ODE Yalıtım enters a new era with its Dynamics 365 upgrade across all business units

ODE Yalıtım started its journey 35 years ago in the contracting business. At the end of the `80s, the company shifted its focus to insulation materials, emerging as a leading manufacturer domestically and consistently expanding operations and business volumes, in an industry which can be considered relatively nascent in Türkiye. ODE distinguishes itself as the only 100% locally owned business among the top 5 names in the insulation industry. 

Continuing to undertake investments with a focus on attaining its growth targets, ODE also prioritizes digitalization as part of its innovative and entrepreneurial approach. Having exported more than 40% of its 2019 and 2020 production to 75 countries in 6 continents, the company operates on an entirely B2B sales premise. Dealership and sales-point-based supply chain is a most critical process for the business. Amassing a volume of 50 trucks per day, the logistics operation is deemed to have an equally significant standing as manufacturing and sales units themselves. 

Explore the details of ODE`s latest digitalization initiative and transition to Dynamics 365 and how it used the upgrade to create an ecosystem to ensure speedy, systemized and cost-efficient processes across its business. 

Streamlined and pandemic-proof operations through ODE’s know how, efficient use of Microsoft suite, and solid collaborative strength

ODE handles large volumes both in terms of operational size and number of users.  Reliant on an older version of Dynamics AX 2009 for years, ODE kickstarted its upgrade into Dynamics 365 with logistics and finance earmarked as the units of priority. Coinciding for the most part with COVID induced lockdown, the 5-month project served like an ERP upgrade dry run for stakeholders transitioning to remote working and navigating through its many challenges.  Facilitating the extensive benefits of Microsoft suite to enable remote working, project teams utilized Teams for task assignment and document sharing, Azure DevOps Dev Box for development needs, , Azure for development machines, Power BI for reporting, and Office 365 for its comprehensive features. Undertaken with a holistic view and effective steps, project was swiftly and successfully brought to conclusion thanks to ODE`s conducive corporate culture and Microsoft Business Partner ETG`s extensive knowhow. 

Embracing the Dynamics 365 family with a holistic view, ODE adopted a finance and logistics-first initial transition. System was up and running smoothly after a short, 24-hour break offline. As part of its digital innovation journey powered by Dynamics 365, the company is also preparing to launch a platform to onboard add-ons and various other solutions, with 20 priority projects currently in progress as part of the company`s ambitious digitalization approach. Projects under construction range from migrating all flows onto the main system to including yet-to-be-digitalized topics in the process and will be sustained in the form of new additions or parallel runs going forward. 

A solid and agile company ready to take on uncertainty with robust decision making

Works in progress and planned projects are an embodiment of ODE`s strength and determination in taking digitalization forward across its entire business. CRM is a priority topic in the digital leap as it poses the need to swiftly deploy an agile platform.  On the supply chain side, the company aims to transform itself into a much better organized structure. Planning to migrate HR onto the main system, ODE also focuses on Asset and Maintenance Management as priority areas for digitalization. It also plans to introduce higher efficiency in managing production costs through digital manufacturing as well as a data and monitoring-based approach.  

Identifying speed as a critical factor in staying on top of competition, ODE underlines the significance of smooth operations and swift decision making through uncertainty as major take-aways from the pandemics period. Drawing attention to the fact that uncertainty is here to stay in the foreseeable future, CFO Kemal Direk stressed the need for companies to be prepared and have scenarios in place, which effectively cycles back to the need for speed. Information Technology is being redefined as a major resource. Recognizing the ability to deliver goods timely and at affordable costs as a critical factor in operations optimization in manufacturing industry, ODE Yalıtım embraces growth through distribution network and marketing flex and highlights the need to utilize systems accordingly. 

On the finance side, Dynamics 365 affords transparency in production in terms of both effort management and cost calculation. The new system means that invoicing and direct debits can be set up automatically through banking partners without the need for manual labor and successfully replaces legacy set ups as such.  All products can be accounted real time for cost and purchase price daily, allowing update prices to be available every 24 hours. This provides invaluable insight to manufacturing industry in a market where fluctuations in currency rates and raw material prices can pose significant challenges. 

ODE project team views Dynamics 365 as a suite of solutions that respond to various needs rather than attending to a specific topic and highly values its capability as an all-rounder. Dynamics 365`s wide range of solutions eliminates the need to divert resources to partial products and minimizes the time and effort that would have otherwise been used for systems maintenance. Dynamics 365 distinguishes itself from the competition by its streamlined solutions covering a wide range from warehouse management and finance to CRM and HR.