Choosing the Right Microsoft Dynamics Partner for Your GP to Business Central Migration
Choosing the right Microsoft Dynamics partner is one of the most important decisions you will make in a GP to Business Central migration, and most organizations don’t realize that until they’re already mid-project.
Not all Microsoft Dynamics partners are equipped for a GP to Business Central migration. Before you start evaluating vendors, get clear on your GP version, data quality, internal bandwidth, and what success looks like. Then look for a partner with real GP-to-BC migration experience, industry references, and a support model that continues after go-live.
A quick scope note: this post is written specifically from inside the GP to BC migration world, since that’s where a lot of our own work happens. But most of these questions aren’t really about GP or Business Central specifically. They’re about how to tell a genuinely strong Microsoft partner from a mediocre one. If you’re evaluating a partner for Power Platform, CRM, Azure, or anything else in the Microsoft ecosystem, the same instincts apply.
Most of what follows applies whether you’re looking at a reseller, a managed service provider, or a trusted partner. If those terms are still blurring together for you, we break that down separately here: Choosing a Technology Partner: VAR, MSP, or Trusted Advisor.
Key Takeaways
- Not all Microsoft Dynamics partners are the same. Being a certified Microsoft partner doesn’t automatically mean they’re the right fit for a GP-to-BC migration.
- Some partners still work almost exclusively in GP and have no real Business Central practice. Knowing the difference early saves you a lot of wasted conversations.
- A great partner acts like a trusted advisor, not a software salesperson. You should feel like they’re helping you make the right decision, even if that decision is “not yet.”
- Red flags are real. Knowing what to watch for protects your project, your budget, and your team.
If you’re a GP user starting to look at Business Central, you’ve probably already noticed something: there are a lot of Microsoft partners out there. Their websites look similar, they all claim to specialize in BC, and they all sound confident on the phone.
So how do you actually figure out who knows what they’re doing?
That’s what this guide is about. Not a checklist to hand a partner during a demo, but a set of questions to ask yourself first, before you get into vendor conversations, so you walk in already knowing what matters to you and what a genuinely good answer sounds like.
Start Here: Know What You’re Evaluating For
Before you can evaluate a Microsoft Dynamics partner, you need to get honest about a few things on your own side first.
A Dynamics GP to Business Central migration isn’t like buying software off a shelf. You’re not just selecting a product, you’re entering a working relationship with an implementation team that will be embedded in your business for months. The partner you choose will shape your go-live timeline, your data quality, and how your team feels about the entire migration.
That’s not meant to make this feel intimidating. It’s meant to put the right amount of weight on a decision that deserves it.
The 10 questions below are built to help you get clear before you start shopping.
The 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Evaluate a Dynamics Partner
Question 1: Do we actually know what version of GP we’re on, and what state our data is in?
This sounds basic, but a surprising number of organizations walk into partner conversations without a clear answer. Partners will ask this early. If you don’t know, it’s a sign you’re earlier in the process than you may have realized.
Before evaluating partners, know your current GP version, how many years of historical data you’re carrying, what your customizations actually look like, and a rough sense of how clean or messy your data really is. This single piece of homework shapes how a partner scopes the project and what they’ll ultimately charge you for it.
Why it matters: A partner who doesn’t ask about this early is a partner who’s going to surprise you with scope changes later in the project.
Question 2: Does this partner actually do Business Central migrations, or are they a Dynamics GP-only shop?
This is a bigger issue than most people expect, and it’s worth confronting directly.
Some partners in the Microsoft ecosystem built their entire practice around GP, and that’s genuinely all they do. They may know Microsoft GP deeply and have supported your system for years. But if they don’t have an active, established Business Central practice, they simply cannot take you where you’re trying to go. A few of these partners are quietly hoping their GP clients stick around as long as possible, since BC migration isn’t really part of their business model.
GP expertise still has real value. But for a migration specifically, you need a partner actively doing Microsoft Business Central work as a core part of their business, not one who added it recently just to keep pace with the market.
What to ask yourself: Is this partner genuinely invested in Business Central as a core practice, or does it feel like something bolted on recently?
Question 3: How many GP-to-BC migrations has this partner actually completed?
