The Botswana Ministry of Local Government needed to automate its business management systems to reduce a huge backlog of unclosed manual accounts in local authorities. The ministry worked with Microsoft® Certified Partner PSU International in deploying Microsoft Dynamics® GP 8.0 business management software. Today, 60 per cent of local councils are up to date with their returns compared to zero in 2002, when the project started.

Banca IFIS wanted to speed up its batch processing to meet an increase in customer demand for services. The bank worked with its partner Teamlab to migrate its existing Electronic Credit Line Management application to the Windows® HPC Server 2008 operating system. Doing so helped the bank reduce its batch-processing times by 75 percent, ensure high availability, and avoid purchasing additional hardware to accommodate the heightened demand.

Based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Oughtred Coffee and Tea is a coffee roaster, distributor, and equipment service provider. Relying on a basic accounting package to manage operations, the company handled many processes outside the system, resulting in islands of data, data reentry, and a lack of business insight. To streamline operations and achieve the insight needed to strategically plan production and optimize its merchandising on retailers’ shelves, the company implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV® 2009 and engaged Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner The RSC Group to drive the implementation by using the Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step methodology. After going live with core functionality in only four months, Oughtred Coffee and Tea has established the central data store needed for advanced decision making and expects to save 2,000 hours a year by reducing data reentry.

BMI Defense Systems designs and manufactures protective equipment with patented energy-absorbing designs for the U.S. military. In 2008, the company won a multimillion-dollar contract to ship a gunner platform and restraint system in direct support of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan under the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program. Faced with a need to exponentially scale up its operations, BMI Defense worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner SIS to implement Microsoft Dynamics® SL for accounting, supply chain, and manufacturing. The solution helped BMI Defense better demonstrate to the government its direct and indirect costs for the new contract, thereby saving the company more than the amount it cost to implement the system. In addition, BMI Defense now tracks inventory with greater accuracy and is better able to meet shipment schedules.

To accommodate sales growth of 125 percent in one year, clothing designer and distributor Head Gear needed to automate and streamline its warehouse operation. The company’s existing Activant Eclipse ERP system, however, lacked the functionality needed to take on new business requirements. For example, the system did not support EDI, which became a necessity as Head Gear penetrated new markets. To meet this need and others, the company deployed Microsoft Dynamics® NAV and add-ons for shipping and the fashion industry. Since then, Head Gear has automated operations and increased responsiveness to customers through EDI. The company has also driven significant improvements in productivity, resulting in a savings of more than U.S.$250,000 a year, and reduced its turnaround time for orders from three days to only one—all while handling a sales volume as large as $1 million a day.

Russian Software Developer and Systems Integrator, KATHARSIS upgraded is budget management system with a solution leveraging the features of Microsoft PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Important factors for KATHARSIS were the flexible licensing policies behind the deal and the comfort company employees have with the Microsoft Office Excel system interface.

G4S Turkey needed to modernise its business management system which depended on largely manual systems and spreadsheet software. After considering SAP and Ramco Software from India, the company chose Microsoft Dynamics® NAV with customisation from Microsoft Partner Pargesoft. The solution is saving between 25 and 30 person days a month in payroll, accounting, and contract management, while the cash-in-transit division moves towards a paperless office.

RDF-USA is a subsidiary of RDF Media, a global TV production company headquartered in London that has produced programming for TV networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other countries. The company used an accounting system that forced it to export financial records into spreadsheets and make manual adjustments every month. To overcome these inefficiencies, RDF-USA engaged SCS, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner with expertise in the entertainment industry. RDF-USA chose Microsoft Dynamics® NAV because of the ease with which the company could create business rules to reflect the accounting practices and revenue-recognition policies it wanted. In addition to customized financial functions, RDF-USA expects to save U.S.$4,000 a month from streamlining its reporting and analysis processes.

United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM) operates the most technically advanced cement plant south of the Sahara. The company needed a modern business process management system to comply with new reporting standards and improve controls. After considering SAP and JD Edwards software, UNICEM opted for Microsoft Dynamics® NAV 2009, which was implemented for 45 per cent less than the cost of deploying SAP, and exceeded targets set by UNICEM.

One company that has actually seen business increase during an economic downturn is supply-chain services firm PCH International. The company quickly realized, however, that its current enterprise resource planning system could no longer keep up with its growth. PCH began looking for a system that could automate tasks that employees had to perform manually and integrate and unify company data for faster, more efficient storage and retrieval. Working closely with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner ePartners, PCH implemented Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 at its headquarters. Soon after, the company deployed the solution to six other locations. Now, the company benefits from border-free data access and management; faster, more cost-efficient transactions; and improved compliance with local tax codes and financial regulations.