may be able to do away with some, if not many, of those customizations which would bring down your TCO from a support and development perspective. You'll still be able to support your own system and customize as needed, it's just a bit different as it is an extension vs. an overlay.
https://sunrise.co/blog/invasive-roots-code-overlays-vs-extensions-microsoft-dynamics-365/ this blog gets into that a bit more.
As someone else also mentioned, whether you go on-prem or cloud (which, frankly, would be my recommendation) there's no way it will be painless especially if you're currently running something highly customized - but it's the last implementation you'll ever have to do, so there is a bright side! The best thing you can do is find a really good partner who will tell it to you straight and understands manufacturing.
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Rachel Thomas
Sunrise Technologies
Winston-Salem NC
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Original Message:
Sent: Apr 14, 2020 09:28 AM
From: Christine Laganson
Subject: On Prem vs Cloud
There are two driving forces which are causing us to think keeping it on-prem is more desirable .One is the cost. We have not jumped on the subscription program bandwagon and I understand the pros\cons of it but it's like buying your software again every year. If I add up the costs of our servers and how often we have to upgrade or replace them the cost savings doesn't even come close. The 2nd reason being that we have in-house programmers and we have highly customized AX 2012 R3. We are used to having the db to access and make changes to as needed. Giving that control away is concerning.
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Christine Laganson
Stafast Products Inc.
Painesville OH
Original Message:
Sent: Apr 14, 2020 09:09 AM
From: Rachel Thomas
Subject: On Prem vs Cloud
Just curious, what is making your company lean more towards on-prem vs. cloud? Are there specific concerns?
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Rachel Thomas
Sunrise Technologies
Winston-Salem NC
Original Message:
Sent: Feb 18, 2020 03:11 PM
From: Christine Laganson
Subject: On Prem vs Cloud
We are on AX 2012 R3 and plan to move onto D365 this year. We are strongly leaning toward an on prem installation. I'm looking for input from those that have an on prem installation - are you happy you went that route, what limitations have you found, etc.
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Christine Laganson
Stafast Products Inc.
Painesville OH
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