Many organizations all around the world rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Brightpearl to help them with different parts of their business, particularly with financial, human resource, and supply chain management.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP is a leading ERP solution that brings a suite of applications together to run finances, sales, and operations. Brightpearl is an all-in-one ERP solution that improves order processing efficiency by 70% and reduces human error by 65%.

We’ll compare some of the main features of Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Brightpearl to help you decide whether one of these ERP solutions is the right choice for your business. If you want to broaden your search, you can also use our Product Selection Tool. You will get a free list of ERP solutions you can trust.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP vs. Brightpearl: An overview

The Microsoft Dynamics ERP suite is made up of four modules: Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, and Microsoft Dynamics AX, also known as the Microsoft Dynamics 365. This top ERP has features for automation, sales, purchasing, operations, accounting, stock management, finance, and operations. It can handle the needs of any business size and is available at average prices.

Brightpearl is an omni-channel ERP designed specifically for retail business models. It was built to reliably handle peak trading and provide real-time trading insights. Brightpearl has features for sales, order fulfillment, inventory management, accounting, reporting and planning, warehouse management, and supply replenishment. This ERP is suitable for any business size. It offers average pricing.

Features comparison

Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Brightpearl both have features for customer relationship management, finance, and supply chain management.

Customer relationship management

With Microsoft Dynamics ERP’s customer relationship management feature, companies can get full audience insight through the unification of the transactional, behavioral, and demographic data from customers. This ERP has an engagement insights feature that captures signals from websites, mobile apps, and connected products to enrich customer profiles. The system can also bring in direct customer feedback from survey data.

Brightpearl provides top-notch customer relationship management capability by giving businesses access to the customers’ full interaction history and personalizing the marketing communication with product-interest tagging. Users can set automated reminders to contact customers or prospects, too. Brightpearl also provides businesses the access to full customer audit trail and previous order history so that they can build better and stronger relationships with customers.

Finance

Businesses can automate and modernize their global financial operations with Microsoft Dynamics ERP’s finance feature. Companies can monitor cash flow in real time, predict outcomes, and make data-driven decisions to drive agility and business growth. Users can identify trends using the system’s customizable cash flow-forecasting solution. Businesses can customize documents such as invoices and statements as well. Additionally, Microsoft Dynamics ERP comes with financial process automation, budget control, financial planning, and analysis capabilities.

Brightpearl’s integrated finance feature is built specifically for retail and wholesale businesses. The software provides real-time insight into the profitability and costs across all business channels. Brightpearl has an integrated landed costs feature that ensures accurate profit analysis and financial reporting. This ERP offers real-time Profit and Loss (P&L) and balance sheets, giving users invaluable insight into every aspect of their business’s finances. The system has a multi-currency accounting capability that enables businesses to truly open up to international trade. Brightpearl has a bank reconciliation functionality and bank activity reporting feature to make sure that transactions in the accounting system match the bank statements.

Supply chain management

Microsoft Dynamics ERP ensures effective supply chain management by rightsizing product levels based on changing customer demand and capacity constraints. The software offers near real-time in-memory services, making sure that the right inventory is in the right place at the right time. Users can automate and streamline production scheduling and resource allocation. They can also enhance the visibility of inventory and warehouse operations with warehouse-process heatmaps and workflows that come with the software. Businesses can improve delivery by using predictive analytics to optimize and automate inventory, warehousing, fulfillment, material sourcing, and supply chain logistics.

Brightpearl offers a centralized supplier management system that allows businesses to see a complete audit log of their supplier contact records — from emails to call notes — to keep track of their latest communication, orders, or due payments and other obligations. Companies can set purchase quantities and inventory levels and make intelligent adjustments using simple and transparent low inventory reports. Brightpearl has a low inventory reporting feature that lets users get automatic insight into products that are hitting low inventory threshold. Businesses will know the true cost of the products and keep tabs on the margins for both domestic and international sales by tracking all of their landed costs per product, without missing freight charges, import duty, insurance, tariffs, and taxes.

Integrations

Microsoft Dynamics ERP integrates with third-party applications for time and attendance, reporting, eCommerce, procurement, and workforce management:

  • TimeClock Plus
  • SutiExpense
  • Miva
  • Precoro
  • Synerion

Brightpearl has integrations with platforms for eCommerce, marketing automation, accounting, customer journey management, and analytics:

  • PayPal
  • Mailchimp
  • QuickBooks Online
  • Magento Commerce
  • Glew

The better ERP software for your business

Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Brightpearl have robust capabilities to support the various needs of a business. However, each software has its strengths and weaknesses that you might want to consider in selecting the better ERP for your business.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP is a comprehensive software that can meet the needs of virtually any business from any industry. The drawback of Microsoft Dynamics ERP is its steep learning curve. Beginners might take a while to learn how to use this ERP software.

Brightpearl is much easier to learn than Microsoft Dynamics ERP; but since this ERP was designed for businesses in the retail industry, it might not be the best choice for businesses or organizations from other sectors.

There are plenty of other ERP solutions worth considering for your business. Use our Product Selection Tool to learn more about them.