This connects to the last question, but it’s worth pulling apart on its own. There’s a meaningful difference between a partner who has implemented Business Central for several years and one who only ramped up in the past year or so because they saw where the market was heading.
Dynamics GP to Business Central migrations have specific wrinkles: chart of accounts mapping, the data migration tools built specifically for GP customers, and the places where GP’s logic simply doesn’t translate one-to-one into Business Central. A partner with real, extended experience has already run into these exact problems and knows how to navigate them. A partner still building that experience is figuring it out in real time, on your project.
You want someone who has already been through this specific transition, not someone learning it alongside you.
What to look for: Ask how many GP to BC migrations they’ve completed, how long they’ve been actively doing Business Central work, and whether the actual BC consultants assigned to your project have hands-on migration experience, not just certifications on a resume.
Question 4: How much do we actually know about what we want Business Central to do for us?
Here’s a fair reality check: you don’t need every answer figured out. But you do need some of them.
Do you know which business processes feel most broken right now? Do you have a sense of your must-have integrations? Do you know whether you’ll need multi-entity or multi-currency support? These aren’t trick questions, a good partner will walk you through all of them regardless. But arriving with some of your own thinking already done leads to a far more productive conversation.
What to do: Before meeting with any partner, run an honest internal assessment, even a rough one. What’s genuinely working in GP today? What isn’t? What do you want to be true 12 months from now?
Question 5: What does our internal capacity actually look like?
A migration doesn’t happen entirely on the partner’s side. It requires real time and attention from your finance team, your IT lead, and the department heads who own specific processes day to day.
Be honest about what your team can actually give this. If finance is already stretched thin, or your business is in the middle of another significant operational change, that matters. Strong partners will ask about this directly. The ones who don’t tend to either set unrealistic timelines or set you up for a rough go-live.
The question to sit with: Do we genuinely have the internal bandwidth to do this migration well, at the timeline we’re considering?
Question 6: What does “success” actually look like for us specifically?
Not the vendor’s definition. Yours.
Is success a specific go-live date? Getting off on-premises infrastructure entirely? Cutting the time your team spends on month-end close? Finally having reporting that doesn’t require an Excel wrestling match every quarter?
Write it down. Being able to state this clearly to yourself, and then to a partner, is one of the clearest signals that you’re ready for a genuinely productive conversation.
Why it matters: Partners who ask about this are partners focused on outcomes. Partners who skip it are usually focused on billable hours.
Question 7: Does this partner have real experience in our industry?
Microsoft has thousands of Dynamics partners. There’s a meaningful gap between a generalist who can technically implement BC and a partner who’s done it specifically within your industry, whether that’s manufacturing, distribution, nonprofit, professional services, or something else entirely. Business Central includes industry-specific functionality, and a partner who understands your industry will configure it very differently than one who doesn’t.
What to look for: Ask about their actual customer base. Request references from organizations genuinely similar to yours in size and industry, not just recognizable logos on a slide.
Question 8: How do we actually want to be supported after go-live?
This is one of the most underweighted questions in any Dynamics 365 implementation partner evaluation, and one of the most consequential.
Go-live is not the finish line. The period right afterward is often when you need the most support, when your team is still learning the system and something inevitably doesn’t work quite the way anyone expected. What does ongoing support actually look like? Is it a generic helpdesk ticket queue? Do you get a named contact? What’s a realistic response time?
Some partners are excellent implementers and thin on support. Others have a genuinely well-defined post-go-live service model. Know which one you actually need before you start asking.
What to clarify: Who specifically supports us after go-live, and what does that relationship look like in practice, day to day?
Question 9: Are we shopping on price, or on fit?
Price obviously matters, nobody’s pretending otherwise. But organizations that make partner decisions primarily on the lowest quote tend to have more painful migrations, and often end up spending more overall, not less.
A lower quote can sometimes reflect a leaner team, less experienced consultants, or a scope quietly missing pieces you’ll need later. It can also reflect genuine efficiency. The point isn’t that lower is bad, it’s that price alone doesn’t tell you which situation you’re actually looking at.
What to evaluate alongside price: Team experience, references, the support model, and whether the scope genuinely matches everything you told them you needed.
