Unified Operations with Business Central
Elecro Engineering is a British manufacturer of heating equipment for swimming pools, aquatic and marine applications, water sanitisers and customised solutions.
The business relied on separate Sage, Sage Manufacturing, and Salesforce systems, creating duplicate data entry, manual checks, and limited end-to-end visibility.
Qi implemented a cloud-based Dynamics 365 Business Central solution hosted on Azure, replacing disconnected processes with one unified platform. The result was stronger sales visibility, improved label printing, automated part number checks, and a 90% time-saving in serial number recording.
The Challenge
Elecro were using Sage Accounts, Sage Manufacturing and Salesforce to accommodate their accounting, manufacturing and contact management needs. Whilst the Sage applications offered some level of integration, the lack of a unified system to provide end to end processes from initial contact, through quoting, ordering and despatching was reducing productivity. Part numbers had to be manually cross checked and the lack of an integrated solution necessitated duplicate data entry.
Due to the international nature of their business, Elecro needed multiple language capabilities, and the lack of integrated serial number printing resulted in a labour-intensive process. In short, the lack of access to consistent business information from one source, rather than multiple separate systems, was becoming increasingly inefficient.
Their business challenges were further heightened by the immediate need to upgrade their server and client machines, in addition to needing to increase system user numbers due to an expanding workforce.
The Solution
After a full consultation with the Elecro team, the Qi and Elecro teams partnered to implement a cloud-based Dynamics 365 Business Central project.
The immediate need for an on-site server was removed, enabling Elecro to host a single, unified system on Azure supported by a network of replacement PCs with a robust security protocol including Unified Threat Management. Their specific label printing requirements are satisfied within Business Central and the need to manually cross check part numbers originating from outside of the EU has been replaced with an automatic capability.
Now utilising Dynamics Business Central CRM in place of Salesforce, Elecro now has the end to end visibility they require of the entire sales process, which in turn supports the time management of the sales team.
The Outcome
90% Time Saving on Serial Number Recording
Serial number scanning
Serial numbers are now simply scanned with the barcode scanner and automatically recorded to the relevant order in Business Central, saving hours of time previously spent writing down and manually entering every serial number.
Label printing
The time to print barcode labels has been reduced by combining the process with Business Central. Serial numbers are automatically generated in Business Central and printed on a standard office printer, also removing the need for a separate PC and thermal printer.