A large, heavy machinery Group which represents premium global brands, employing more than 950 staff at 50 sites across Australia and New Zealand, approached DXC Technology to discuss their business transformation. Its businesses include the sales and support franchise for heavy machinery, national spare parts distribution, finance, and transport and logistics support solutions.
“The Group chose DXC to be our partner because they aligned with our values. We ran an extremely agile project and DXC was able to provide quality consultants, best practice thinking and deep solution knowledge to challenge us on our processes.”
Chief digital officer, the Group
Challenge
Six months prior to go-live, the Group committed to a new strategic plan. The Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Group commented, “a key focus of our new plan was to inspire our customers with transformational solutions that shape the future.” The Chief digital officer (CDO) at the Group said, “We knew our customer experience wasn’t always optimised because of how long it could take to complete tasks. Our CEO drove a digital transformation initiative to improve visibility to critical business information and make many of our older processes either redundant, or more efficient.”
As the Group started to implement the strategic plan, it emerged that the incumbent ERP system posed such significant technological challenges that it would prevent the Group from delivering their organisational vision.
In place for five years, the existing ERP system had failed to deliver the operational improvements originally expected. With extensive customisations to the core system, it was costly to run, difficult to manage and impossible to scale. Advancements in cloud solution delivery meant the system would need expensive, continuous development to integrate with new systems and processes. Nor was it suitable for deployment outside New Zealand.
“Replacing the existing ERP system became an essential organisational imperative. Given the strategic importance of the new system, the proposed go-live date was scheduled with an aggressive five-month deadline,” said the CDO.
Solution
Partnering with the DXC Practice for Microsoft, the Group selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 to replace the existing ERP system. As a cloud-based solution, Microsoft Dynamics 365 was assessed as the lowest risk, best fit platform by the Group because it offered a close core match between the old and new systems, which allowed for rapid deployment and scalability.
“The Group chose DXC to be our partner because they aligned with our values. We ran an extremely agile project and DXC was able to provide quality consultants, best practice thinking and deep solution knowledge to challenge us on our processes,” said the CDO.
Working with DXC, the Group prioritised delivery of required functionality using Microsoft’s comprehensive out-of-the-box capabilities. Working in small teams, the Group rapidly identified the necessary functionality to go-live and meet the aggressive timeline. Together, DXC and the Group identified 76 functionality gaps, which were systematically and collaboratively reduced to 14 gaps for launch. Prioritisation to maximise the use of the standard version of Microsoft Dynamics 365, and the expertise of the DXC team, helped accelerate the Group’s transformation.
“The Microsoft solution also supports our future digital transformation, innovation and growth plans. Our next step is to do more with customer engagement, Power BI is looking like a real game changer for delivering reporting on performance and insights to the business.”
Chief digital officer, the Group
Projected outcome and benefits
The new system went live on schedule, 114 days after project launch. The immediate success of go-live was felt on day one because the system was faster than the previous system. Within days of the rollout, the Group saw rapid, positive improvements to customer experience. The team had better customer interactions, could serve customers faster and were able to locate stock more effectively.
Customer orders took four steps instead of 20 steps. In the first week a report arrived from the warehouse showing they were able to receipt products in 25 minutes. Previously the warehouse processes took an hour to receipt a product.
“The Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution architecture delivered a faster, less complex operating environment for customers and Group team members, which helped improve the customer experience almost immediately. The Microsoft solution also supports our future digital transformation, innovation, and growth plans. Our next step is to do more with customer engagement, Power BI is looking like a real game changer for delivering reporting on performance and insights to the business.
“With Dynamics 365 in the cloud we did an upgrade only three weeks after go-live, which brought new functionality immediately. This puts IT into a regular rhythm, providing a regular cadence of having new functionality and features that we can take back to the business to continue to deliver value,” said the CDO.
The new solution is on track to deliver many other system and performance benefits outlined in the strategy, including a Human Resources Information System (HRIS), Demand Forecasting, Warehouse Management (WMS), Business Intelligence (BI), Field Service applications and a modern Point of Sale (POS) system.
“The ideal partner for a Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation is a team with profound knowledge of, and experience with, deploying the software. They’ll have a solid understanding of your industry, informed perspectives, and the skills and to challenge your existing processes. They’ll bring their own IP to accelerate transformation and reduce risk and will have exceptional project management skills.”
Chief digital officer, the Group
Working with DXC Technology
The Group CEO said, “We had a hard deadline to bring this strategically important project online. We have a large, diverse, and complex business so we needed a partner with exceptional problem-solving skills and an immaculate track record in rolling out Microsoft Dynamics 365 for larger businesses. We also needed a partner with an agile mindset to design a low friction implementation that was willing and able to meet a challenging deadline. DXC was a very comfortable fit.”
Why DXC for Microsoft Business Applications 365?
The DXC Practice for Microsoft helps enterprise and mid-market companies accelerate digital transformation, solve business challenges, and deliver intelligent solutions that make a difference for clients, employees and partners. We believe in delivering expertise, project transparency and excellent customer service in every engagement.
With team members in North America, EMEA, Asia and APAC, DXC is uniquely positioned to deliver Microsoft Dynamics 365, ERP, CRM, business process, analytics, and collaboration solutions to clients across the globe. The largest independent Microsoft Dynamics partner in the world, DXC serves more than 4,000 clients across multiple industries. The practice delivers services and solutions that positively impact our world today and into the future.