One ERP for the full standard operating process.

Yes, with the Premium edition for manufacturing and service. The standard model covers BOMs, routings, capacity, assembly, jobs, resources, service orders and contracts. Where it stops is deep vertical process, high-volume shop-floor data capture and complex planning, which usually means an AppSource app rather than custom code.

Extensions are written in AL against published APIs and events, never as modifications to base objects. Business Central ships two major updates a year and applies minor updates continuously, so every extension is tested against the next release before it lands. If an extension cannot survive that cadence, it is the wrong solution and we say so at design stage.

Business Central exposes data through APIs and a direct Fabric link. Reporting sits on governed semantic models in Fabric or Power BI rather than on report objects inside the ERP, so definitions are shared with the rest of the business. Copilot is grounded in those approved definitions and in the user's own permissions.

The honest answer is that it depends on three things: how many legal entities you run, how much of the operation is outside the standard model, and how many systems have to stay connected. A single-entity distribution business on standard processes is a different project from a multi-entity manufacturer with shop-floor integration. The fit assessment produces a range with the assumptions written down, and we would rather give you that than a number we cannot defend.

Each one is catalogued and given a disposition: rebuild in AL, replace with standard functionality, replace with an AppSource app, or retire. Retirement is more common than clients expect, because requirements written years ago are often covered by the standard product now or reflect a process nobody follows any more.

Yes. Business Central handles multiple companies with intercompany posting, consolidation and multi-currency as standard. The design decisions that matter are whether entities share a chart of accounts and item master, and how consolidation is run. Those are settled in stage 02, because changing them after go-live means reposting history.

You do. The tenant, the licences and the extension source are yours. INFOC can operate it under managed services, and many clients do, but that is a service choice rather than a dependency. Nothing in the build is designed to make leaving difficult.

There is, and it is worth reading with the right expectations. Microsoft reports more than 45,000 companies on Business Central. A 2023 Total Economic Impact study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Microsoft, found a 172% return over three years, up to 18% higher productivity and around USD 30,000 a year in avoided third-party fees. Those figures describe a composite organisation built from interviewed customers, not a specific company and not an INFOC client. Use them to frame the question, then let the assessment produce numbers for your own volumes, headcount and current licence spend. We will not quote someone else's return as though it were yours.

Waiting is usually the more expensive option, because the constraint is rarely the AI. Microsoft's 2024 research found 71% of small and medium business leaders consider AI adoption critical to staying competitive, while 61% said their company had no vision for implementing it. That gap is not solved by a strategy document. It closes when the operational data sits in one governed system with clear permissions, at which point the first useful AI capability is already included in the licence you are paying for. Standardise the core, then decide what to automate.