You may have heard the terms mainstream support and extended support in relation to your version of Dynamics GP, but do you know the difference between the two?
Companies that use Dynamics GP for payroll may be aware that the most significant difference between mainstream and extended support is that once mainstream support ends, they will no longer receive payroll and tax updates from Microsoft. If you are currently on Dynamics GP 2015, you should be talking to your IT department about upgrading GP in the next few months as this version is approaching the end of the mainstream support phase.
What else is impacted when mainstream support transitions to extended support? Let’s have a look at what both mainstream support and extended support entail and what changes after the transition.
Mainstream product support includes annual product enhancements (including the tax and payroll updates previously mentioned), security updates, product warranty claims, no charge incident reporting for known issues (including assistance in determining work arounds while resolving the issue) as well as accepting design or new feature requests. Once mainstream support ends, Microsoft will no longer provide enhancements to Dynamics GP, however security related updates will continue to be available, if you maintain a Microsoft support annual plan. Once extended support ends, security updates and patches will no longer be available for that version of Dynamics GP.
Below is a table of what versions of Dynamics GP are on mainstream and extended support, as well as the dates mainstream and extended support expire.
If you have any questions about your current version of Dynamics GP, or if you are considering an upgrade at this time, please do not hesitate to contact us.