Article source: Microsoft

Belgotex, a South African carpet manufacturer with global operations, faced inefficiencies due to outdated and disparate systems. Critical data was scattered and departments were disconnected, hindering informed decision-making.

Belgotex decided to implement Dynamics 365 along with Power Apps, Power Pages, Power BI, and Microsoft Fabric. This comprehensive rollout unified operations and empowered staff to overcome previous system limitations.

Belgotex gained visibility into its operations, improved collaboration between departments, and became a truly data-driven organization. Automation reduced manual tasks, a new portal enhanced customer engagement, and teams coalesced around common goals, boosting efficiency and confidence in decision-making.

Belgotex is a family-owned business celebrating 40 years of manufacturing in South Africa. It designs, manufactures, and distributes high-quality broadloom and modular carpets, offering solutions to the commercial market. With offerings extending to Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, India, Europe, and Brazil, the company takes pride in bringing Africa to the world. “Our aspiration is to continue delivering high-quality products while innovating in our approach to sustainability, transport, and technology,” shares Evan Lockhart-Barker, Chief Executive Officer at Belgotex. “We invest heavily in our people and how they function within the company.” In terms of sustainability, Belgotex is one of the first factories in the southern hemisphere to achieve a six-star Green Star manufacturing rating. It has also signed up for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Science-Based Targets initiative. In contrast to its competitors, Belgotex produces a wide range of products. This diversity adds complexity to its operations. “Our innovation cycle also has to be much more rigorous and frequent than a factory that only produces one type of product,” adds Lockhart-Barker.

Disparate data and disconnected departments

Managing this level of intricacy was not without its challenges, as Belgotex’s manufacturing and accounting systems operated in silos. “With our disparate, old-school systems and manual processes, departments couldn’t collaborate effectively, and our teams couldn’t make sense of our data,” recalls Lockhart-Barker. “There were numerous features typically expected in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that we were missing.”

A big bang approach to digital transformation

Belgotex decided to implement the entire suite of Dynamics 365 applications and integrate it with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. “We took the big bang approach and implemented Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management all at once,” recalls Ricardo Springolo, Chief Information Officer at Belgotex. “We got the whole platform ready, turned the old system off over the weekend, and Dynamics 365 came online at the start of the new week.” Later, the company complemented these solutions with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Sales, Power Apps, Power Pages, Power BI, and Microsoft Fabric.

We got the whole platform ready, turned the old system off over the weekend, and Dynamics 365 came online at the start of the new week.

Ricardo Springolo, Chief Information Officer, Belgotex

Belgotex made a strategic decision to avoid excessive customization. “With our legacy system, we’ve learned that more customization led to more problems down the road. Instead, we followed best practices and adapted our processes to Microsoft products, which came really well-equipped out of the box,” explains Lockhart-Barker.

To ensure successful adoption, Belgotex focused on empowering its staff. The company selected champions—technical, system-oriented employees—to lead the way. Belgotex conducted multiple iterations of user acceptance testing, held town hall events, and provided extensive training.
The initial rollout was challenging, lasting around three months. However, the team rallied together. “Such challenges are typical for a project of this magnitude. What was phenomenal was that, with the support of DAC Systems, people came together to solve problems on a daily and weekly basis,” reflects Lockhart-Barker.

Integrated operations fed by improved insights

With Dynamics 365 in place, Belgotex gained unprecedented visibility across its complex manufacturing processes. “The reports and visibility we now have for each individual step in the carpet manufacturing process are phenomenal. We can accurately track the production in kilograms or square meters,” explains Lockhart-Barker. “This visibility also helps steer high-level decisions. With Dynamics 365, Belgotex has its finger firmly on the market’s pulse, ready to respond in real-time. “For the first time, I can see a true connection between the order book, the sales team, and the factory. In my experience running other factories, this relationship between what’s going on in the market and what the factory needs to produce never existed,” remarks Lockhart-Barker. In the past, Belgotex’s Planning team didn’t have a clear idea of which products to produce or in what quantities, often leading to inefficiencies. “We could be producing many things but they were the wrong ones—wrong products, wrong colors,” explains Lockhart-Barker. “With Dynamics 365, we can understand where the demand is and make decisions based on what’s happening in real-time.”

With Dynamics 365, we can understand where the demand is and make decisions based on what’s happening in real-time.

