Design Collection Denmark
Founded in 2006, Design Collection Denmark manages the retail and wholesale operations of the Bang & Olufsen brand in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. They also distribute other Danish luxury lifestyle brands such as Ro Collection, Silkeborg Uldspinderi, One A and Christina Lundsteen, and manage almost 1,000 retailers worldwide.
Using: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Jet Reports
Total P&L Reporting Completed 2x More Quickly
100% Time Saved In Tracking Sales And Reconciliation With G/L
100% Time Saved In Preparing Monthly Consolidated Financial Statements
The Problem
- Legacy system required extensive customisations, introducing a high rate of potential errors
- On-premise architecture of legacy system required expenditure on servers
- Insufficient inventory and warehouse management capabilities
- Data analysis was not sufficiently automated to generate data-driven insights
- Inability to integrate third-party finance and sales systems
The Goal
- Acquire a solution that met business needs out-of-the-box without needing extensive customisation
- Move to a cloud-based solution to save on costs from maintaining servers
- Acquire robust inventory management capabilities
- Business intelligence (BI) capabilities to enable data analytics
- Enable third-party integration with other software systems to extend functionalities
Design Collection Denmark originally relied on MJ Wholesale (MJW), a wholesale management solution that was customised from a pre-existing retail solution.
This meant that certain compromises were inevitable. For example, MJW was derived from software designed for the needs of retail businesses. The extensive customisations needed to make it usable for wholesale operations introduced a high rate of potential errors in the software.
MJW was also an on-premise system, which cost Design Collection Denmark significant expenses on in-house servers to house the solution.
And despite the customisations, the legacy system had its shortcomings. Its inventory management capabilities were not entirely sufficient, and it could not be easily integrated with other software that the retailer and wholesaler used in its sales and finance functions.
To resolve all of these issues, Design Collection Denmark required an upgrade to a solution that could meet all of their requirements. This eventually led the retailer and wholesaler to choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as their new ERP software, and integrating it with Jet Reports to enhance its reporting functionalities.
One major reason for the choice of Business Central is the fact that it’s supported with AppSource, Microsoft’s online marketplace for extensions and add-ons designed for its business solutions.
“It’s a big factor for our choice, as we’re a small company that didn’t have the resources to develop our own in-house software solutions to a satisfactory level,” said Jannich Doelby, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Office (COO) of Design Collection Denmark.
“Through AppSource, we have access to a large ecosystem of third-party apps that are developed by external providers, and are designed to be fully integrated with Business Central.”
Another major factor for the choice of Business Central was that it came recommended by AFON IT’s consultants, who went to great lengths to understand what Design Collection Denmark needed before offering the recommendation.
“The consultants from AFON established a close rapport with us, as well as a good understanding of Design Collection Denmark and its business needs,” Jannich added.
AFON IT assisted Design Collection Denmark with its implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and also integrated Jet Reports to enable the retailer and wholesaler to generate reports from its offices in Denmark, Singapore, or Australia.
To boost the reporting and data analytics capabilities of the ERP software, AFON IT also integrated Business Central with Microsoft Power BI, to provide Design Collection Denmark with a powerful business intelligence (BI) solution that helped them achieve actionable insights into their business operations.
“After we implemented Business Central, we no longer encountered the problems with inventory management that we had before,” Jannich reported. “This is thanks to the fully consolidated financial reports from it and Jet Reports, that we didn’t previously have access to.”
In Jannich’s view, the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for Design Collection Denmark could only have been as successful as it was, thanks to the efforts of AFON IT’s consultants.
“The people from AFON were good at coming up with potential solutions that worked without blowing our budget, and made sure we reexamined our reasons behind our decision to move to another solution,” Jannich shared of his experiences working with AFON IT.
“Because of them, it helped us truly understand what our business needs really are, and how Business Central was the right solution to fulfil them.”
"We like the way that AFON's consultants built up a good rapport and understanding of our business, and came up with solutions that met our needs."
Grow with Microsoft Business Central
With Business Central, Monopole drastically reduced time spent on financial closing, saw improvements in productivity, and achieved visibility in sales, inventory and financial processes.
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