Dynamics 365 Business Central for watchmakers.

Success Story:

The Münster-based company Meistersinger has been manufacturing mechanical wristwatches since 2001. What makes them special is that only a single hand tells the time. Founder Manfred Brassler entered the technical and cultural tradition of early watchmaking with this feature.

We upgraded the company from Dynamics NAV 2009 to Dynamics 365 Business Central, thereby helping to significantly improve business management, product development and sales in particular.

Initial situation

“Before we started looking for a new ERP solution and a new partner company, we were working with Dynamics NAV 2009. Our partner at the time did very extensive customizations and individual programming, so we had difficulty upgrading to a newer version.

However, this did not change the fact that our system was now outdated and could no longer represent our daily business realistically.

This includes, for example, the area of reporting. It is of interest to us to know how often which variant combinations (case and bracelet) are sold. Incoming orders by country are also important. In addition, our service processes were still mostly manual. For example, we still created cost estimates by hand in Word and emailed them. In addition, due to our industry, we have a situation where customers buy watches from one jeweler and take them to another jeweler for repair. Until now, the watches sold were not managed as assignable items with serial numbers, so that if a watch went into repair, the history (e.g. components, delivery date) could not be assigned and new service items had to be created in the system.

So we started looking for a partner company that would follow the Dynamics NAV system standard and would upgrade to a system that was close to the standard.

In doing so, it was important to us that our individual requirements were only realized through minimal adjustments.”

Challenges at a glance

Outdated and highly individualized industry solution (difficulties during upgrade)
Few evaluation options (e.g., variant combinations sold – also broken down by country)
Manual service processes (e.g. sending cost estimates)
Lack of assignability of sold watches (because no management in the system based on unique serial numbers)

Objective

“Our goal was to upgrade to a system that is close to the standard, while also maintaining our future update capability. In the course of this, we wanted to automate our service processes, expand our reporting and make our articles assignable in the system.“

Partner search

“We started looking for a suitable local partner company and came across anaptis. An initial conversation immediately gave us a very good gut feeling. We had (and still have) the impression of being advised very fairly and openly. We also liked the size and structure of anaptis’ permanent teams.

We were also immediately impressed by our future ERP solution Dynamics 365 Business Central. At this point, especially the modern and self-explanatory menu navigation (incl. help texts), the flexibility of the system as well as the batch functions. In the end, we decided to work with anaptis and upgrade to Dynamics 365 Business Central.“

Nico Rensing, Head of Order Processing and Logistics, Purchasing

“Upgrading to Dynamics 365 Business Central and working with anaptis takes our business management, product development, and sales to a new level. Our after sales service and customer focus has and will improve tremendously with Dynamics 365 Business Central.”

Implementation

“The project was implemented in individual sprints with regular review dates. In the process, a lot of legacy data had to be transferred in order to fully track past service orders. This was implemented professionally. We involved our employees at an early stage. Due to the size of our company, it was possible for all employees to be present at the first analysis workshop with our project manager and to contribute their needs.

During the implementation, we particularly liked the fast and flexible assistance provided by our project manager. He understood our work processes beyond the software and questioned them and made suggestions for improvement.

We liked this neutral vision very much and benefited from it a lot. His quick grasp allowed him to quickly see through our needs and always provide proactive assistance with the software setup. Dynamics 365 Business Central was thus adapted to our needs – but we also questioned and adapted our processes in positive ways at certain points.”

Result

“By the use of anaptis Configuration app, we can now configure variants easily. Directly from the sales line, we can now create several variants with different parts lists for an article. By adding Microsoft Power BI, our evaluation requirements were also solved. Minimal adjustments were made so that we now finally have the possibility to see which variant combinations have achieved certain sales/turnover in certain countries.

Our individual requirements were realized through minor customizations. We were finally able to partially automate our service processes with Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Today, cost estimates are automatically sent by mail directly from the system. In addition, the watches we sell (i.e. combinations of case and bracelet) are finally managed as unique serial items that can be distinguished and identified from one another by means of a serial number. Now, when customers take their watches to other jewelers for repair, they still know which watch it is (including history, components, date of delivery). In addition, we have generally introduced a history or archive for repairs.

We are already planning further adjustments together with our project manager (e.g. linking the ERP system to an online store or introducing a digital warranty card for our watches).”

Improvements at a glance

Upgrade to a near-standard system with assurance of future upgradeability
Gaining a long-term contact at anaptis who knows us well and provides proactive advice
Improving business management through detailed reporting
Improving service orientation and customer satisfaction through automated service processes and better data quality
Improving employee satisfaction through a modern, scalable ERP solution

Products

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central is the ERP solution for linking your business units.

Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is the business intelligence tool from Microsoft that lets you visualize your data.

anaptis Configuration

Our app anaptis Configuration is the tool for simple variant configuration.

Dynamics 365 Business Central for Watchmakers:

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