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Unified Alloys Prepares for the Future with Custom Integrated Dynamics 365 Business Central Online Platform

Case Study

Key Highlights

• $200,000 saved annually
• 1000s of hours saved

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Client Overview

Client: Unified Alloys Industry: Stainless and Alloy Piping

Unified Alloys is a privately owned Canadian company that stocks and represents stainless steel and alloy piping products across a broad range of applications. Founded in 1976, Unified Alloys serves customers across a wide variety of industries that require stainless steel and corrosion-resistant process piping products. This includes oil & gas, petrochemical, pulp & paper, mining, power generation, food production, and water industries, among others.

At a Glance

• Over 45 years in business
• 5 service centers across Canada

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The Problem

Unified Alloys identified that it needed more flexibility and interoperability than its aging AS/400-based ERP system could provide. That started a search for a new ERP system and an experienced technology partner to support the transition from a legacy environment to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud.

The initial Business Central deployment, handled by a local technology partner, was disappointing. The team lacked experience with ERP legacy-to-cloud migrations and had only shallow knowledge of Dynamics 365 Business Central. As a result, Unified Alloys was left with an unsatisfying implementation and unresolved questions.

Andrew Holland, Unified Alloys' IT Manager, found himself picking up the slack and even coding an extension to load into the Dynamics 365 Business Central environment himself. With the new environment becoming a mix of the original partner's code base and Unified Alloys' own custom code, the company recognized the need for a more experienced long-term Microsoft Dynamics partner to stabilize the platform and help shape it to meet growing needs.

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The Solution

"What I appreciated most about talking to EFOQUS was we were talking directly to the IT experts we would be working with. No layers of salespeople or account managers to get through or to deflect our critical technology questions. At that point, I knew EFOQUS was the right partner for us." — Andrew Holland, IT Manager, Unified Alloys

A Partner That Understands Your Needs

Holland reached out to Microsoft to find a new Microsoft partner that could better meet Unified Alloys' needs. After interviewing several Dynamics partners, EFOQUS stood well above the competition because of the team's deep expertise with the Dynamics 365 Business Central platform and its business-first approach to technology implementations.

Holland was already familiar with EFOQUS Managing Partner Erik Hougaard through Hougaard's YouTube videos, which he had watched while trying to solve Business Central questions during the initial deployment. During Unified Alloys' interview with EFOQUS, Hougaard was able to answer the difficult outstanding questions about the platform, which made EFOQUS the clear choice as Unified Alloys' next technology partner.

EFOQUS' initial priority was to stabilize Unified Alloys' Business Central platform by resolving issues that carried the highest business importance or risk. The team worked directly with managers in each area to identify, prioritize, and fix problems and defects through a series of two-week sprints.

Building a Long-Term Partnership

After the original Dynamics 365 Business Central issues were resolved, Holland was able to manage the day-to-day operation of the system himself. Even so, Unified Alloys retained EFOQUS so he could continue to access the team's guidance and advice while developing the platform further.

As the partnership continued, Holland handed over more of the Dynamics 365 Business Central modification work to EFOQUS, recognizing the team's depth of knowledge and the speed with which they could modify, resolve, and enhance the system.

EFOQUS and Unified Alloys now have an ongoing partnership that allows EFOQUS to gain a deep understanding of Unified Alloys' challenges and needs as the business evolves. This enables EFOQUS to continue integrating different systems and apps into the solution as needed. Because Dynamics 365 Business Central is highly customizable and supports many apps and extensions, the opportunities for further enhancement are extensive.

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Key Improvements Delivered

Better KPI Tracking

After stabilizing the initial deployment, EFOQUS worked with Unified Alloys to build a framework for measuring and monitoring KPIs. EFOQUS integrated Microsoft Power BI with Dynamics 365 Business Central so Unified Alloys could create meaningful dashboards to track important metrics at a glance.

Today, Unified Alloys uses seven different KPI dashboards: one for each division and one management dashboard that displays company performance across the organization.

Optimized Procurement Strategy

Unified Alloys completely changed how it handles procurement. Previously, the company relied on a calendar-based procurement system because it lacked the ability to track meaningful inventory metrics. For example, it might order a fixed quantity of a specific product every eight weeks.

With the new system, Unified Alloys designed a procurement dashboard that enables a much more optimized strategy. Through Microsoft Power BI integrated with Dynamics 365 Business Central data, the dashboard provides a detailed breakdown of when and how much to order for every product.

