Microsoft Dynamics GP – A Look to the Future - LBMC Tech

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Following the Microsoft Dynamics Community Summit last October, many Microsoft Dynamics customers were surprised to hear Microsoft’s announcement regarding continued support of GP. Microsoft has since stepped-back their position and according to their latest announcements. While Microsoft will cease new investments and version of GP (as outlined in the tables below), Microsoft will continue to provide support Microsoft Dynamics GP for several more years. Beyond that, as your Microsoft Dynamics partner, LBMC Technology Solutions will continue to fully-support all our Dynamics GP clients, ensuring you are getting the most from your ERP and taking advantage of new features, applications and capabilities.

In the coming weeks and months, you might start receiving alarming information from other vendors or software publishers claiming GP is going away and you must move to a new ERP immediately. This messaging could be considered misleading and as your trusted Microsoft partner, we’ve compiled all the information currently available so you can get a clear picture and make the best decision for you and your organization. Whether you are currently seeking a new solution or plan to stay with Dynamics GP for 10+ years, LBMC Technology Solutions is here to support you. Let’s start this cloud journey together. As is most often the case at these events, there were general sessions related to each of the Microsoft Dynamics product lines where information was shared related to the future of each of these solutions.

For our Microsoft Dynamics GP clients, I want to share some specific information shared by Microsoft regarding the future lifecycle of the Dynamics GP product and some thoughts about how you can best continue to navigate your own technology journey.

In summary, Mike Morton who is a VP with Microsoft and responsible for Microsoft’s SMB Business Applications (including GP, SL, and BC) provided these thoughts.

Microsoft is fully committed to supporting our Dynamics GP customers. This will include new releases (e.g., 18.6, 18.7, 18.8, …) for the foreseeable future on the same timeline and schedule as we have done in the past several years, as outlined in the GP Modern Support Lifecycle.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-gp/terms/lifecycle

New releases will contain regulatory (tax), security updates, and hotfixes, ensuring GP remains up to date.
New releases will also include updates in usability, reliability, addressing top customer issues, and other areas that are critical in ensuring businesses run successfully on GP.
Microsoft does not expect significant new capabilities in Dynamics GP, such as new modules. Microsoft’s major investments and innovations will be in other Dynamics 365 offerings.
Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance + SCM will be products which will see the majority of Microsoft’s investments in ERP.

So, what does this mean for our Dynamics GP customers?

It is very important that all Dynamics GP customers are on a supported version of Dynamics GP that is part of GP’s Modern Support Lifecycle (i.e., GP 18.x and higher). This ensures that you will have access to the updates provided by Microsoft in June, August, and December of each year which will include your regulatory, security and hotfixes. LBMC’s ability to provide support to you and your company can be significantly impacted if you are not on a current version of Dynamics GP.

Mainstream support for the following versions of Dynamics GP has ended or will end soon. This means that if for any reason your version of GP is no longer supported and there is a critical system or software issue related to your Dynamics GP system, Microsoft support is not available, and LBMC’s ability to support you would be severally limited or not available.

Product	Mainstream Support
Dynamics GP 2013 and GP 2013 R2	Ended April 4, 2018
Dynamics GP 2015 and GP 2015 R2	Ended April 14, 2020
Dynamics GP 2016 and GP 2016 R2	Ended July 13, 2021
Dynamics GP 2018 and GP 2018 R2	Ends January 10, 2023

Based upon Microsoft’s announcement that no new significant capabilities will be added to Microsoft Dynamics GP, we recommend that every customer is proactively considering and planning for the future of their ERP solution and the industry’s move to cloud-based ERP solutions. For those customers who are on a supported version of Dynamics GP, Microsoft’s Modern Life Cycle policy does provide our customers the time required to consider what is best for your company.

The LBMC team is ready to assist our customers in putting together a plan that considers not only what is best for today but what new capabilities you might need in the future for the success of your business that are not part of your current solution and based upon Microsoft’s announcement most likely never to be available.

As a full-service technology company LBMC Technology Solutions has many years of experience in assisting clients with their technology cloud transformation strategies which include not only ERP solutions but across all your technology platforms.