How to Move Your ISVs from Dynamics GP to Business Central
Dynamics GP has been a cornerstone ERP solution for thousands of businesses with an expansive ecosystem of ISVs to extend functionalities across business processes.
Whether payroll and inventory to banking, project tracking, or manufacturing, GP has been a solid solution. However, as Microsoft continues to innovate and invest heavily in Dynamics 365 Business Central while simultaneously phasing support for GP out, clients are now facing a critical choice in how to proceed.
While it might seem daunting to move your core ERP system, long-held customizations, and trusted ISVs to the cloud, it can be easier than you think!
In this blog, we’ll explore how companies running Dynamics GP can transition ISV solutions to Business Central. Whether you're planning to move soon or are just starting to consider migrating, this article will help you understand your options and make informed decisions.
The GP Landscape Today: Rich ISV Ecosystem, On-Prem Complexity
Many organizations running Dynamics GP are deeply reliant on ISV solutions. Your users are likely familiar with a system that includes ISVs and it might disrupt their work processes. Whether you use Mekorma for payment processing, Binary Stream for multi-entity management, Integrity Data for payroll, or another ISV, these extensions are critical to your business processes.
The challenge with GP is that it is an on-premises platform by design. This means it has limited compatibility with modern cloud solutions. As a result, ISV solutions in GP are often so close-knit and customized that it make your cloud migration more complex.
Don't let this scare you away from the cloud though, as many ISVs have already taken steps to adjust their solutions for cloud-based technologies like Business Central.
Why Move to Business Central with Your ISVs in Tow?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has many benefits, including:
- A more flexible deployment (cloud, on-premises, hybrid)
- More effective integrations with other tools in the Microsoft ecosystem like Copilot, Teams, Outlook, Power Platform, and more
- Continuous updates and modern extensibility using AL code and APIs
- Higher scalability and security on the Microsoft Azure platform
- Lower total cost of ownership because of reduced infrastructure and maintenance expenses
Many ISVs see this shift as more than a platform migration—it’s a strategic opportunity to modernize their solutions to fit within the Microsoft Cloud and obtain more customers.
The State of ISV Solutions in Business Central
The good news is that most well-known GP ISVs have already moved to Business Central. According to Microsoft, approximately 90 percent of ISV functionality in GP already exists in Business Central.
Let’s look at some features you can do in GP with the help of ISVs and compare that to how your specific ISVs and their Business Central counterparts:
ISVs: From GP’s Toolbox to BC’s AppSource
One of GP’s longstanding strengths is its rich network of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). From SmartFill to MEM and Green Shades, many GP users rely on these tools for everything from payroll to collections.
A list of Business Central ISVs on AppSource
Business Central mirrors this extensibility through AppSource, a cloud-based marketplace with nearly 7,000 apps. Familiar names like Binary Stream, Integrity Data, and iSolutions have carried their functionality into BC with enhanced offerings like:
- Binary Stream’s Multi-Entity Management & Subscription Billing
- Green Shades for payroll compliance
- Insight Works for warehouse and shipping solutions
BC’s ISV model is more flexible, offering free, licensed, or per-user options that can be deployed and tested in a sandbox—something GP’s architecture never allowed with the same ease.
Let’s take a look at some other ISV workflows and how they compare in GP vs BC:
Reporting: Filters in BC vs SmartLists in GP
SmartLists in GP are a beloved reporting tool by nearly every organization that runs the legacy system. However, BC’s Filters and Saved Views provide even more dynamic, customizable, and shareable ways to slice data.
BC filters can:
- Be applied across nearly every screen, including sales quotes and orders, posted documents, items, reports, workflow events, journals, and more.
- Use natural language formulas such as:
- W - Work Date
- T - Today
- CM - Last day of the current month
- CW - Last day of the current week
- 5D - Five days from today
- 1Y - One year ago from today
- And more
- Include ranges and wildcards
- Be saved, renamed, shared in Teams, and bookmarked in a browser
You can apply FlowFilters by date or dimension (e.g., department or customer group), allowing real-time drill-downs for audit or performance needs—something GP SmartLists never offered natively.
Popdock: Keeping GP Data at Your Fingertips
One of the common concerns we hear from organizations considering a move to the cloud is lost data. While we take steps to ensure this doesn't happen, eOne Solutions has a smart solution called Popdock that preserves your historical GP data.
If you used SmartList Builder in GP, you're likely already licensed for Popdock. This SaaS solution allows you to:
- View GP data inside Business Central (e.g., customer sales lines, open transactions)
- Combine GP and BC data in a single list or FastTab
- Surface external systems like Shopify or CRM data inside BC
- Avoid migrating all GP history—cutting down migration costs significantly
Popdock connects to Azure Data Lake or Microsoft Fabric (formerly Wind Lake), making your legacy data accessible without weighing down your new system.