The analysis includes factors such as:

• When stock will run out
• How much is already on purchase order
• How many customers buy the product
• How long the product takes to arrive
• Associated cost and gross profit
• How much warehouse space the product will consume

This helps Unified Alloys maintain the right amount of stock to fill orders while also understanding inventory profitability in far greater detail.

"At Unified Alloys, IT is about solving problems. When we have an issue, EFOQUS works with us to develop a solution, and get it done quickly." — Andrew Holland

"The Procurement Dashboard allows us to prioritize ordering with deep, real-time inventory information. For example, if we buy these top items for x amount of money, that will generate y amount of profit, over z amount of time. This now stops us from ordering inventory that sits on our shelves for years. Ultimately, adding up to much better inventory management, inventory control and cost-savings." — Andrew Holland

Automating Invoice Processing

To save time and improve invoicing accuracy, EFOQUS integrated the third-party app Continia into Unified Alloys' solution. Continia scans incoming invoices using optical character recognition (OCR), identifies the purchase order number on the invoice, and matches it against the corresponding PO in the system. When everything matches correctly, the invoice is paid automatically.

Previously, this process was handled manually on paper. Now, about 90% of invoices are paid without human handling.

This integration saves Unified Alloys the equivalent of four full-time employees' worth of invoice-processing time each month, representing savings of up to $200,000 annually.

Enhanced Reporting Capabilities

Unified Alloys is technically made up of five distinct companies, which creates significant reporting needs. EFOQUS integrated its own Cloud Replicator app as the back end for Power BI, enabling more advanced reporting capabilities.

This serves two purposes:

• It isolates reporting from the production system, minimizing the performance impact of running reports
• It aggregates report data from all five companies into a single cross-company dataset for more holistic visibility

Previously, reporting placed a major strain on the production system and caused performance issues. Cloud Replicator improved both performance and access to enterprise-wide insights.

Granular Security Controls

For organizations accustomed to on-premises ERP, moving to the cloud can raise concerns about security. To give Unified Alloys tighter and more granular control over security in Dynamics 365 Business Central, EFOQUS integrated its Advanced Cloud Security app.

This app helps Unified Alloys control who can see and access what inside Business Central. That is especially important when access must be limited based on job role.

For example, Business Central out of the box can allow a user to see all vendors or no vendors, but not only a selected subset. EFOQUS' Advanced Cloud Security app allows Unified Alloys to control exactly which vendors are visible to which users.

MTR Integration

Using its own SharePoint Connector app along with custom code, EFOQUS is also working with Unified Alloys on MTR integration for warehouse operations.

In this industry, products must be accompanied by a mill test report (MTR) that provides traceability and quality assurance to the end user. When a warehouse receives a steel product, staff must log the MTR, and when that steel is sold, the MTR must go with it. This had previously been a time-consuming manual process.

With the new MTR integration, instead of manually entering purchase orders and MTR information into a stand-alone system, EFOQUS is creating a process within Business Central while storing the documentation in SharePoint.

Warehouse workers simply scan a code with handheld scanners, and the system automatically links the product with the correct MTR. Through the customer service portal, the same documents can then be passed on to the customer seamlessly.

This will save thousands of hours every year and greatly reduce the potential for human error in a critical process.

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The Results

Between the Business Central re-implementation and the ongoing integrations and enhancements made to the platform, EFOQUS enabled major improvements across Unified Alloys' operations, from procurement to reporting.

Thanks to EFOQUS' experience with Business Central and expertise as both a system integrator and app developer, the team was able to solve the problems Unified Alloys brought forward. EFOQUS' focus on strong relationships also meant it developed a deep understanding of Unified Alloys' unique needs and could recommend additional upgrades and improvements over time.

Unified Alloys can now:

• Get clearer business visibility through better KPI tracking and enhanced reporting
• Save thousands of hours through improved procurement, warehousing, and invoicing workflows
• Save hundreds of thousands of dollars through automation and better operational control
• Benefit from a cloud ERP while retaining granular control over data access

"To stay competitive in this economy, companies have to sell more or cost less. EFOQUS and Dynamics 365 Business Central are helping us do both of those." — Andrew Holland

The resulting ERP platform, based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and extended with apps and custom code, brings Unified Alloys' business out of the past and into the present while positioning it for growth and future success.

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About EFOQUS

EFOQUS is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central apps and solutions partner focused on helping SMBs and enterprise organizations eliminate the friction of custom ERP extensions while improving agility, capability, and scalability.

The company specializes in developing practical applications and business solutions that help organizations take full advantage of their technology investments while extending the life and value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP.