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“Konica Minolta Ukraine” improves business with the help of ERP system
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About company
“Konica Minolta Ukraine” is Ukrainian department of Konica Minolta, world leading provider of the products and services in the sphere of image processing and printing. As a corporate system of business management in group departments the company chose the solution Microsoft® Dynamics® NAV, that is being implemented around the world for more than 30000 employees. “Konica Minolta Ukraine” was one of the first to switch to the Microsoft business solution with all its geographically diverse structures. Migration from the solutions Galaxy and 1C used in regional offices to Microsoft Dynamics NAV provided an opportunity to improve the quality of the service, to optimize companies’ business processes, to accelerate decision making and ultimately to increase profitability.
Situation
«Коnica Мinolta Ukraine» specializes in sales and marketing of the multifunctional and facsimile products, copiers, printers, solutions for the offset printing business, as well as in service and technical support of this production in Ukraine.
Today “Konica Minolta Ukraine” is composed of six subsidiaries: in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Rovno and two service centers in Krivoy Rog and Poltava, that are busy selling TM Konica Minolta technology and providing service. Each subsidiary has its own service center, regional network of dealers, own plan of sales volume and budget. Operational business management is carried out by general director, regional sales managers, managers who work with partners – dealers and distributors, controlling, accounting, logistics, service management, and marketing.
Local solution – ERP-system Galaxy, modified to meet specific requirements of the distribution and finance processes, was used for informational support of the business in Ukraine. 1C solutions were used for payroll.
Constant improvement and business growth is half the battle in modern highly competitive environment. The increasing complexity of business problems, growth in the number of employees, task of the more effective service management prompted in “Konica Minolta Ukraine” the need to optimize all business processes – sales, logistics, service, finance, human resources management. “Konica Minolta Ukraine” was interested in the implementation of a single enterprise management system in all its subsidiaries, which would allow to optimize business.
International group of companies Konica Minolta chose Microsoft Dynamics NAV as a system which provides the best support of business features. It was quite a logical step for “Konica Minolta Ukraine” as one of the group subsidiaries to switch to information management system, used by parent company.
“Konica Minolta carries out its activity on the markets of the different countries. Adequate and reliable information, obtained with the help of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, is crucial for our business. We make decisions, that allow us to operate effectively within our business strategy based on this information”.
Ari EinarssonIT manager, Konica Minolta«We have been looking at and studying Microsoft Dynamics for a long time now – since 2003. But unification of approaches towards business management and its effectiveness, used in Konica Minolta, as well as successful experience of our foreign colleagues prompted us to choose this productive system at this specific moment, during the economic downturn. For now tasks of business effectiveness are particularly important».
Vladimir SovenkoGeneral director, Коnica Minolta UkraineSolution
In 2008 «Konica Minolta Ukraine» started working on migration to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. General contractor of the project was Tectura company – largest in the world Microsoft partner on business applications, delivering industry software solutions at Microsoft Dynamics base. Parent company – Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe along with Tectura developed their own module for management of the specific processes in the group of companies – Navision Uniform Solution. In all processes of preparation and implementation parent company’s specialists from the Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe headquarters (Langenhagen, Germany) were actively involved. Local Microsoft partner that performed the implementation and support of the solution, was Ukrainian company SMART business, Gold Certified Partner in Microsoft Dynamics line.
«The client challenged us with an interesting task: along with the implementation of the financial module, the project assumed its integration with Navision Uniform Solution – parent company’s own development. Thus, many parties participated in the project – the client, Ukrainian subsidiary – “Konica Minolta Ukraine”, the client, European parent company – Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe, general contractor – Microsoft partner, partner on the own solution development – Tectura, and we, SMART business, as a local Microsoft partner. We were responsible for the integration of the own solution with the financial module of the system, for compliance with Ukrainian legislation, and for users’ education, trainings, data migration and commissioning of the system».
Kirill RudnevSales Director, SMART businessThe main goal of the new system’s implementation was standardization of the service processes and logistics as well as correct integration of these processes with financial accounting. For “Konica Minolta Ukraine” financial accounting includes bookkeeping and fiscal accounting according to the Ukrainian legislation, and reporting formation for the parent company according to the international standards.
Ukrainian department was the second among Konica Minolta international offices, where implementation of such a solution was carried out. Describing technical side of the project:
«Traditional European architecture of the solution was chosen – the main server is located in Germany – in the main office of the parent company, and all users of the Ukrainian company (there can be 50 simultaneously) work in terminal mode».
Kirill RudnevSales Director, SMART businessThus, all geographically distributed departments can access the company’s data on the central server via Internet with the help of Microsoft Windows Terminal Services.
For effective cooperation within the project group consisting of representatives from Ukraine and Germany, exchange of information with the help of Microsoft SharePoint® Server 2007 technology was organized and it allowed to perform teamwork faster.