Question 10: Does this partner feel like they’re on our side, even if that means telling us “not yet”?
This is arguably the most important question on this list.
A genuinely good partner, a real trusted advisor, will be honest with you when you’re not ready. They’ll tell you if your timeline is unrealistic, if your data needs real cleanup before migration even starts, or if your organization isn’t positioned for a big change right now. They ask questions. They don’t just pitch.
If a partner is pushing you to commit quickly, skipping hard questions about your current environment, or telling you everything will be simple when your gut says otherwise, that’s worth paying attention to.
The gut check: Does this partner feel like they’re genuinely on our side, or like they’re trying to close a deal before we’ve fully thought this through?
What Good Looks Like: Strong Partner vs. Warning Signs
Once you’ve worked through these questions for yourself, here’s a quick reference for what a strong Dynamics partner relationship actually looks like compared to a weaker one.
| Area | What a Strong Partner Does | What Should Give You Pause |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Asks detailed questions about your current GP setup, data, and processes | Jumps straight to a demo or proposal without understanding your situation |
| GP-to-BC experience | Has completed multiple GP to BC migrations and can speak to specifics | References only general BC implementations, or is new to BC entirely |
| BC tenure | Has been actively implementing BC for several years | Built their BC practice recently, largely to keep up with market demand |
| Industry fit | Has references from organizations similar to yours in size and industry | References feel vague or are hard to actually follow up on |
| Scoping | Proactively flags complexity and risk, pushes back on unrealistic timelines | Agrees with everything, and the scope feels a little too clean |
| Post-go-live | Has a clearly defined support model with named contacts | Support is described only vaguely, as “we’ll be there for you” |
| Pricing | Scope genuinely aligns with what you told them you needed | Quote is significantly lower than others with no clear explanation |
| Honesty | Tells you what’s hard and what might not work | Everything sounds easy and fast, with no real caveats |
Red Flags Worth Naming Directly
A few patterns worth calling out plainly, because they cause real problems in practice.
The “we do everything” pitch. A partner claiming to be equally excellent at GP migrations, custom development, Power Platform, and half a dozen other specialties may not be deeply excellent at any single one of them. Specialization genuinely matters in ERP implementation work.
A GP-only shop trying to figure out BC. If a partner’s core practice is still built around GP and they’re just beginning to learn Business Central, that’s a mismatch for where you’re actually headed. GP expertise is real, but it doesn’t automatically transfer into strong Business Central implementation skill. You want a partner who’s been doing BC migrations for years, not months.
Consultants who’ve never actually worked in GP. On the flip side, if the team assigned to your migration has only ever worked in BC and has no GP background, they may not understand why your chart of accounts is structured the way it is, or why a reporting approach that doesn’t map cleanly to BC still made sense in your original environment. That gap matters more than it seems.
Vague answers about who will actually do the work. You might meet experienced senior consultants during the sales process and then get quietly handed off to a junior team once you’ve signed. Ask directly who will actually be assigned to your project.
Pressure to decide quickly. A “this pricing is only available through the end of the month” pitch is a sales tactic, not a signal of quality. A partner confident in their own work generally isn’t in a rush to get your signature.
How Long Does a GP to BC Migration Actually Take?
One of the most common questions we hear, and one of the hardest to answer accurately without knowing your specific situation. Here’s a general framework based on typical patterns:
| Implementation Complexity | Typical GP-to-BC Timeline |
|---|---|
| Low complexity: straightforward environment, clean data, minimal customizations | Around 8 to 12 weeks |
| Moderate complexity: some customizations, relatively clean data | Roughly 6 to 9 months |
| High complexity: significant customizations, multiple integrations, or messier data | 9 to 12+ months |
These are general ranges, not guarantees. Data quality, internal bandwidth, the number of integrations you’re carrying, and how well the project is scoped on day one all meaningfully affect the actual timeline. Be cautious of any partner who gives you a firm number before they’ve done a thorough discovery of your specific environment. For a more detailed, stage-by-stage look at what actually happens during a migration, see our breakdown of the GP to Business Central migration timeline.
