Professional Advantage has carefully designed a modern, comprehensive care program specifically for Business Central. This Client Care Program covers important elements in the successful ongoing lifecycle of your Business Central solution.

The rise in software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud solutions necessitates a different approach to management and support as applications are automatically updated on a regular basis (Microsoft have two major releases per year). Our experience managing many cloud clients has identified the need for a proactive release management model that extends beyond the traditional elements of help desk access and client management team support.

Building on the traditional elements—access to our Support Team (help desk) and the support of a Client Management Team—there is a need for a proactive, best practice approach for each release. Our Release Management service provides dedicated coordination and consultant expertise to ensure each release is successful, and, importantly, provides a path to assess new features and improvements.

Our Release Management program is a structured approach to managing the two major releases from Microsoft each year. The program ensures that best practices are applied to each release so 100% of your Business Central solution is maintained.

One significant advantage of using a cloud SaaS application is that you are always on the latest version. Previously new features and fixes only came with upgrades selectively completed every few years. Microsoft do two major releases each year, in April and October, and minor releases occur in between. All these updates are compulsory. A release updates you to the latest ‘version’. Major releases include new functionality, improvements to existing functionality and fixes, and minor releases include fixes.  

The Microsoft releases upgrade the out-of-the-box Business Central application. Third-party, certified applications (from AppSource) will also follow the same release cycle as Microsoft. If you have customisations, or custom Extensions and integrations, these sit outside the core Business Central application and do not get updated by the Microsoft update. 

These releases are very different in nature to the upgrades you would be used to on your on-premises applications. They don’t require the traditional ‘big’ upgrade projects that demand significant investment in time, money, and change management. While they don’t require large effort and cost, they each need due attention. After all, Microsoft are updating the production environment of a business-critical system. Best practice needs to be applied, as allowing the updates to ‘just happen’ is not appropriate.