What’s new in Business Central? How is AI changing day-to-day work in ERP? And what really determines the success of an IT project? Directions EMEA, Europe’s largest Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central community conference, is taking place in Paris from October 27 to 29. Four experts from oneDynamics are attending, and in this post, we’ll be sharing their insights as they come in.

OCTOBER 27

"Every Meaningful Future is Negotiated" – Two Perspectives from a Single Session

Barbara Najowicz, our Service Manager, and Denis Brzeziński attended Ugne Fink’s session, “Every Meaningful Future is Negotiated… But Do You Know How?” With all the talk about AI and rapid technological change, it’s easy to focus solely on algorithms. Success, however, still hinges on relationships, trust, and communication, and each of them took away something different from the session.

Project Perspective: Barbara Najowicz

Every project brings together clients, consultants, developers, and business stakeholders, each of whom has different priorities, expectations, and constraints. So the biggest challenge is often not the technical solution itself or the latest AI tool, but rather building consensus and getting everyone to move in the same direction. Basia selected four principles from the session that we reflect in our daily approach to Service Management:

• First, reach an agreement. It’s worth discussing any differences and aligning expectations before assumptions lead to friction.
• Preserving value. When managing scope and resources, compromises should be clear and transparent.
• The courage to have difficult conversations. It’s important to approach changes in scope and shifting deadlines with clarity and confidence.
• People come first. Technology opens up possibilities, but it is people and relationships that chart the course forward.

Sales Outlook: Denis Brzeziński

We don’t like negotiating, yet we negotiate practically all the time—before signing a contract and when setting a price, but also long after the contract is signed, when we discuss the scope, service, or terms of collaboration with a client. Denis takes away three takeaways from the session:

• Tension is a good thing. A little tension in a conversation isn't a bad thing.
• 80% preparation, 20% improvisation.
• A good result shouldn't mean a bad relationship.

In long-term business, it's not about winning against the client. It's about working out a solution and still wanting to work together the next day.

We are entering the era of the AI worker

The first key takeaway Denis Brzeziński shares from Paris: AI is no longer just an add-on to the system; it has become a partner in day-to-day work.

Business Central shouldn’t require users to make a dozen or so clicks, re-enter data, or perform repetitive tasks. If AI can do that work—and do it many times faster—then that’s exactly what it should be tasked with. People can then focus on decisions, customers, and actions that truly matter to the business.

As Denis puts it, the point isn't to use AI to click faster in the ERP system. The point is that we don't have to click where AI can do the work for us.

We're here

Łukasz Bratko, Andrzej Siwienki, Barbara Najowicz, and Denis Brzeziński have already taken their seats in the main hall at Directions EMEA. Directions is a conference where the Business Central partner community from across Europe gathers each year to see which direction the system is heading.

Over the next few days, our team will be keeping an eye on the latest developments in Business Central, AI, and Copilot, and assessing which of these features could be genuinely useful to our clients. We’ll be posting our most interesting findings here as we go.