To maintain its constant growth as a small-sized business and provide the same level of customer excellence and service, Polytropic had to evaluate whether its current business processes and software could handle the growing demand. To stay ahead of its demand and growth, Polytropic chose to transition from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud to take advantage of the virtualization and scale the cloud affords.
Since 2003, Polytropic has operated primarily in the heated swimming pool space for both businesses and individual consumers, manufacturing and distributing specialized swimming pool equipment such as heating pumps. In addition to manufacturing and distributing, the Polytropic team offers a range of services, such as training and customer service.
The Polytropic team’s reach spans across the globe―its staff of a dozen business administrators, technicians, and salespeople manage a 10 million-euro business that is active throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Since Polytropic’s pool products are manufactured in China and distributed throughout Europe, Maghreb, and the Middle East, the company has continually adapted its business and supply chain to customers’ needs while experiencing significant year-on-year (YoY) growth.
Deciding to adopt the Microsoft cloud
Between 2013 and 2018, Polytropic utilized Microsoft Dynamics NAV software for all business operations. However, the rapid growth rate of the company brought an entirely new set of challenges that made Polytropic rethink the status of its current operations and processes. According to Jean-Christophe Fillot, Chairman at Polytropic, “Our system was outdated and was giving us logistical problems on the one hand, and hampered our efficiency regarding information sharing and overall team connection on the other hand.”
Polytropic salespeople and technicians felt the burden of these challenges on the ground, mentioning a lack of real-time information around stocks and pricing information that correlated to feeling behind or outdated when interacting with their clients. The lack of real-time information also meant a greater loss of time and efficiency in daily operations. This same issue impacted office personnel in France, which handles customer service inquiries by phone.
“We had accuracy problems regarding stocks and inventory,” explains Fabrice Garnier, Technical Director at Polytropic. “Serial numbers were giving us issues insofar as their manual logging generated errors in all the downstream logistical fields, whether it be arrival in stocks, shipping, or monitoring. All of these aspects were causing us to provide inaccurate information to our salespeople and therefore to clients.”
In 2018, Polytropic hit a new growth rate of 25 percent. With this milestone came new challenges, which led the company to realize the need for a solution that enabled real-time information across all parts of its business to maintain both profitability and level of commitment and quality to its customers. In 2018, Polytropic considered two options.
With the first option, the company could upsize its servers and IT teams with dedicated teams, meaning a complete restructure of its business and staff. With the second option, the company could transition to a more powerful software platform in the cloud to meet present and future needs around capacity and information availability.
Polytropic chose the second option―to transition to a more powerful platform in the cloud. As Fillot explains, the company opted for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to “plan long-term growth with a scalable system, to help us address the future with ease.”
Choosing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
By choosing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and implementing the software in January 2019, Polytropic began to experience direct solutions to its previous challenges.
For example, logistical problems were brought under control with the implementation of barcodes and scanning procedures in various key locations, such as reception, stock entry, and product shipping, and binding a serial number to a customer and to specific contract parameters through scanning.
In addition, Polytropic was able to choose the needed resources while keeping the option to grow alongside its business, with no hardware contingencies.
The cloud solution enabled salespeople and technicians to access all information in real time―even if they were offsite―and dramatically reduced the need to pull in core office staff to find information.
Implementation of electronic data interchange (EDI) files with Polytropic’s suppliers, transporters, and clients provided better insight on all sectors and automated certain procedures, reducing the rate of human error and time consumption
The benefits of Dynamics 365 Business Central are visible throughout all levels of the Polytropic organization and everyday business operations. Despite the team’s initial reluctance to adopt new software and change existing operations, those concerns quickly evaporated, “because these tools are easy to use and allow us to quickly find our data,” says Granier, noting that the transition “was achieved quickly and easily, within a week.” Fillot agrees, thanks to a “consultant who helped us train the teams and set up the program.”
According to Fillot, “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the software that will enable us to achieve our goals. After six months of use, we are very satisfied. Dynamics 365 Business Central has allowed us to coordinate our teams and improve communication between teams, both in France and abroad. We can also better predict and organize our growth,” he concludes. “We are delighted with our choice."
“Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the software that will enable us to achieve our goals. After six months of use, we are very satisfied. Dynamics 365 Business Central has allowed us to coordinate our teams and improve communication between teams, both in France and abroad. We can also better predict and organize our growth. We are delighted with our choice.”
Jean-Christophe Fillot, CEO, Polytropic
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