Evan Lockhart-Barker, Chief Executive Officer, Belgotex

This visibility has also streamlined sales. “Before, the sales team couldn’t give customers accurate information about when their orders would be ready. Now, production can see what sales needs, and sales can see what production is doing—whether they’re on track or falling behind,” shares Springolo. “In the old days, factories made what they had materials for, and salespeople dealt with varied market demands. These two worlds never met. But with Dynamics 365, we have true integration, understanding what needs to be sold, and what needs to be produced.”

Overall, Belgotex has become a much more data-driven organization, and its people can trust the information they receive. “Before, in meetings, we would debate whether a number was right or not,” shares Springolo. “Now, we trust the data we see in Dynamics 365 and Power BI—we know we can verify the information if we need to.” The newfound trust in data has streamlined operations and inspired confidence in process improvements. “The data is much more granular now, and we can build reports from the bottom up. Since the system is so integrated, there’s always a way to link things together. We’ve been able to improve processes that we didn’t even realize had issues,” Springolo explains.

Streamlining operations with data and automation

Belgotex also took advantage of the many automation opportunities within Dynamics 365, extending it with the Power Platform. The time needed for financial reporting and month-end procedures has been reduced by five days. “We automated the generation of delivery notes which saves staff about an hour every day. This way, we can deliver our financial reporting pack with a click of a button. With a bank integration, we automatically get live exchange rates. Previously, someone had to manually enter exchange rates into the system daily. That’s 15 full days of work per year saved thanks to Dynamics 365,” highlights Springolo. “Finally, we have automated customer billing, saving us around three to four hours a day in processing time. This frees up the debtors’ team to do high-value work.”

Finally, we have automated customer billing, saving us around three to four hours a day in processing time. This frees up the debtors’ team to do high-value work.

Ricardo Springolo, Chief Information Officer, Belgotex

Enhanced customer relationships with data transparency

Using Dynamics 365, Belgotex not only transformed internal operations, but also significantly enhanced customer experience. It combined Dynamics 365, Power BI, and Power Pages to create a customer portal that empowers clients with self-service capabilities. “They can look at open sales orders, invoices, rebates, and track the resolution of any complaints or issues,” shares Springolo. Customers can also compare yearly data and better understand their own business. Lockhart-Barker adds, “Most of our clients were amazed. They hadn’t imagined having access to this level of information.“ The portal also alleviates pressure on Belgotex’s Customer Service team by empowering customers to track orders and resolve issues independently. “We have a very small Customer Service team. The customer portal allows our team to focus on order execution and management by reducing routine inquiries by about 20%,” explains Lockhart-Barker.

Belgotex’ field sales representatives have also benefited from access to live data on the customer portal, facilitating informed discussions with trade customers about revenue targets, service levels, and product offerings. “Instead of pulling out data from a report printed two days ago, sales representatives are sitting there looking at live data with the customer. That’s definitely impressed people,” Lockhart-Barker adds.

Cohesive growth with shared goals

Belgotex has reached its ultimate goal: Empowering its team to act in concert. “With Dynamics 365, it’s no longer about what’s good for a single department, but about what’s good for the business as a whole. For the first time in my career, I see the entire team working toward the same goal. The focus is now on monthly contribution and customer satisfaction, and everyone understands how we’ll achieve it. There’s constant dialogue, communication, and decision-making happening throughout the business without needing executive intervention,” shares Lockhart-Barker. “It feels good to see the business working like this.”

SoluGrowth, a leading South African business process solutions company with DAC Systems as specialist ERP implementation partner, has recently implemented the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Business Central) platform at the Food & Beverages Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FoodBev SETA).

The initial phase of the project implemented General Ledger, Budgeting, Journal Entry Process, Cash Management, Asset Management, Creditors/Debtors Management, Vendor Management, Contract Management, Purchasing Management, and Projects functionality as well as Reports. This enabled FoodBev SETA to enjoy a new more robust set of business management tools from the outset.

Subsequent to that, the project and technical teams of DAC Systems performed custom development of the following modules to comply with the business requirements for FoodBev:

• Levies and Grants module
• Purchase requisition module
• Enhancements to GL Budget module
• Enhancements to Projects Budget module
• Enhancements to procurement module
• Demand Management module
• BBBEE functionality
• Integration with National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD)

The cutover from the old to the new system was a seamless process that did not result in any downtime or business disruption.

The challenge

Like every other SETA, FoodBev uses a specialised Levies and Grants module in its ERP environment to collect the monthly skills development levies that all companies pay to the SA Revenue Services (SARS).

