Orange Cyberdefense wanted global reporting of their financial and administrative info, and opted to work with NetSuite as standard because some of their branches had already had a positive experience with it. Dynappco helped them to deploy NetSuite in Germany and the UK, so they now have real-time consolidated info for all countries.
Cloud-native
Thibaut Vos, Internal Program Manager at Orange Cyberdefense, explains why they’re implementing NetSuite in multiple countries. ‘Our Chief Financial Officer was looking for a solution to access all our financial information for all countries. Various branches were already using NetSuite, and were very happy with it, so it was a logical step to deploy it in the UK and Germany as well.’
‘NetSuite is also true cloud software, which is really important for us as it means we no longer need to deal with updating software or managing hardware, for example,’ clarifies Vos.
Personal approach
‘We were looking for a specialist NetSuite partner for this European project, and it soon became clear from exploratory talks with several suppliers that Dynappco’s personal approach was best suited to our way of working. We also knew straight away which consultants we’d be working with full time on our project.’
Real-time information
‘Consolidating all the financial data means we no longer need to wait for everyone to send in their figures separately. We have a good overview at all times now, so we can respond and make adjustments faster if necessary. It’s important that our managers can look up or forward the figures in real time, so they can intervene based on concrete information that is standardised across the different countries.’
Effective communication
‘The countries can communicate and exchange information with each other more easily now that everyone is working with NetSuite. All our information is labelled the same, as it were, which prevents misunderstandings. It means that accounting can work with one system for all entities, for example, which allows us to close our financial accounts efficiently – resulting in faster, accurate figures for the management team. It’s easier to provide support as well now, too. Everyone works with the same English-language software, so our IT department no longer needs to provide support in every language or for each different software package,’ adds Vos.
On-the-job training
‘The simultaneous deployment of NetSuite in both countries went extremely well. The order-to-cash procedure was fully revised and perfectly handled by NetSuite in Germany, without any surprises in terms of timing or budget. There was a period when our employees received on-the-job training from Dynappco, but it was all deployed during the coronavirus pandemic, so we did everything online. This didn’t make it any easier to implement a project like this, but we can be proud of how well it all went and the results we achieved.’
Better use of experts
‘We’re also going to consolidate projects in future, as this allows us to see which employees and what expertise are available across all countries, and ensures we can use our expertise remotely. Harmonising our processes further and standardising even more information are still on the project agenda.’
Lessons learned
Vos: ‘I wouldn’t advise anyone to plan an ERP implementation at the end of a financial year, because it’s already a stressful enough time for lots of employees. It’s better to choose quieter moment when everyone has time to learn the package. I probably wouldn’t deploy a new ERP package in two countries at the same time again, either. It’s better to provide time and space to do them one at a time.’