Before You Start Shopping: A Quick Self-Assessment Checklist
Before your first partner conversation, it helps to know where you actually stand internally. The more of these you can check off, the more productive those early conversations will be.
Know your current state
- We know our current GP version
- We have a sense of our data quality and what cleanup might be needed
- We know which customizations and integrations we’re currently running
- We know how many years of historical data we actually want to bring forward
Know what you want
- We’ve identified which processes are most broken or manual today
- We know our must-have integrations for day one
- We’ve discussed multi-entity or multi-currency needs internally
- We’ve written down what success actually looks like for us specifically
Know your capacity
- We’ve identified who internally will own this project
- We’ve had an honest conversation about bandwidth and timing
- We’re not in the middle of another major operational change
For a deeper version of this exact exercise, see our full 10 questions to ask before you migrate from Dynamics GP to Business Central.
A Final Thought
The organizations with the smoothest migrations aren’t always the ones with the biggest budgets or the most technical sophistication. They’re the ones who did their homework first, got clear on what they actually needed, asked the right questions, and chose a partner they genuinely trusted.
You don’t need everything figured out before you start having conversations. But knowing what you’re evaluating for puts you in a far stronger position than walking in cold.
And if a partner makes you feel like you need to rush, or that your questions are somehow too detailed, or that you should just trust the process without explanation, that’s information too.
Want to Go Deeper?
If you’re still getting oriented on what a GP-to-BC migration actually involves, these resources may help before you start the partner search:
- Dynamics GP End of Life: Risks of Running an Outdated ERP System: a closer look at what’s actually driving the urgency behind so many of these migrations right now.
- 10 Questions to Ask Before You Migrate: a good place to start before you evaluate anyone at all.
- What Actually Happens During a Migration, Stage by Stage: a realistic look at the process itself, so you know what a partner’s proposed plan should actually include.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I evaluate a Microsoft Dynamics partner for a GP to BC migration? Start by assessing your own readiness before you shop. Know your GP version, your data quality, your internal bandwidth, and what success looks like for your organization. Then look for a partner with specific GP to BC migration experience, several years of active BC implementation work, and references from organizations similar to yours. The comparison table above covers the key areas worth evaluating.
How many GP-to-BC migrations should a partner have completed before I trust them? There’s no magic number, but you want to see more than a small handful. Ask for specifics. A partner who can walk you through past migrations, what went smoothly, what didn’t, and what they learned from it, is a partner who has genuinely done the work. Ask specifically about projects comparable to yours in size and complexity.
What does a GP to Business Central migration typically cost? Cost varies considerably based on company size, user count, customization depth, data migration complexity, and the support model you choose. There isn’t a reliable one-size-fits-all figure that applies across businesses. A reputable partner will scope your specific project honestly before quoting, rather than quoting first and scoping later.
Is GP going away? Microsoft has confirmed that product support and updates for Dynamics GP conclude on December 31, 2029, with security patches continuing a bit longer after that. GP isn’t disappearing tomorrow, but the trajectory is clear, and that date arrives faster than most organizations expect.
What is a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation? In 2022, Microsoft replaced the older Gold and Silver partner tiers with a Solutions Partner designation model. Partners have to demonstrate customer success metrics, active certifications, and performance scores across specific solution areas to earn and maintain the designation. It’s a more meaningful bar than the previous model, but it still doesn’t tell you everything. Ask specifically about Business Central and GP-to-BC migration experience, not just the badge on a website.
Can we talk to Nevas Technologies even if we’re not sure we’re ready to migrate yet? Absolutely. A significant part of what we do is helping GP users figure out exactly where they stand and what actually makes sense for their business, with no pressure to commit to anything. If you want a straightforward, honest conversation about your specific situation, that’s exactly where we’d start.
How Nevas Technologies Can Help
Nevas Technologies has spent over 20 years actively implementing and migrating Microsoft Dynamics solutions, with 200+ clients and a team of certified Microsoft Dynamics consultants who bring real, hands-on GP-to-BC migration experience, not a practice built recently to chase the market. We’d encourage you to hold us to every question on this list.
Schedule a free consultation with our Microsoft Dynamics team to talk through your specific environment and timeline, or get a custom quote to see how we’d scope your project.
