Dynamics 365 Business Central in the supply industry.

Success story:

The company Georg Ackermann GmbH from Wiesenbronn is an innovative supplier for areas such as interior, store fitting, exhibition stand construction, architecture and formwork construction. With its approximately 100 employees, the company develops unique and original solutions with the help of CNC and laser technology. The finished solutions range, for example, from reception counters and exhibition stands to architectural models for concert halls.

Employees

Location

Challenges

Partner

„At that time, we switched from an industry solution to Dynamics NAV 2009 with another IT service company. Due to the insufficient support and lack of knowledge of our former IT service company, we decided to hire an employee to take care of the support and development of the system internally.

Unfortunately, we quickly realized that one person alone could not meet the requirements, neither in terms of time nor in terms of technical know-how. This person could not comprehensively handle the further development of the ERP solution in accordance with our wishes without regular training, for which, however, there was no time. Thus, a change to a Dynamics NAV partner, who supports us holistically and has the necessary competence, was inevitable for us.“

Processes and software

„From a technical point of view, our challenges lie in the fact that our sales procedure is special and this cannot be represented in the system standard of the ERP solution alone. To date, our individual processes have been implemented in part incorrectly or in a way that could be improved by the previous partner and our employee. Thus, our initial requirement for a future partner was to optimize this.

Later, further customization requests for the ERP system arose, which were to further streamline and digitize our processes piece by piece.“

Challenges at a glance:

Switching to a reliable, competent Dynamics NAV partner who can optimize the existing ERP system.
Optimization of our system to a future-proof solution that can map the digital transformation and internal development of the company
Digital mapping of individual processes (e.g. sales process, production data acquisition, project evaluation)

Goal

„Our initial goal was to find a reliable and competent partner who would continue on the path of digital transformation together with us. A personal contact person was very important to us.

We also wanted to continuously make our processes more efficient – with the help of Dynamics NAV. Because our processes are constantly evolving, we needed a flexible, adaptable ERP system.“

Manfred Weid, Authorized representative and General technical manager, Georg Ackermann GmbH

„I can get a superior software anywhere. What’s crucial is a custom-fit consulting or support service from a reliable partner. With anaptis, we have gained an extremely reliable partner who helps us to streamline and simplify our processes. Today, we work with modern and user-friendly technologies.“

Partner search

„We began our search for a versatile IT services company that had an understanding and expertise of our specific processes and could efficiently map them into our ERP system.

After our previous experience, it was important for us to have a permanent contact person who knows our company well and can quickly understand our requirements.

On the recommendation of our hardware service provider, we became aware of anaptis (at that time still infosim). We immediately felt that we were in good hands there, as there was a good human fit right from the start. In addition, the employees proved to be very competent.“

Implementation

Customization

„Our ERP solution Dynamics NAV 2009, with which we switched to anaptis in 2013, was already partially individualized, but needed to be revised. The anaptis team made a number of adjustments for us, from some simple digitization processes to the individual mapping of our manufacturing operations to a web store connection. The most important customizations included project evaluation, a store floor data collection module and a comprehensive web application.“

Project analysis

„Unfortunately, the sales process in the standard ERP solution was not suitable for us, as we have to take into account a great many special features (e.g. cancellations for incorrect purchases, credit notes). Therefore, the project module of Dynamics NAV was adapted in such a way that it now represents our business in detail. The focus here is on project evaluation.

The adaptation enables us to provide the customer with an early estimate of the resulting effort and the current project status at any time. Updates are carried out automatically overnight. In addition, manual updates are possible during the day.

We can also make very differentiated evaluations (e.g. according to machine hours/employee hours/material) and view them from different angles (e.g. project/project manager/debitor). Based on this, we can now control project implementation much better.“
Production data acquisition
„We used to work with a ready-made industry PDA module. Basically, however, this did not suit us at all. The handling and the design could not prove themselves in everyday use. That’s why we worked with anaptis to develop our own PDC solution that precisely reflects our requirements.

