Ramirent

Ramirent's response: "The key concept of the project was no change. Apart from the system version upgrade, which was a massive undertaking involving rewriting hundreds of thousands of lines of code, we wanted our users to feel like nothing had changed for them when they received the new system. Therefore, immediately after conducting workshops where users demonstrated how they used Dynamics NAV, we made several rounds of modifications to the system and brought it to a level of sophistication where no further modifications were needed in the new system.

A total of 78 changes were implemented in Navision 2018 before the system was closed to modifications. These changes were tested, deployed, and used by employees for several months, allowing them to get used to how to use them and what benefits they brought in their daily work. The transition to Dynamics 365 Business Central was essentially just a change in the way the system was activated."

Ramirent's response: "First and foremost, in the world of IT, it's important not to fall behind in technology, which is why it's crucial to modernize the systems operating within the company as much as possible, especially when such a change concerns the company's most important system, which forms the foundation of its operations.

Implementing the Business Central system allows for future changes, integration with the entire Microsoft ecosystem, especially when the company is already using Microsoft's platforms. It also opens up access to the latest tools provided by Microsoft, such as Power Platform, artificial intelligence, and process automation. These are very easy to implement within the Microsoft ecosystem, and by using a range of the company's products, it is possible to achieve all solutions while maintaining reasonable costs."

Ramirent's response: "The main project challenge on Ramirent's side was coordinating the work of the testing team, which was composed of representatives from various areas of the company and geographically dispersed across the country. Thanks to working in an online model together with consultants and developers from EIP, we were able to efficiently not only go through the testing phase but also several phases of making corrections and changes in Business Central. Both EIP and Ramirent team members communicated via email and Teams, and tasks were documented in Azure DevOps."

Ramirent's response: "Migration from the old to the new platform is a massive undertaking. Between Navision 2018 and Business Central v23, there were many intermediate versions that probably would have been worth transitioning to when they were close to their release. Such a significant step is not easy and requires coordinated efforts from both the client’s companies to prepare their employees for the change, as well as from the supplier to ensure the implementation is as seamless as possible for the client."

Ramirent's response: "I think the fact that not much comes to mind several months after the implementation shows that the project was really well planned. However, I believe there was a lack of proper testing or maybe more specifically, a testing strategy. Not all scenarios were tested because daily work with the company’s most important system is not only based on regular and repetitive tasks but also on those related to closing the month, quarter, or year. Internally, we tried to create test scenarios, but not every function was thoroughly tested, which led to the need for fixes while using the system. Internally, we tried to build test scenarios, but not every function was thoroughly tested, which resulted in the need for fixes when the system was working."