“This results in a significant amount of financial data that must be imported into an ERP system. In turn, specialised calculations must be done to ensure the levies and grants payments remain updated for a period that stretch back to 2000. Additionally, certain processes must be followed with levies and grants needing to be paid out four times per year to employers who qualify for mandatory grants. The system must perform automated calculations for grant payments. Given the sensitivity of the payments, there can be no errors,” says Laetitia Cassidy, Manager at SoluGrowth.

The solution

“SoluGrowth and DAC identified the best system that would meet all the needs of FoodBev and Business Central was the logical choice and ticked all the boxes. The system was rolled out at FoodBev to provide the organisation with a more effective way of integrating its data while accessing a custom-developed Levies and Grants module,” adds Cassidy.

It was important for FoodBev to ensure the necessary training for system users to become comfortable with the new environment.

“SoluGrowth follows a System Development Lifecycle Process (SDLC) model to work closely with a client to best determine their needs and make them an integral part of the process. DAC provided extensive functional and technical support to ensure that the project was a success. Together, we worked with the client, conducted extensive system user training, and helped to ensure that the company embraced the new environment,” she adds.

As the saying goes “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional” and in this case growth was the common goal and at SoluGrowth we pride ourselves in being a growth partner to our clients.

The benefits

Business Central introduced efficiencies into the systems process of FoodBev and especially the analytics and reporting features assists FoodBev in making decisions based on real-time access to business intelligence.

Using Business Central, FoodBev can easily scale to meet demand during peak data processing times such as when levies must be collected, and grants paid. Business Central also integrates into the existing Microsoft environment of FoodBev to maximise the existing investment the organisation has made in Office 365 and other applications.

The cloud-based architecture of Business Central includes disaster recovery as part of the service offering.

“The flexibility of using a solution like Business Central allows FoodBev to securely access data from the cloud using the latest technology that can scale according to virtually any use case. It also provides SoluGrowth with a solution that can easily be implemented at any other SETA to ensure accurate and timeous levies and rates pay outs,” says Cassidy.

The future

SoluGrowth and DAC Systems will continue to optimise the FoodBev solution in line with regulatory, reporting and process advancements.

“Microsoft platforms, like Business Central we implemented at FoodBev SETA, offer incredible flexibility and ease of customisation, allowing us to effectively cater to the unique requirements of each client. Our partnership with SoluGrowth and our expertise in Microsoft solutions have enabled us to design and implement systems that directly meet our clients’ needs, no matter how specialised they might be. This illustrates the power of Microsoft’s flexible platforms and our commitment to delivering tailored solutions that drive growth and operational efficiency,” says Tinus Botha, Programme Manager at DAC Systems.

About FoodBev SETA

The function of the FoodBev SETA is to promote, facilitate, and incentivise skills development in the Food and Beverage Manufacturing sector. FoodBev SETA is one of 21 SETAs across the economy mandated to put the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) into practice.

Business Central is a cloud-based, all-in-one business management solution which enables customers to replace their disparate applications into a single solution that manages all aspects of business including finances, operations, sales and customer service.

About DAC Systems

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Systems Integrator with more than two decades’ experience, DAC Systems specialises in successfully delivering business solutions. We deliver successful, multifaceted IT projects from conceptualisation through to implementation and support. DAC Systems operates with industry driven best practice principles in mind. We have the skills and experience to perform a main contractor role on projects.

We remain proactively at the forefront of the latest technology trends and innovations enabling customers to benefit from a wealth of experience across key industry sectors and organisations of any size. DAC Systems understands the value of investing in its people by continually training and upskilling them and working with likeminded partners in developing innovative Microsoft based solutions for the benefit of our customers.

Two Mountains, a South African group of companies operating in both the financial and burial services industries since 1999, has contracted Microsoft Gold Certified Systems Integrator DAC Systems to migrate the organisation to Office 365 as it was looking for a more cost-effective and integrated productivity suite that could also deliver telephony features.

“Our emails were hosted by a third-party provider that was unable to deliver on our growing capacity requirements. Furthermore, their email system did not have many of the features that have become commonplace today like a corporate global calendar and meeting scheduler,” says Lindani Ngema, CIO of Two Mountains.

