Overview
HCLTech partnered with a global holding company with a diverse portfolio of manufacturing, construction and industrial services businesses. The company structure allows industry-specific groups of companies to run independently while also having access to shared resources that help achieve company-level goals and common objectives. HCLTech worked with several of these managing groups and continues to guide them through their multi-pronged digital transformation. This solution story will highlight the finance transformation project for one of the managing groups, converting its finance and accounting functions from Microsoft AX to Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (F&SCM).
The Challenge
Overcoming disconnected systems and limited financial visibility
The primary pain point for this client was the inability to consolidate and process the accounting and reporting for the sub-companies. They needed a solution that could perform all the reporting while providing financial visibility across all companies under its umbrella. They also needed to achieve seamless integration with their banking vendor to simplify the accounts payable processes. Their previous technology solution afforded no integration opportunities, and this capability was a key reason for selecting Dynamics 365.
The Objective
Streamlining finance with modern solutions and standardized processes
The goals of the project were naturally to solve the challenges described above, while also achieving the holding company’s all-up business objectives:
- Deliver modern cloud-based finance solution to streamline daily, monthly, and annual finance activities
- Leverage broader and more robust data visualization and reporting via electronic data processing
- Standardize operations on Dynamics 365 Finance
- Align to their parent holding company’s digital transformation initiative
The Solution
Tailored Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation to simplify financial operations
HCLTech implemented the suite of D365 Finance modules. Key differentiators in this project included Accounts Payable and a customized configuration with the client’s banking partner. Accounts Payable is a critical component of the solution, as it enables this managing group to consolidate payments to vendors at the group level. This eliminates many of the accounting challenges associated with 20+ companies all doing individual or siloed vendor payments, and then rolling the data up each month. HCLTech was able to deliver these capabilities on-time and significantly under budget.
The Impact
Delivering efficiency, cost savings and quality enhancements
The implementation of Dynamics 365 F&SCM produced very real and tangible results in terms of efficiency gains, operating cost reductions, quality improvements, and customer insight enhancements.
Efficiency Gains
- Reduced month-end close cycle time
- Enhanced reporting & analytics
- Improved intercompany transactions (e.g., Cycle Time, Approval Time)
Operating Cost Reductions
- Improved generation of margin and cashflow
- Improved visibility of business segment performance with access to relevant cost accounting
- Reduced admin costs due to streamlined financial processes
- Optimized headcount due to increased productivity throughout F&O
- Reduced operating spend with financial process automation, encumbrance, budget planning, control and 3-way matching
- Maintenance cost reduction from elimination of inhouse data storage, ERP server hosting, and lower headcount
- Improved costs of ERP licensing due to the flexibility of the ERP licensing model
- Reduction in procurement costs based on enhanced processes and automation across the supply chain
- Reduced costs due to integration with other systems using the common data platform
Quality Improvements
- Automated order generation
- Error Rate reduction rate
- Real-time quality insights
Customer Insight Enhancements
- 360-degree view of the customer
- Connected customer service team
- Customer relationship health and behavior
