Microsoft launches new application to support small businesses in Kenya, Africa

Microsoft has unveiled a new cloud-based business management solution to help small and medium-sized businesses in Kenya and Africa at large to streamline their operations.

Dynamics 365 Business Central will support the small and medium-sized businesses to connect their financials, sales, service, and operations to streamline business processes and improve customer interactions.

“With digital transformation now a necessity, small and medium-sized businesses are seeking cost-effective, streamlined systems that will make their transition seamless,” said Maher Al-Khaiyat, Microsoft’s regional business applications director.

Using the new solution, Al-Khaiyat noted that efficiency will be boosted through automated tasks and workflows — all from within familiar office tools such as Outlook, Word, and Excel.

“What businesses get is an end-to-end view of their operations, with built-in intelligence when and where they need it,” he added.

Al-Khaiyat revealed that the new solution will launch in Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Lebanon over this month.

The regional director further pointed out that the application is easy to tailor and extend to meet unique business or industry-specific needs.

“By putting flexibility at the core of your business, Dynamics 365 Business Central enables you to start quickly, grow at your own pace, and adapt in real time, making it the ideal solution for SMBs,” he noted.

SMBs account for over 90% of all businesses in the target regions and the new solution seeks to empower them to accelerate the digital transformation of their own business processes.

“SMBs can bring people, processes, and data together to manage their business end-to-end, instead of juggling standalone systems that disrupt business flow.

“With previously disconnected systems now brought together, tasks like connecting workflows across sales and accounting to automatically track cash flow are made effortless,” expounded Al-Khaiyat adding that the new innovation is easy to integrate with applications such as payroll, banking apps, with the same consistent and secure experience across devices, from laptops to phones, no matter where teams are accessing the application from.

Full Office 365 integration means teams can use familiar tools to work together and connect with colleagues and customers, whether creating professional-looking business documents in Microsoft Word templates, or exporting and updating data in Microsoft Excel.