Operation: FCCS, a professional services firm providing leadership development, governance, risk management, talent, and insurance consulting to financial institutions, cooperatives, and corporate clients. Industry: Financial services consulting. Prior environment: Microsoft Dynamics SL, approaching end-of-life, with unreliable reporting and a set of custom applications that complicated any straightforward migration. Engagement scope: Full migration to Dynamics 365 Business Central, a Jet Reports implementation, customized layouts to remove manual work, and training built around accounting workflows rather than generic software features. Timeline: Scoped as a six-month migration, later extended; full team adoption reached within two years of go-live.
The challenge
FCCS had gotten everything it could out of Microsoft SL, but the platform was reaching end-of-life on a fixed timeline, not one of the company’s choosing. Reporting was unreliable enough that staff had built workarounds around it, and a set of custom applications built on top of SL meant a simple lift-and-shift wasn’t an option. “We knew SL was going away and didn’t want to wait until the last minute to move,” said Lolita Hayes, FCCS’s Director of Information Technology. Staff resistance to change added another layer: after years on one system, the case for switching had to hold up in daily use, not just on paper.
The approach
TruNova (TruNorth Dynamics at the time of this engagement) scoped a six-month migration to Dynamics 365 Business Central, later extended once the custom-app landscape proved more involved than the initial estimate. Jet Reports went in to resolve the reporting problems that had dogged the SL environment, and layouts were customized specifically to eliminate manual steps rather than reproduce the old system’s workarounds in a new interface. Training was built around how FCCS’s accounting team actually worked, translating Business Central’s technical concepts into language the team already used day to day. “This was not TruNova’s first rodeo, obvious from day one,” said Brad Langan, FCCS’s CFO.
Results
- A full migration off an end-of-life platform completed before the deadline forced a harder transition.
- Reporting rebuilt on Jet Reports, replacing the unreliable processes staff had worked around under SL.
- Full team adoption of Business Central reached within two years of go-live. “The team has truly embraced BC and all it has to offer,” said Hayes.
- “Overall, it was a very positive experience. TruNova was professional,” said Langan.
Next step
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