In the Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance article by Microsoft, they examine a study conducted by Forrester Consulting on the cost-savings and economic benefits of implementing the Dynamics 365 Finance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. The report assesses the potential return on investment (ROI) that companies may discover through implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance.

Businesses can choose to further maximize the ROI they receive from Dynamics 365 Finance through leveraging the additional automation offerings provided by Microsoft Independent Software Vendors (ISV). Microsoft ISVs offer solutions that further enhance the automation offered within Dynamics ERP systems. SKsoft is one of the top selling ISVs for banking, finance, and treasury automation in the Microsoft Dynamics space.

Key Results from the Forrester Study

Forrester interviewed four businesses utilizing Dynamics 365 ERP system for the Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics study. The companies’ experiences and interview results were compiled to create a composite business for the purpose of the study.

The companies interviewed in the Forrester Study faced common challenges such as using old solutions with excessive maintenance costs, extensive customization of solutions, lack of uniform financial processes, dependance on manual procedures and common knowledge, and the absence of real-time visibility. These pain points led the organizations to seek out and purchase Microsoft Dynamics Finance to resolve these challenges.

The Total Economic Impact of Dynamics 365 study exposed the following benefits of implementing D365:

• Finance and IT staff efficiency improvements
• Legacy financial savings
• Real-time visibility and data which improved decision-making agility
• Improved regulatory compliance
• Greater system availability
• Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem
• Improved work life balance for finance employees

Considering all the results of the study, it was concluded that Dynamics 365 Finance brought a total economic impact of $3.41 million in cost-savings over three years. The total initial investment was $2.8 million and resulted in an ROI of 122 percent.

How SKsoft can Maximize these Benefits

Businesses can maximize the benefits of their Microsoft Dynamics Finance ERP , through leveraging additional built-in automation. Through robust banking and treasury functionality, SKsoft takes the financial automation provided in D365 Finance a step further. Our solutions are fully embedded into the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP System, preventing users from having to use disparate systems. Our  software has the same look and feel as the D365 ERP system and are Microsoft certified. Our solutions are the preferred offerings by our partners and Microsoft. ISV solutions like our Banking and Treasury Automation Suite can deliver out-of-the-box functionality that would otherwise require extensive customizations.

Configuration vs. Customization

Our Treasury Automation Suite is designed to handle a variety of business types. By having robust and flexible configuration options, businesses can run their processes the way they want to through configuration versus expensive and time-consuming customization.

Vast Bank Format Library

Our Treasury Automation Suite has an extensive and ever-growing format library for Positive Pay, direct debits, vendor payments, customer reimbursements or bank to bank transfers. This allows our users to be able to send data to their bank in the exact format required by each banking institution, without having to build and maintain customizations of transforms.

Functionality Specific Pain-Points

Through seamless and secure automation our banking, finance, and treasury solutions works to resolve the following key pain-points directly in the F&O ERP system:

• Banking Integration

Through secure host-to-host connection and direct SFTP and API connectivity with over 140 banks, our BankFabric solution seamlessly transfers payment information to and from the ERP to the bank. This prevents the user from having to download files to their desktop or log onto a banking portal.

• Bank Reconciliation

Through advanced matching and mapping rules, our bank reconciliation solution resolves the challenge of being able to automate daily or monthly reconciliations.

• Vendor Payment Automation

Our APEFT solution resolves the pain-point of processing outbound vendor payments. When making payments globally, many times bank/payment methods require custom data fields not found in D365 F&O. To avoid the need to build custom extensions, our product provides data driven forms specifically designed for each payment method. These are all contained and packaged within each format. Validation rules within the solution provide payment method-specific rules to ensure that all the data needed by the bank format is verified before being sent to the bank. With APEFT you can streamline the process of building and uploading your payment files to the bank, sending response files to reject or approve payment lines, remit advice emails, and journal posting based on email or electronic bank response.

• Check Fraud Prevention

Our Positive Pay solution protects organizations against fraudulent checks. Through seamless automation, Positive Pay sends an outbound file to your bank to protect checks printed out of the ERP.

• AP Invoicing & OCR Scanning (powered by SignUp Software)

SKsoft is the North American Distributor for SignUp Software’s ExFlow. ExFlow and ExFlow Data Capture resolve the pain point of capturing, validating, and processing AP invoices. When paired with SKsoft’s APEFT and Positive Pay solutions, you can achieve a fully automated AP process in your D365 ERP system.

• Cash Application & Settlement Automation

Our AReSettlement module resolves the challenge of creating payments, settlements, processing lockbox files and other types of customer payment files and applying payments automatically to customer invoices.

• Direct Debit & Mandate Automation

For companies that can directly debit customer bank accounts, our solution automates the procedure through sending an outbound file to the bank with instructions to directly debit their account.

• Credit Card Processing

Our touchless PCI-Compliant credit card processing solution processes credit card information without exposing the credit card number to back-office personnel and automatically applies credit card payments to settle invoices.

• Taking Customer Payments

Our PCI-Compliant ePay Advantage solution is a customer-facing online bill pay portal where they can manage their own wallet and pay their bills through credit card or eCheck payments.

• Reconciling Credit Card Statements

Our Credit Card Reconciliation solution automates the process of ensuring that each settlement transaction on your credit card statement matches up with a recorded customer payment in the ERP.

• Centralize and Consolidate Complex Banking Footprints

Our In-House Banking solution centralizes cash and bank balances for all legal entities into one entity, preventing subsidiaries from having to deal with a separate bank.  

• Reimbursing Customers

Customer reimbursement automation resolves the pain point of having to create a vendor record to reimburse your customer.

• Transferring funds between banks

Bank-to-Bank Transfer allows you to execute intra-bank or inter-bank transfers from within your ERP system. It streamlines the process significantly and resolves the challenge of having to log onto a bank portal to move your funds around.

• Supply Chain Financing

For companies using supply chain financing, our module allows you to automate communication with your supply chain finance provider through seamless payment instructions between D365 and the provider.

Key Results SKsoft Customers Have Discovered:

Our expertise in developing banking and treasury automation solutions embedded into the Dynamics 365 Finance Operations and Supply Chain ERP system, has led to substantial positive business results for our clients. Here’s some of the key results you can expect when you implement SKsoft’s robust banking and treasury functionality:

• Improvements in risk management procedures enabled through fully compliant processes
• Centralized financial processes allowing real-time visibility and reducing initial employee training time
• Substantial increases in efficiency and accuracy through touchless automation
• Significant cost-savings through more efficient and accurate procedures
• Efficiency increases allowing finance teams to focus on value-added activities
• Increased business agility and scalability

SKsoft is proud to have robust software that can scale and work globally across any industry regardless of company size. Contact us today at sales@sksoft.com to see how we can enhance your Microsoft Dynamics ERP system.