Two Mountains has a national footprint spanning the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. It has 19 parlours and 64 satellite offices serving more than 1 500 employees. Just in the last year alone, Two Mountains opened nine parlours to cater for demand. But while not every employee requires Office 365, the organisation needed a solution that could enable better collaboration. This was especially important given how many of its sites are in rural areas and employees had to travel long distances for meetings.

“Added to this, the management of our software licences was chaotic to say the least. Our licensing model was not sufficient to deliver on our requirements. This resulted in Two Mountains soliciting proposals from various providers with DAC Systems being appointed to assist with the modernisation and automation of business processes,” adds Ngema.

Ngema says the reputation of DAC, combined with its extensive service offering at cost-effective rates and its Microsoft Gold Partner status made the service provider the logical choice.

“Their experience working in a variety of industries on large-scale projects gave us the confidence we required to partner with them on this project. Many of the other providers who submitted proposals simply did not have the skills or Microsoft partner status we were looking for,” says Ngema.

The Office 365 project commenced with an assessment of the existing environment and evaluating the merits between on-premises and cloud services. The decision was taken to migrate to Office 365 – or ‘to the cloud’ and procurement of the initial licenses and the deployment of Office 365 took place between June and November 2019.

Computer literacy and Office 365 training happened in parallel. Between December 2019 and January 2020, the planning for the Office 365 email migration from the third-party provider commenced. It took DAC just two weeks to complete the migration and implementation of the 300 mailboxes at the time. During the migration DAC, in conjunction with the Two Mountains team, trained each user on how to access and use Office 365. This was also supported by communications emailed to staff containing the necessary guidelines. The timing was fortuitous as all this was completed prior to the hard lockdown in South Africa that began in March 2020.

“Our employees already had time to become comfortable using the Microsoft Office 365 suite and Microsoft Teams. So, when the lockdown came, it was mostly business as usual. If we did not have these solutions in place, our organisation would have found itself in a very bad situation,” adds Ngema.

DAC continuingly reviews the Microsoft licensing of Two Mountains thereby ensuring an optimised solution resulting in significant cost savings. The Microsoft Teams installation has also been expanded to Microsoft Teams Business Voice as the new telephone system for Two Mountains. The objective being to have a universal telephone system across all the sites, including head office. All the new Two Mountains sites are using Teams Business Voice and benefiting from low callout rates and the capability of accessing the office number from any location thanks to the Teams application on mobile phones. The Microsoft 365 licences deliver feature-rich capabilities such as enterprise mobility and security. The multi-factor authentication of the Microsoft environment and hybrid Active Directory services enable better control of the end user environment which Two Mountains was looking for.

“Thanks to DAC, our environment is more stable than before, our employees have access to calendar and meeting functions, and there are no capacity issues on our emails. Using Teams has provided even more cost savings on the telephony side. The great work done by DAC has seen us partner with them long-term. We are looking at introducing more Microsoft solutions to improve our ecosystem,” says Ngema.

Two Mountains will be developing a detailed blueprint of its systems and planning the road ahead with DAC and Microsoft.

Updated: Jan 26 

South African insurer streamlines systems with Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, raising performance bar

The insurance market is fraught with challenges, brought on by digital disruption, climate change, and demographic transformations. To navigate securely across the sector’s shifting waters, industry leaders like Sasria SOC need a clear line of sight into its data and processes. In the move to streamline operations, gain business insight, and empower the workforce, the company partnered with DAC Systems and went live with Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP deployment. By simplifying customer engagements and reducing manual tasks, the solution freed up Sasria’s teams to perform more value-added work.

“Our transformation started in 2017, when we developed a strategic technology plan to enhance mobility and connectivity for both our staff and customers,” says Sam Nkosi, CIO at Sasria. One of the milestones along the insurer’s digital journey was deploying a single modernized platform to consolidate data from disparate systems, and applications.

“Among the systems to reconcile was an insurance management system linked to banks and insurers. Synchronizing information and getting a comprehensive view of these stakeholder requirements was a time-consuming process,” says Mandla Madi, Director at DAC Systems, the Microsoft Gold Certified Systems Integrator in charge of the implementation. “It would take up to three days for the information to work its way through the disparate environment and for analysis to be done.

Updated: Sep 2, 2019

Leading ICT solutions and services provider DAC Systems has transformed the SharePoint environment at its client Proconics, an established Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering focused project specialist, through the implementation of what is popularly known as the EDRMS onDemand approach.

Proconics was established in 1995 and has over two decades refined its business operation and used its experience with petrochemical industry giants like Sasol to streamline service delivery.

