When it comes to ERP, smaller businesses with complex operations face a major challenge in finding a solution that can optimize their business while not hampering it with eye-watering deployment costs. As podcast series co-host Peter Joeckel recently wrote, SMBs who invested in Microsoft Dynamics AX over the last decade are now likely to find themselves stuck in the middle of an ERP world that might feel like it has forgotten them.

Both of today's guests, Chris George of Smith Pump Co. and TJ Phelps of ALT Fabrication, support their companies' AX systems and know them inside and out after years of service. That means they not only know how the solutions have helped build the businesses, but they know in what ways they are now being held back by various factors including licensing, customization, and general limitations that more modern systems would be able to accommodate.

Thanks to both Chris and TJ for their candid assessments and for sharing their findings as they plan for the future.

Show Notes:

• 1:45 – Introducing our guests, their companies, and their AX solutions
• 6:00 – Why smaller manufacturers have selected Dynamics AX over the years rather than an SMB package like GP.
• 11:00 – Similarities between our guests companies: engineer-to-order manufacturing, distribution, field service, maintenance, repair, and more.
• 14:00 – What planning have they done so far to move off their AX solutions? And what was the result?
• 16:00 – Thoughts on the latest Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations software and how the business might change by adopting it.
• 21:00 – Why the next investment in ERP will be different, and where automation will be critical.
• 26:00 – Why paper and manual processes have persisted for so long.
• 30:00 – Are the executive teams sold on the need for these updates?
• 33:00 – Why automation and reporting go together.
• 34:00 – ERP projects are exhausting. But there's another way to think about it in a manufacturing environment.
• 36:00 – Where Microsoft is pushing customers to look for automation and app development.
• 38:00 – Does the world need a tell-all documentary about building demos for conference keynotes?