Power Automate: Replace Workflows and Automate Actions
Business Central integrates tightly with Power Automate, offering far more flexibility than GP’s traditional workflows.
Types of flows include:
- Triggered: when records are created, changed, or deleted
- Scheduled: recurring flows (e.g., daily reports)
- Instant: user-triggered via action buttons
A good practical example is when you click the "Block Vendor" button in BC, this lets you:
- Change the vendor status
- Notify your purchasing department
- Update contacts in Outlook
This kind of workflow orchestration wasn’t possible in GP without third-party tools and heavy customization, which can make your environment more complicated than it needs to be.
Security: From Task-Based to Role-Driven Simplicity
GP’s security relied on roles and tasks, lacked single sign-on (SSO), and required your organization to set up each user’s homepage manually.
Business Central modernizes and strengthens security through:
- Single Sign-On (SSO) with Office 365 credentials
- User Groups & Permission Sets simplify access management
- Role Centers give each user a tailored homepage with relevant tiles, links, and widgets
- Cleaner, faster UI cuts down clutter and speeds up workflows
Administrators can manage access across departments without the manual effort required in GP.
Integrations: From On-Prem SmartConnect to Cloud-Ready
If you're using SmartConnect for GP today, you're already licensed for SmartConnect.com—the cloud version you'll need for BC. Here are some key benefits of SmartConnect in BC:
- SmartConnect.com is purpose-built for cloud environments
- GP-style staging tables must be rearchitected (SQL Server is no longer in play)
- Scheduled jobs, flat file connectors, and API integrations are still supported
- Rebuilding integrations takes effort—but the interface is familiar
Ultimately, like many other ISV solutions, integrations in BC are easier to scale and maintain in the long term than with GP.
Copilot & Agents: Bringing AI to the Forefront
Copilot and AI Agents are a key differentiator in Business Central compared to GP. While you can use Copilot in GP, it's much easier to integrate it and use it effectively with the Microsoft Cloud.
With Microsoft Copilot in Business Central, users can:
- Ask “how to” questions inside the system
- Summarize records
- Build filters
- Guide new users through tasks
- Automate bank account reconciliations
Agents, however, are the real game changers. These are autonomous bots designed to:
- Watch email inboxes and create quotes or orders from inquiries
- Monitor for customer replies and convert quotes to orders
- Process vendor invoices using OCR and create payables entries
- Offload repetitive tasks without human intervention
These features are native to the BC cloud, making automation and intelligence part of the day-to-day workflow.
GP to BC Migration Considerations: What to Know Before You Go
When planning your move from GP to Business Central, the first step is to perform a comprehensive assessment of your current environment:
- Take an inventory of Your ISVs: Identify all third-party solutions you currently use and note their versions, usage, and business impact. This will help you determine what is core to your business to ensure that moves to your new cloud solution.
- Check ISV Availability in Business Central: Consult with your Microsoft partner or AppSource to see if the same or equivalent ISV solutions are available for BC.
- Evaluate Customizations You Need: Determine whether your customizations can be replaced with native BC features or modern extensions. While transitioning to the cloud gives you some consistency in functionality, you might need to adjust your expectations in some areas.
- Plan a Phased Adoption: In some cases, it may make sense to migrate core finance first, then bring on ISV extensions in a later phase. A phased approach ensures your team has enough time to adjust to major changes.
It's also important to work with a partner who understands both GP and BC—especially with a proven track record helping ISVs migrate or redeploy their solutions. This ensures you're moving to a functional cloud ERP and preserving the business-critical processes you've built over the years.
Embracing a New ISV Strategy in Business Central
One key takeaway from this is while there are some similarities, the ISV model in BC is fundamentally different from GP. Instead of monolithic, tightly integrated solutions, Business Central favors modular apps that can be installed, updated, or removed without disrupting the entire system.
This method presents new opportunities for your business, including:
- Easier Adoption: You can try new or updated ISVs and extensions before you buy via AppSource.
- Continuous Innovation: Receive updates as ISVs roll out new features, ensure your team is always in the know on innovations and on the latest version
- Flexibility: You can mix and match apps to suit your evolving needs and ensure an environment that performs well for every team in your company. This shift means you will have less IT overhead and more agility in managing your extensions.
Want to Modernize with the Microsoft Cloud? Talk to Stoneridge Today!
If you're a Dynamics GP customer with a large portfolio of ISV solutions, moving to Business Central isn’t just possible—it’s strategic. Most of the ISVs you depend on are already there, offering improved functionality in a modern cloud format. For those that aren't, partners can provide alternatives or workarounds that preserve key capabilities.
Talk to the Stoneridge team of experts today to ensure a smart and thorough transition to the cloud.
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