As a global company, with a footprint that covers South Africa, Australia and the Middle East, Proconics has depended extensively on cutting-edge technology infrastructure like SharePoint as the nucleus of its project management and service delivery strategy.

According to Robert Theron, Discipline Manager: Automation & IT at Proconics, the company’s SharePoint environment was not running as smoothly as it should.

“We had customised the creation of our project sites using scripts, but the process was long-winded and created multiple folders and content that was not always used. The amount of data the template created per project was also unnecessary,” said Theron.

Proconics was looking to partner with a service provider with the technical expertise, market experience and resources to assist in the management of content – specifically in terms of project documentation and the creation of project sites using out-of-the-box SharePoint features.

EDRMS onDemand

DAC Systems had the solution that ticked all the boxes for Proconics.

The Gauteng-based ICT solutions and services partner has moulded SharePoint’s Document and Records Management features to suit local conditions and empower organisations with the dynamics of Microsoft-technology driven project and process management.

DAC Systems’ EDRMS onDemand four-step approach entails:

1. Architecting the solution, followed by
2. Getting the content types loaded into the Content Type Hub, then
3. Assisting with Search and the use of Metadata Navigation and finally,
4. Providing Functional and Technical support

“Knowledge transfer is paramount to the DAC Systems approach, “says Regomoditswe Kgomongwe, Senior Technical Consultant from DAC Systems. “It is an ongoing process throughout execution of the project.”

Having brought DAC Systems on board, Proconics dedicated their staff to the project, availing themselves for full day workshops at a time, while knowledge sharing was being done.

They were taught how to set up and use all of the EDRMS components in SharePoint 2013 to ensure that all their document governance requirements and other document legal compliance required, were met.

DAC Systems technical staff were on hand and Proconics staff watched and learned as the environment was configured and deployed.

The last step was to get all their current and historic data across from their current environment. This was planned for a weekend with much anticipation by all +-200 Proconics Staff.

“From the start of the project, change management was implemented by the team. By the end of the project, the new environment had been architected to ensure scalability and growth, and the amount of folders and unnecessary content had dramatically decreased,” Theron added.

DAC Systems’ Kgomongwe has full confidence the solution has the capacity to make a short-and long-term impact on the success of Proconics’ operation.

“By following the EDRMS onDemand approach, the environment will cater for all Proconics needs and requirements for years to come,” says Kgomongwe.

ITWeb Industry Video: SharePoint – not just another ‘file share’ Chris Willemse – DAC Systems

DAC Systems, a Proudly South African national provider of turnkey solutions based on Microsoft products, has successfully integrated Nintex Workflow in order to address critical technical requirements at an established market leading financial and investment house.

The Company is a leading provider of Nintex Workflow®, Nintex Forms® and Nintex Workflow for Project Server®.

Nintex is the largest Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in the Microsoft SharePoint product space and recognised leader in workflow automation solutions using SharePoint as its core foundation.

Dac Systems is a valued added reseller and solution provider for Nintex solutions, and the preferred training provider for these products.

The financial and investment firm has capitalised on the partnership and integrated Nintex Workflow to leverage off the technology’s offer of immediate, automated workflow operation and the ability to scale quickly.

“As with all Nintex solutions, this offering is mobile, social and cloud-enabled,” says Aldo van Tonder, Solutions Executive at Dac Systems. “Nintex is all about facilitating workflow for everyone through the convergence of key features, functionality and services that address operational requirements in business.”

Van Tonder adds that the financial sector is one of the more active in terms of workflow solution adoption and application. “The foundation that SharePoint-based infrastructure provides gives users in this sector peace of mind… when you consider the dynamics of this sector, you automatically associate it with high data volumes and intricate processes and procedures which must be automated to reduce pressure on resources and ensure productivity and compliance.”

This is what has been achieved with the rollout of Nintex Workflow.

Executive management at the finance and investment house have confirmed that the solution has been successfully integrated, all requirements met and users are satisfied with the experience.

A leading multi-disciplinary multi-national project management house has invested in the expertise and technology on offer by DAC Systems, a Proudly South African national provider of turnkey solutions based on Microsoft product. The result has been an upgraded solution environment of core Microsoft software to bolster service delivery within Africa’s mining sector.

In order to sustain its leadership position in the provision of mining engineering services Dac Systems’ Client required the services of an experienced solutions provider to assist with the upgrade of its core operational and project management solution.

