The migration to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations modernizes VPS' billing process.
The lines of communication are short and we know how to find each other well."
Frank BiegstraatenInternational organization Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) helps clients make improvements in fuel management, fuel costs and marine fuel compliance. Their customer set consists primarily of ship owners, power plants, fuel suppliers and governments. VPS had been using Dynamics AX 2012 for years for the financial handling of their processes. More than two years ago, they started the project to switch to the more powerful Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (F&O). "AX was approaching its end-of-life phase. F&O offers more scalability, flexibility and future-proofing. A big step forward, therefore!", says our Dynamics 365 consultant Niek Brinkhuis.
Lots of customization
Acknowledge's Dynamics team was responsible for managing the old AX environment. "There was a lot of customization in that," says Frank Biegstraaten, IT manager at VPS. "After a lot of puzzling, we decided to accommodate the customization in Dynamics Customer Engagement (CE) together with our partner BusinessBase. For the finance environment, we wanted to use F&O." It was important that the CRM system CE and F&O communicated well with each other. Niek explains: "In cooperation with BusinessBase, we implemented a smart custom solution for processing sales invoices. And we developed a completely new interface that automatically transfers customer invoices. This ensures more efficient and error-free processing of sales invoices." Purchase factors are automatically processed with partner ISPnext's standard solution.
Complex environment
The greatest complexity was in the customized solutions. "We always try to be as customer-oriented as possible. This makes our customer structure quite complex. We deal directly with the owner of a vessel, but also with intermediate parties. Sometimes customers share an account. And one customer can have different billing times for different services. There is a lot of complexity in that," Frank explains. In addition, the billing tool must interface directly with the laboratory system. As soon as a fuel sample comes in, the number on it is scanned and a work order is created. Once the testing and advisory process is complete, the result must be sent and the work order is prepared for billing.
Completely new financial structure that is reliable and flexible.
Implementation of smart invoice processing in partnership with ISPnext.
Development of a completely new interface between CRM system and F&O.
Without interruptions
In order to properly supervise the rollout of F&O, an Acknowledge consultant walked around VPS for the first few weeks to assist with questions and problems. Frank: "It was particularly exciting to see whether our invoices would be sent out on time after the migration. And that went well! The operational business process ran continuously without interruptions." The first phase of the project has been completed and all employees are working with the new system. "Functionally everything is now in good shape, but we have largely carried over the existing situation to the new system. In phase two we are looking at where we are, what we want to do differently or where improvements can be made," Frank says.
Modern system
The choice for Acknowledge as a partner for this project is the result of our many years of support for AX. Frank: "It is also an added value that the Acknowledge consultants already know us and know how our organization works. The lines are short and we know where to find each other. And no fuss, I like that." VPS is also a Microsoft-first organization with knowledge of AX. People are used to working with it. "I hear from the finance team that they're glad they switched to F&O because it's a modernized system. The new system is more understandable and they can find things more easily," shares Leo Bakelaar, an IT project manager at VPS responsible for the technical part of the project.
Cozy
The lead-up to the project involved a lot of hard work. Frank explains: "We didn't take enough time to really clean up properly because we didn't have that time." He recommends that other organizations schedule enough time for this. That also makes it easier to make decisions about setup. "Going live went very smoothly with little stress. Dealing with each other was very amiable," Frank says. VPS still receives support one day a week from an Acknowledge consultant. Frank: "He feels like part of the IT team."
