Why Falling Behind on Technology Is Costly for Leasing Companies 

Key Takeaways

• Dynamics AX is becoming increasingly expensive and risky for leasing companies due to rising maintenance costs and lack of updates.

• Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management replaces disruptive upgrades with predictable, cloud-based updates.

• Leasing organisations benefit from improved asset visibility, automated billing, and scalable multi-entity operations.

• AX’s end of lifecycle creates security and regulatory risks when handling sensitive asset, contract, and financial data.

• A fixed-price AX upgrade provides leasing companies with cost certainty and reduced implementation risk.

Traditionally, the downside of implementing technology was that it was already on its way to being outdated… at least, it used to be. 

For leasing companies, where asset utilisation, contract accuracy, and financial control are essential, outdated systems create more than inconvenience – they create operational and commercial risk. Since Dynamics 365 FSCM was released, cloud infrastructure has allowed updates to be adopted consistently throughout multiple rollouts through the year, including major functionality changes every six months and minor patches available more frequently. 

Dynamics AX as an ERP for leasing organisations was perfectly positioned in the market, allowing companies to manage assets, contracts, billing, and financials while extending their investments and linking systems together. However, like most systems pre‑2016, it required large upgrades every few years to add new functionality, creating disruption, downtime, and additional cost. 

Fortunately, there is good news if you are still on AX – you only go through one of these large upgrades one more time. Once on the Dynamics 365 platform, updates are far more manageable, lower cost, and provide quick return on investment as you constantly benefit from Microsoft’s investment in increased functionality. 

Leasing companies that are still looking to upgrade can now take advantage of Mercurius IT’s fixed‑price upgrades, something we have been offering for over 10 years and proven to give commercial certainty and remove risk while upgrading, improving speed of implementation, and providing a focused plan for rolling out globally. 

While many leasing organisations may think that it’s just not worth the cost to move over to Dynamics 365 FSCM from AX, there are a few key themes we always work through with our customers to ensure they are making the correct operational decisions. 

Cost of upgrading and licensing versus increasing maintenance costs

While we understand there is still a significant investment required, AX will only continue to become more expensive to maintain over the next few years as Microsoft continues to sunset the AX product. For leasing companies, this also means rising costs to maintain integrations, customisations, and contract‑related processes that newer systems handle natively. 

Risk of security breach

AX versions have now hit the end of the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, which means that businesses are no longer entitled to any updates, security patches, or enhancements to the solution. Partners can provide some support for issues, however the risk of revenue loss, regulatory exposure, or significant cost to rectify security issues could have been better invested into a new solution, especially when handling sensitive customer, asset, and financial data. 

Operational automation efficiency of new functionality

AI has been the buzzword of the past few years, but the reality is that leasing companies on newer versions of Dynamics can utilise and explore how this technology can improve their operations. From automated billing and renewals to predictive asset utilisation and maintenance forecasting, organisations can take advantage of the additional functionality that will be added in the years to come.

Unable to fulfil growth plans

With no new functionality coming to AX, onboarding any new entities, asset classes, or regions can be troublesome. There are fewer organisations around that can and will assist with this work, and outdated functions may hinder expansion into new markets or integration with modern leasing platforms and asset‑tracking technologies. 

Falling further behind the competition who can leverage new technology

Organisations using newer technologies will have a significant advantage over those who don’t. The ability to streamline contract management, automate billing, improve asset visibility, and utilise staff more efficiently — shifting them away from manual admin and toward revenue‑generating activities — creates a competitive edge that AX simply cannot match. 

At Mercurius IT we offer a fixed‑price AX upgrade, allowing for a smooth and risk‑free transition to Dynamics Finance & Supply Chain Management. We offer a quick and free estimation that will allow you to understand what this may cost your organisation. 

Frequently Asked Questions