This solution is critical to the core value proposition of mission-critical project management of mine design, mineral processing plants and plant operations.

To meet its client’s requirements for a seamless, hassle-free and most cost effective upgrade of core technologies, including Nintex workflow solutions, Dac Systems re-architected and upgraded all major solution components of Nintex Workflow, Nintex Workflow for Project Server and Nintex Forms. All related Microsoft products including Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint was also upgraded.

The project also enabled multiple new mobile components and apps for the usage within the operations of the business.

In 2013 Dac Systems announced its intention to use its understanding of PPM (Project and Portfolio Management) and SharePoint market to strengthen local uptake of workflow and forms software from Nintex, the largest Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in the Microsoft SharePoint product space.

This insight into the market and experience has positioned Dac Systems as one of the leading Nintex partners in South Africa. It has perfected a solution orientated view of how to present and propose the Nintex products to the South African market.

A core objective of the alliance is to elevate the status of South Africa in terms of dominance in the SharePoint workflow environment.

“Dac Systems is one of the first movers in terms of Nintex Workflow and Nintex Forms for Office365 products and this is effectively taken to market via the SharePoint online,” says Aldo van Tonder, Solutions Executive, Dac Systems. “Our client is well-versed in the application of these key workflow and project management solutions. We are proud of our association with this operation and we share a passion for the development and rollout of solutions that are designed to strengthen the mining industry.”

Executive leadership at the Client has confirmed Dac Systems’ unrivalled skill sets and unmatched level of professionalism has already added value in its quest for reliable solution upgrade services.

DAC Systems recently implemented Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution at Adcomtec within 60 days, to enable the engineering company to improve its business productivity through eliminating timeous manual-based processes.

About Adcomtec

Formed in 2012, Adcomtec is a professional South African engineering company and value-added solution provider in the telecommunications infrastructure market.

The core expertise of the company is the design, deployment and support of optical transmission networks that support the core, metro, and access space. Its customers include many of the new operators providing optical transport services to hundreds of corporates, enterprises, and residential customers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

Challenge

James Boland, director at Adcomtec, says the company had outgrown its existing accounting system and needed something that would provide more complete ERP functionality.

“Once the decision was made, we compiled a list of requirements which the new system had to fulfil. While it had to be cloud-based, it had to be deployed quickly and tweaked to our requirements without taking too much time and resources. Ideally, an out-of-box solution with all the bells and whistles would provide the foundation which could then be adapted as more functionality was needed.”

After an extensive evaluation of what was available in the market, the company decided on Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central as an affordable investment into ERP with a solution that is user-friendly and can improve employee productivity.

“Dynamics 365 Business Central ticked all our boxes and would provide us with the scalability and rapid deployment required. We could implement it virtually as is with very little customisation needed. We approached several vendors but found DAC Systems made the effort to understand our business and what we wanted out of the ERP solution. The decision was as much because of this good relationship as it was about their ability to implement ERP within a short turnaround time,” says Boland.

Solution

“ERP should not be the complex, risky, and expensive initiative that some businesses have experienced in the past. It should be seen as a differentiator as it will increase productivity and speed up decision-making,” says Chris Willemse, CEO of DAC Systems.

Boland adds that their in-house experience with upgrading ERP combined perfectly with DAC to create a strong team that worked well together.

“The relationship was such that we could easily adapt things as we progressed through the implementation. Both companies worked well together to ensure everything worked as it should. And even when the inevitable challenges occurred, DAC went above and beyond to solve those problems.”

Boland says DAC immediately had the right people working on the project who understood their business.

“They were able to bring their experience from similar projects and assist us in implementing the ERP solution quickly. They would prioritise any problems and get the job done.”

Boland admits that with such a significant ERP implementation, change management was a concern.

“If you do not get people on board, no matter how good the system or quick the implementation is, there will be no adoption. Fortunately, the employees understood the importance of the new system and embraced it by committing to learning how it worked,” he adds.

Benefits

“The previous manual processes and spreadsheet-based system resulted in lots of duplication occurring. Thanks to Dynamics 365 Business Central, this has been eliminated. We can now trust our system and data, and free up our administrative resources to focus on more strategic projects,” Boland says.

Furthermore, the company was able to look at its financial results in real-time and get significant visibility on business performance.

“Our relationship with DAC is very strong and we will definitely be looking at working with them on future projects. They are our business partners now and we are looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship,” says Boland.