«We identified key users for service, sales, logistics, financing. Then with the help of the project group we examined the implementation of business processes in Microsoft Dynamics and expressed our proposals on the implementation of various functions. After the first stage of testing was completed, localization was carried out, and then key users conducted final testing of the system prior to commissioning. This approach provided an opportunity to share user experience with all our departments».
Tatyana KostykHead of the project group on Navision Uniform Solution implementation, Кonica Minolta Ukraine«The most difficult task of this project was the alignment of the local requirements with the corporate standards. Due to the clear structure of the processes, good training of the key users as well as the attention, paid to the testing of the system’s prototype, commissioning of the system became possible omitting the stage of concurrent old and new systems’ use».
Kirill RudnevSales Director, SMART businessComprehensive integration test was held under the guidance of the coordinator from Ukrainian company customer, and it included all possible processes and checked the work of the system on all stages. Such testing and launching provided smooth work of the company in the client service without time lags and worsening of the service quality during the implementation.
«This implementation is an excellent example of a well-coordinated work of several partners and a client. Major risks in such a work are delays in the approval of any changes in the settings and functionality. The client demonstrated the highest degree of involvement in the project and total focus on the tasks assigned to the project. Performance of work in the required time with the required quality was made possible».
Yuriy PodvalniyConsultant on service and logistics, SMART businessAdvantages
«Коnica Minolta Ukraine» carried out the transition to standardized corporate environment of the Konica Minolta group of companies, and it allowed to improve the quality of technology service, to optimize business processes of the company, to accelerate decision making and, as a result, to improve enterprise management overall. Future plans are about the development of the acquired system by the implementation of CRM-module Microsoft Dynamics NAV for improving the client focus of the company, and about the connection to the system of the remote users with mobile gadgets.
Quality improvement of the services
Extended technical support of the Konica Minolta equipment, accomplished with the module Navision Uniform Solution, allows to better track the tasks, connected with equipment services, that clients need.
«We are very satisfied with the service unit implemented in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. For example, information on the necessity of toner replacement comes directly from our printers to the information system of managers and service engineers. Moreover, they have all necessary data at their disposal to plan and provide service of the best quality».
Dmitry SukhotskyHead of the Customer service department, Konica Minolta UkraineBusiness processes optimization
As a result of the implementation the company revised and improved many business processes. Integration of the management system into the parent company rationalized the data interchange and allowed to perform numerous tasks much more effectively. The system rationalizes document flow by tracking practically all business processes, including assigned tasks’ statuses, accounting records and customer service.
Facilitating system settings
Microsoft Dynamics NAV tools improved the effectiveness of the employees’ work, giving the opportunity to adjust the system in a more flexible manner, to work more productively and to add value to the business of Konica Minolta in Ukraine.
«For example, when it comes to working with the subsidiaries, now emerged an opportunity to make automatic orders on hardware – this eliminates the human factor and the ability to forget to do this or that important business transaction».
Natalya PshenichnayaHead of the Logistics department, Konica Minolta Ukraine«In our opinion, the main advantage of the system is the possibility of its flexible setting according to the business specificity. One more important moment is the convenience of the everyday work of the managers. For instance, our employees appreciated the automated system of discounts on order statements».
Elena IgnatenkoHead of Indirect sales department, Konica Minolta UkraineImprovement of the data analysis and the reporting system
Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics not only provided wider opportunities for data analysis and reporting, but also facilitated users’ work with the documents.
“Now, after we switched to the new system, posting of the goods is performed four times faster”.
Natalya PshenichnayaHead of the Logistics department, Konica Minolta Ukraine«Microsoft Dynamics NAV totally meets Konica Minolta management requirements. Adaptation of the solution considering specificity of our business provided the company with powerful instruments that boost efficiency».
Vladimir SovenkoGeneral Director, Konica Minolta UkraineAdditional information
Information on other projects, implemented on the technologies of Microsoft corporation, is available here:
www.microsoft.com/ukraine/casestudies (in Ukrainian),
or www.microsoft.com/rus/business/casestudies (in Russian),
or www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies (in English).For additional information about products and services of Microsoft Ukraine you can contact informational center of Microsoft Ukraine by phone +38 (044) 230-51-01 or by mail ukraine@microsoft.com.
Address of Microsoft corporation in the Internet:
www.microsoft.com (in English),
www.microsoft.ua (in Ukrainian).For additional information on SMART business products and services please call: +38 (044) 585-35-50 or visit web-site: smart-it-prod.azurewebsites.net
For additional information on products and services of “Konica Minolta Ukraine” please call: +38 (044) 230-10-05 or visit web-site: www.konicaminolta.ua.
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