Many Dynamics SL users have been confused by Microsoft’s messaging around Management Reporter (MR). Here’s a question I’ve heard a few times lately:
“I’m planning my Dynamics SL 2015 upgrade from Dynamics SL 2011, is it worth migrating to MR if it’s going away?”
Here’s the low-down:
MR is being sunset – meaning no new service packs (or cumulative updates as MR calls them) after this one – CU16. Microsoft will support your MR problems and questions for 10 years from the date of the last SL release with MR. So that means for SL 2015 users – the year 2025. Crestwood will be there for you after 2025.
So, our answer is – yes, go ahead and migrate. Clean up those FRx reports and only migrate the reports you use. Typically this process takes a couple days to install, migrate, train users and get your reports out again on MR.
However, take this time to see if you need more than MR offers. If you are thinking of expanding out from financial reports to key performance indicators (KPIs), business intelligence (BI) and dashboards, you should take some time to consider looking at other products that integrate with Dynamics SL and will provide more usable information than just financial statements.
First of all, Microsoft has a product they have rolled out with Dynamics SL 2015 CU2 called Power BI. It’s like Excel dashboards on steroids. In the Microsoft Dynamics SL CU2 release is a Power BI dashboard that will provide information on projects.
You can access some of the PowerBI dashboard when loading the latest Dynamics SL CU2. But there is a portal where all your teammates can access PowerBI reports with Office 365. If you are looking to get up on Office 365 (automatically get the latest version of Office, use SharePoint and Exchange in the cloud) – please let your account manager know – Crestwood can help.
There are also some great third-party products available to help with additional reporting needs in all kinds of formats:
- Solver BI360 – Integrated budget and dashboard reporting solution using a data warehouse that allows reports to be shared across your organization
- Tableau – Interact with your data through business intelligence
- QlikView – Develop your own reports across multiple data sources with user friendly click and drag
These are just a few of the reporting option to explore.
If you need help narrowing down your choices or want to some help arranging demos on MR, Power BI or any of these reporting options, please contact us at Sales@Crestwood.com.