We can now map the following actions in it:
- Coming
- Going
- For which project am I working?
- For which project have I used materials?
In addition, a logical workflow has been established, which includes the dimensions “employee” and “action”. Inconsistencies in the processes and incorrect bookings are immediately apparent and can be easily corrected. We also benefit from practical statistics (e.g. How long is someone present? How many projects did the person work on today and for how long?).“
Web application
„We are constantly striving to make our processes more efficient. Now we benefit from a web application that has grown over time and can be accessed by all employees. It now has many functionalities that contribute to visualization and transparency as well as to employee information. We have up-to-date data in it that is automatically synchronized and reduce a lot of paper in the process. Functions or components of the web applications include the following:
- Workflow planning
- Resource planning
- Birthday list
- First aid list
- Employee extension-number list
- Order work clothes
- Food order
- Ackermann Wiki
What’s also very practical for us is that the PDA module is integrated into the web application.”

Upgrade from Dynamics NAV 2009 to Business Central

„Since not only our company but also Microsoft’s software is continuously evolving, it was time for an upgrade from Dynamics NAV 2009 to Dynamics 365 Business Central. The upgrade was mainly for technical reasons, as the technical basis of the ERP software has changed. The longer we would have delayed the upgrade, the more costly it would have been. It also gave us the opportunity to check outdated master data and functions and only bring the data into the new system that was really relevant to our business.“

Implementation and Go-Live

„The implementation of Dynamics 365 Business Central ran very agilely as requested. Based on our experience with previous ERP partners, it was important to us that the process was very transparent. anaptis was very accommodating in that we successively worked through requirement after requirement together. The process was structured as follows:

Discussion of a requirement
Definition of a requirement
Creation of a prototype
Discussion of the prototype
Optimization of the prototype

This approach meant that we knew the status of the development at all times and had the opportunity to identify at an early stage whether requirements were not yet 100% suitable. On the one hand, this increased the coordination effort. On the other hand, project costs were reduced because no incorrect adjustments could occur.

The changeover then took place in the middle of the fiscal year and during the ongoing Corona pandemic, so that it ran remotely. Despite the circumstances, the go-live went well. Minor discrepancies such as missing table entries were quickly resolved, and we were able to rely on multiple staff members to be available during the process. In summary, we managed the transition very well together.“

Change management

„In terms of change management, we involved our key users as well as assigning many employees to continuously test the functions.

We also produced videos internally to keep our team informed and involved. This worked well and was sufficient, as the switch to Dynamics 365 Business Central was not such a big change for our employees. Working with Dynamics NAV had already been familiar for years and we adopted most of the individual functionalities, so it was mainly the visual appearance that changed. As a result, the need for training was comparatively low.“

Result

„What convinced us about our predecessor Dynamics NAV 2009 back then was that, compared to an industry solution, it was very flexible, versatile, but also very open to customization of all kinds. This has not changed with the switch to Dynamics 365 Business Central. With the system, we have a comprehensive product that is used in a wide variety of industries and leaves nothing to be desired, as it can grow with our company. We can map our processes well by combining the system standard with individual adjustments.

What also helps us a lot in our everyday work is that the data from the system is very reliable. This gives us a good basis for costing and controlling.

But what is much more important is the support we get from anaptis as an ERP partner. Because we could also buy the software from X other providers. The personal contact with the anaptis team, especially with our direct contact person, convinces us completely. The project team knows our system as well as our processes. Because of the versatility and certainly because anaptis has an objective view of our processes, we have already been able to implement many fast, reduced, practical and economical solutions. This is a real pleasure.“

Improvement at a glance:

Significantly faster and more efficient processes (time savings)
Trusting, personal cooperation with the contact person and the project team
Clarity (e.g. project evaluation, employee times)
comfortable and simple project evaluation
user-friendly and logically structured PDA module (especially compared to the predecessor module)
Securing of a new ERP version

Products

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central is the ERP solution for connecting all your departments.

Business Central in the supply industry:

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