May tea was made on the Microsoft platform

Project basis

May company ― one of leaders of innovations in the industry. From the moment of its basis the company management aimed at continuous improvement and use of advanced technologies of management. In 1997 the Company of the first in the Russian market implemented the Navision system. "Our Company uses the best world practices, ― Balabanov Alexander, the Chief information officer of May Company notes. ― It concerns the different areas of work and, first of all, business process optimization and information support of our activity".

In process of growth of the Company and complication of business processes, the information system of the Company developed together with business. Within more than 8 years of functioning of Microsoft Dynamics NAV the internal command of May Company which managed to modify a system for the maximum compliance to individual business processes of the company was engaged in its support.

In 2009 the decision on upgrade of an information system was made. For years of improvements, the architecture of Microsoft Dynamics NAV considerably became complicated, a system was supported and developed different specialists for a long time. Besides, it was decided to change approach to implementation and development of a system: management of May Company made the decision on the maximum adaptation of own business processes to the best practices put in a system.

Choosing a Solution

For the choice of the most suitable ERP system by specialists of the company a great job according to the analysis of the solutions existing in the market was done. The Microsoft Dynamics AX system thanks to the high performance and broad functionality regarding production processes was as a result selected. "Selecting the ERP system, we looked for a combination of innovation, advanced technologies and understanding of industry specifics. All this is implemented in Microsoft Dynamics AX", ― Alexander Balabanov emphasizes.

Automation of a circuit of "output logistics" became the main objective of implementation: it was necessary to optimize and implement in the Microsoft Dynamics AX system processes of the movement of finished goods ― from the pipeline and before shipment to the customer. Therefore existence of examination in trade and logistic processes and also experience of successful projects in distribution became one of the main criteria when choosing the partner in implementation. As a result Corus Consulting thanks to extensive project experience and existence of own industry solution "KORUS|Distribution" based on Microsoft Dynamics AX became the winner of the tender among the leading Russian IT integrators.

Project Progress

"It is known that one of the main factors of success of implementation ― is political will of the management, its capability to inspire all collective for achievement of goals of the project. We went to this project with complete confidence in its success, the company management treated the tasks more than responsibly: the CEO Igor Lisinenko became the strategic customer from May Company directly. He inspired by the enthusiasm all collective for active work, initiated a series of the presentations ― about the importance of the project for the Company, a work progress, the achieved results ― in order that each employee understood that he works for common cause, on joint result", ― Tatyana Navolotskaya, the project manager from Corus Consulting tells.

"In my opinion, any large-scale project affects all staff of the organization. And the project team on implementation of ERP ― is all staff of the company too. Implementation of an information system ― it first of all change of thinking of employees which needs to be prepared even until start of the project. Only in this case new technologies will be really used and bring benefit to business", ― the CEO of May Company Igor Lisinenko is sure.

Optimization and automation of the business processes, major for the company, became a project objective: customer service, warehouse and transport logistics. A new system had to provide increase in transparency of business, reduction of labor costs of employees on routine processes and to create the platform for further improvement of the company.

One of the main priorities of May Company ― is the high level of customer service. Therefore the new information system had to become the reliable tool for observance of contractual conditions and a harsh discipline of deliveries. For this purpose in Microsoft Dynamics AX the booking system and reservations was implemented: it provides existence of goods in a warehouse both by types of clients, and for each specific customer.

Also the flexible tool which significantly reduced documentation set-up time for clients of the Company was created. In a work progress with large retail chain stores, the Russian and foreign distributors of May company often it was required to provide not only a standard document package, but also to create a number of additional. The unique mechanism allowing a command on customer service independently to configure any printed forms of documents including in foreign languages was developed for automation of this process by specialists of Corus Consulting.

For end-to-end accounting of goods including being in process of transportation, in May Company the system allowing to keep track of the status of shipment of each specific packaging of tea was created. Moreover, thanks to integration of Microsoft Dynamics AX into GIS (geographic information system) became possible to define exact location of each unit of production in way. Integration of systems allows to reduce considerably time for preparation of the transportation documentation for goods. Now at the end of each working day from ERP orders for delivery come to GIS, and GIS calculates routes, creates runs and returns information on the basis of which commodity-transport delivery notes, powers of attorney for the driver and other required documents automatically form in ERP.

The strong team from the customer participated in the project ― it undertook serious work on integration of ERP with the EDI systems (exchange of external business documents), the shipping documentation (data collection terminals) and GIS.

"It should be noted that system implementation in May Company demanded from us the minimum quantity of completions and customizations. Microsoft Dynamics AX offers the best industry practices of the organization of distribution business, and business processes in May Company were also initially constructed on their basis. Following to the standard becomes the main trend in automation now, and in it there is a sense: such approach allows to reduce considerably the budget of implementation, expenses on technical support and further development of a system", ― Tatyana Navolotskaya summarizes.

Opinion

"It is known that one of the main factors of success of implementation ― is political will of the management, its capability to inspire all collective for achievement of goals of the project. We went to this project with complete confidence in its success, the company management treated the tasks more than responsibly: the CEO Igor Lisinenko became the strategic customer from May Company directly. He inspired by the enthusiasm all collective for active work, initiated a series of the presentations ― about the importance of the project for the Company, a work progress, the achieved results ― in order that each employee understood that he works for common cause, on joint result", ― Tatyana Navolotskaya, the project manager from Corus Consulting tells.

"In my opinion, any large-scale project affects all staff of the organization. And the project team on implementation of ERP is all staff of the company too. Implementation of an information system is first of all change of thinking of employees which needs to be prepared even until start of the project. Only in this case new technologies will be really used and bring benefit to business", - Igor Lisinenko is sure.

Result

Automation of a circuit of output logistics allowed the company to transfer completely to a system work with ready goods. Its movement ― from an exit from production and before delivery to the client ― is accurately controlled by a system and is transparent for all responsibles. It allowed the company to lift to new level customer service, planning accuracy, efficiency of work, and in general ― controllability of business and its efficiency.

In a system more than 180 users work. The staff of May Company notes that the command of Corus Consulting managed to make a system very "friendly" to users: the Microsoft Dynamics AX interfaces are intuitive, convenient and are not overloaded with excess information. Moreover, work in a system allowed to reduce labor costs by routine transactions: for example, on carrying out inventory of accounting 10 times less time, than before implementation is required now.

In plans of company management May ― further development of a system by forces of own IT command and consultants.