Why You Should Think Twice Before Choosing Microsoft Dynamics (Business Central)
What looks like a safe ERP decision on paper can turn into a costly commitment off it.
Every ERP pitch deck looks the same. Slides promising seamless processes, slick dashboards, a single source of truth. On paper, Business Central sits comfortably in that pack. It has the Microsoft logo, familiar naming conventions, and an army of implementation partners ready to spin up projects. For a board or finance team that just wants “something safe,” it ticks the boxes.
But the reality for many brands is different. What begins as a rational choice quickly becomes a costly long-term commitment. Not because the system is incapable of running your business, technically it can, but because of the way it’s delivered, configured, and supported. Business Central doesn’t just shape your processes; it can lock you into an ecosystem you didn’t choose and can’t easily leave.
The problem isn’t the features
If you line up Business Central against NetSuite, you’ll find little difference in what they can theoretically do. General ledger? Check. Multi-currency? Check. Inventory? Check. The tick-box comparison is comforting but misleading.
Where cracks appear is in the day-to-day reality of using it. Something as simple as adding a field can feel like a multi-week project. Multi-company setups, which are straightforward in other ERPs, demand repetitive data uploads across multiple instances. The more entities you run, the more inefficient it becomes. What should be one clean data flow ends up as twenty slightly different ones, all managed manually.
For ops teams, it creates friction where they need speed. For finance teams, it makes reporting inconsistent and painful.
The hidden hand of the SI
But here’s the real trap: implementation partners. Unlike a pure vanilla deployment, many partners don’t just configure Business Central; they sell their own pre-built “version” of it. Think of it like a modded video game, except this mod is your ERP, and you can’t uninstall it later.
At first, it sounds helpful. Pre-built workflows, industry add-ons, custom dashboards. But the moment you step into that ecosystem, you’re tied to it. Ongoing support? You need them. Future changes? You need them. Integrations? Only they can build and maintain them. Your ERP isn’t really Business Central anymore - it’s their Business Central.
That dependency is expensive. And it’s not always obvious until you’ve signed the contract and gone live.
The replatforming dilemma
Some businesses reach a point where the costs and frustrations pile up high enough that they consider leaving. By then, it’s rarely a simple switch. Warehouse add-ons, reporting layers, bespoke integrations, they’re all tangled into the system.
Moving away means not just replacing the ERP, but also unwinding everything built around it. That can mean swapping warehouse management systems, redesigning reporting, retraining teams. Suddenly the business case looks less like “upgrade for efficiency” and more like “rip out and start again.”
It’s why so many companies stay put, even when they know the system is working against them.
A false economy
Business Central often appeals because it looks cost-effective. Licences are competitive, and Microsoft carries weight in boardrooms. But cost isn’t measured in licences alone.
The hours wasted on workarounds. The reliance on a single SI. The friction of multi-entity setups. These all erode value faster than the headline numbers suggest. What looked like the “safe” choice becomes the most expensive in opportunity cost: slowed growth, rigid processes, teams bogged down in admin.
What to do instead
If you’re evaluating ERP options, don’t get distracted by feature parity. The questions that matter are structural:
How easy is it to scale this across multiple entities without duplication?
How flexible is it for non-technical users to make small changes?
Am I buying a platform, or am I buying one partner’s custom fork of it?
The ERP itself is only part of the decision. The delivery model is where businesses often stumble. A platform can look good on paper and still become a liability if it ties you into a partner’s worldview.
Think twice
Business Central will work for some businesses. But if you’re a multi-brand, multi-entity operator, or if you value flexibility and independence, it’s worth thinking twice. The risks aren’t obvious in the demo. They show up later, when you’re too far in to easily step back.
The “safe” choice isn’t always the safe choice. And in ERP, safe is rarely simple.