What’s New in Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management for Agribusiness
The agribusiness sector is navigating a period of significant transformation.
Amid evolving commodity markets, supply chain disruptions, workforce retirements, and rising security concerns, many companies are realizing that outdated legacy systems can no longer support modern, technologically advanced operations.
If your business relies on highly customized on-premises solutions or systems or has major parts of institutional knowledge living with just a few key employees, updating to a more modern system has never been more important. Read the blog or watch the video presentation to hear the latest updates in Dynamics 365 ERP for Agriculture.
Dynamics 365 ERP: Scalable and Powerful Agribusiness Technology
Implementing Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management is a game-changer, especially when combined with agriculture-specific industry solutions like Levridge, an add-on solution purpose-built to address the operational challenges of the ag industry. This combination expands your capabilities, allowing you to centralize operations, improve visibility, strengthen security, and make better decisions based on real-time data – all in an AI-empowered, cloud-first environment.
We are seeing a tremendous transformation of ag industry businesses looking for technology that allows them to modernize grain accounting, commodity management, inventory tracking, and operations processes to support long-term growth.
Let’s look a little bit deeper at this transformation and detail why D365 Finance & Supply Chain Management is the perfect agribusiness technology for your organization.
Why Businesses Are Moving Away from Legacy Ag Software Systems
One of the biggest trends in agribusiness today is the retirement of legacy technology platforms that have often been in place for decades. Many organizations are operating on aging systems with limited support, disconnected data, and increasing cybersecurity risks.
As experienced employees retire, companies are also facing a knowledge transfer challenge. Critical operational expertise is frequently tied to outdated systems and manual processes that are difficult to scale or support.
Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (D365 F&SCM) helps solve these issues by providing:
- A secure cloud-based ERP platform
- Real-time operational visibility
- Integrated financial and supply chain management
- Scalable automation capabilities
- Modern reporting and analytics tools
This gives you a solid ERP foundation that supports both operational efficiency and quicker onboarding of new employees, and a base for future innovations.
Commodity Management and Ag-Specific Functionality
One of the biggest advantages for ag-related businesses adopting Dynamics 365 is the availability of industry-specific functionality through specialized ISV solutions like Levridge, which is built on top of D365 F&SCM and essentially acts as a module within it.
At Stoneridge Software, we work closely with Levridge, which extends Dynamics 365 capabilities for agriculture organizations, including:
- Commodity accounting
- Grain accounting
- Contract tracking
- Ticket settlement
- Inventory management
- Risk management reporting
- Mark-to-market contract valuation
These solutions are fully integrated within Dynamics 365, providing a seamless user experience while enabling businesses to manage both inbound and outbound commodity processes efficiently.
Agribusiness is far from one-size-fits-all. Whether a company is focused on grain trading, process manufacturing, retail, or chemical and seed distribution, the flexibility of Dynamics 365 allows organizations to tailor the platform to their business and fill gaps between processes.
Continuous Innovation Across the Agriculture Industry
Microsoft is always improving and upgrading features in the Spring and Fall Wave release plans, providing you with innovative and user-friendly solutions to improve processes and address pain points. Similarly, Levridge updates three times a year, giving you access to more ag-specific capabilities and automation opportunities.
For example, newer innovations with Levridge include improvements to the direct ship functionality, expanded automation, and increased reporting capabilities.
Because these industry solutions are built directly on Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, your organization will benefit from:
- Consistent user experiences
- Native integration with finance and supply chain operations
- Reduced data silos
- Faster adoption of new Microsoft technologies
- Easier scalability as business requirements evolves
Building a Strong Foundation for Transformation
Upgrading to a modern ERP requires strong transformation initiatives and a full team buy-in. Successful agribusiness implementations require thoughtful planning around:
- Data quality and governance
- Process standardization
- User adoption and training
- Operational reporting
- Automation strategy
- Integration planning
The Stoneridge and Levridge teams work very closely to help organizations look beyond simply replacing outdated software. Our approaches align in focusing on working with your unique business needs to build a scalable foundation that supports future innovation while minimizing operational disruptions.
This means we will help you identify what should be part of your core ERP implementation and what can be phased in over time.
AI and Copilot in Dynamics 365: Where to Start
Switching gears – somewhat – we would be remiss if we didn’t mention one of the biggest enhancements of switching to a modern ERP system, AI, which is rapidly changing the way agribusinesses operate. However, many companies still have concerns about AI and aren’t sure where to begin.
If you and your organization find yourselves feeling those doubts, the good news is that organizations do not need to start with highly advanced AI projects to see meaningful value. When implementing Dynamics 365, you gain access to Copilot capabilities that are embedded throughout the Microsoft ecosystem, including:
- Outlook
- Teams
- Word
- PowerPoint
- Excel
- Dynamics 365 applications
We recommend that a good starting point is getting your users to simply interact with Copilot tools in their daily work, like asking it to summarize an email thread in Outlook or assisting with data cleaning in Excel. As employees grow more comfortable with AI-assisted workflows, you can introduce more advanced automations and Copilot-powered agents that automate specific workflows in Dynamics 365.
Within F&SCM, Copilot can help users:
- Surface operational insights
- Identify anomalies
- Summarize transactions and activities
- Improve forecasting visibility
- Streamline communication workflows
The key is building familiarity and confidence while establishing the data foundation needed for long-term AI success.
Real-World Use Cases for Automation and Agents
AI-powered automation has already delivered measurable results for agribusiness organizations. Some impactful early use cases include:
Supplier Communication Automation
Microsoft’s supplier communication agent helps streamline vendor interactions by:
- Monitoring supplier communications
- Updating expected receipt dates
- Identifying shipment delays
- Reducing manual follow-up activities
This allows procurement teams to spend less time managing transactions and more time strengthening supplier relationships and strategic sourcing initiatives.
Financial Reconciliation Assistance
The account reconciliation agent is another powerful tool for finance teams, as it can:
- Analyze general ledger transactions
- Identify reconciliation discrepancies
- Suggest corrective actions
- Help accelerate month-end close processes
For finance departments managing large transaction volumes, this dramatically reduces the manual effort traditionally required during reconciliation activities.
Quality and Compliance Monitoring
AI also plays an increasingly important role in traceability and compliance management. Intelligent alerts can identify anomalies, flag out-of-spec conditions, and help organizations respond proactively before issues escalate.
For agribusinesses operating in highly regulated environments, these capabilities can significantly improve operational oversight and risk management.
The Future of Agribusiness Runs on Modernization
Agribusiness organizations are under pressure to modernize faster than ever before. Between workforce transitions, supply chain complexity, security concerns, and evolving customer expectations, the need for a connected, intelligent ERP platform has become critical.
Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, paired with Levridge, provides the operational foundation agribusinesses need to improve visibility, automate processes, and prepare for the future of AI-powered operations.
Get in Touch with Stoneridge Today to Future-Proof Your ERP
Our experts specialize in helping agribusiness organizations navigate transformation journeys. From roadmap planning, end-to-end implementations, and ongoing system support, our team understands and can work with the unique complexities of your agribusiness to help you align your technology to your organizational goals.
Get in touch with us to get started today!
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