WillMore: The main advantages of NAV are the best practices and customizability

Dmitry Kozlov: The presidential club of Microsoft partners is elected annually, and we entered into it twice: in 2010 and 2012. It is really very narrow circle of the companies, in total about 5% from more than 10 thousand partners of corporation around the world who could achieve outstanding indicators on sales of solutions of Microsoft in different cuts, whether it be the sales volume of licenses, consulting level, degree of customer satisfaction or progress in promotion of products on the market. Membership in this club in different years is very expensive to us as is very important indicator of professionalism WillMore: in 2010-2012 the staff of specialists of our company did not exceed 15 people, but it were always specialists of top-class, as allowed us to become leaders with rather low number of employees. Now in the company about 25 people work.

TAdviser: How did practice of Microsoft in your company historically develop? Did you note that you have a strong team of specialists? How long do they work in your command?

Dmitry Kozlov: Really, the frame of the WillMore command is made by unique people who stood at the origins of implementation in Russia of Microsoft Dynamics NAV (then still Navision) in 1990e years. It without exaggeration professionals of top-class, universal specialists who can solve any, and not just narrow tasks of automation of separate processes in the company as it is accepted in project practice now. They have the most profound knowledge not only technical features of the solution, but also economic and regulatory base of automation of activity of the companies therefore are capable to solve the most complex problems in the best way. And I want to tell that implementation of the ERP system is very difficult task where a lot of things if not everything, depends on competence of the consultant. By my estimates, up to 50% of implementations of ERP systems in Russia at the exit come to an end with installation of solutions which work only "paper", but not de facto, another 30% of implementations are performed with big defects and shortcomings. So our command – the main competitive advantage. The weighted average experience of specialists of WillMore fluctuates from 10 to 12 years.

TAdviser: Microsoft Dynamics has a set of the industry solutions including created by partners i.e. the systems of a line, on the one hand, in the base, are universal, with another – can be very tightly ground. Do you for yourself historically or purposefully select some specialization? As for whom you do based on MS business solutions best of all?

Dmitry Kozlov: Many Microsoft partners select for themselves horizontal or vertical specialization, but experience of WillMore allows to work with the companies of any industries as we brilliantly own the tool – the NAV system. If to take the complete list of our projects, then it will be implementations in 24 different vertical industries, among them in everyone no more than three projects were implemented. It both retail, and FMCG, and production, and sphere of professional services, project management and so on: in total you will also not list.

In a horizontal section we also do based on NAV everything, including integration with other systems. In the last several years the direction of automation of warehouse complexes actively develops. An example of successful use of NAV for warehouse automation – the project for division of Internet trade of "Alphabet of Taste (City Supermarket)" company.

TAdviser: So the company preferred NAV to specialized products?

Dmitry Kozlov: Though NAV is not the specialized WMS system, in practice it is more universal, simpler and more flexible, than the narrow ground solutions. Business processes are registered in the WMS systems very strictly and to arrange them under work of a specific warehouse incredibly hard. The business logic of NAV in itself so in a complex is also competent that based on a system processes are built very simply and quickly according to needs of the customer for each case. And all this becomes much quicker in comparison with implementation of classical WMS which can lasts for years.

TAdviser: Call, please, the noticeable clients for the last 1-2 years. What selects these projects?

Dmitry Kozlov: There is a lot of projects, they are various and in fact, and on industry specifics. It is better to tell, probably, in this format, first of all, about projects with widely known company names. I already mentioned the project of automation of Alphabet of Taste company, we cooperate with this company since 2004 and we carry out projects on automation as the main business processes connected with management of retail sales, logistics, finance, and auxiliary, such, for example, as creation of flexible multi-layer system of motivation of personnel. Now we carry out complex automation of warehouse complexes based on WMS of the solution NAV. A series of ERP projects in Toshiba company is implemented. All main business activities of this corporation in Russia are consistently automated. The complex validirovaniye of business processes in the ERP system based on NAV in Akrikhin company, HFK according to GAMP-5 standards is performed (Good Automated Manufacturing Practice, ver. 5) and also the new multi-layer system of production planning is implemented. We execute projects for some other, both new, and our old and kind customers. Among them such as A&D Rus, Aysberri, United Capital Partners.

TAdviser: As to you Microsoft place in the Russian market of ERP systems seems. If you explained to potential customers, then what arguments would bring for benefit of MS Dynamics in comparison, for example, with 1C and SAP?

Dmitry Kozlov: For the last 10 years Microsoft Dynamics line surely entered into top three in the Russian market of ERP systems. I remember how the first tenders for implementation of enterprise management systems still in the late nineties were held, then in them were considered to two tens different solutions. Now, on the contrary, the market was seriously consolidated. Solutions mainly of three suppliers of ERP appear in the majority of tenders, they are known to all: it is Microsoft, SAP and 1C. Approximately in 2% of tenders it is possible to meet other solutions. On the one hand, to us as to Microsoft partners, it became much simpler to work. With another, the situation becomes complicated the fact that three "whales" of the Russian ERP market begin to apply for shares of each other and between them serious fight begins. SAP, for example, from an enterprise segment aims to win a share in SMB (medium and small business), and 1C – on the contrary.

But the solutions Microsoft Dynamics have serious competitive advantages as other products which allow them to hold the leading positions have pluses and. First of all are the best world practices of hundreds of thousands of customers which allow to build quickly business processes of the company according to very accurate logic, at the same time flexibly configuring them under themselves. The same SAP ERP does not differ in such ample opportunities for customization. In one of our projects, for example, we were faced the need to enter into the system of additional tuning which took about 2 hours our specialists and SAP consultants estimated necessary time for similar completion based on the platform in 2 weeks. As for the competition to 1C, 1C it is initially intended for automation of accounting, financial statements, in it a little deep data analysis. In NAV, on the contrary, any digits can be spread out to components, a system gives an accurate auditor trace in all respects, gives the chance to understand movements of each unit. In it its radical difference.

TAdviser: How does it seem you what perspectives at Microsoft in Russia in connection with turn towards import substitution at the government level, including in IT? Whether it will weaken positions of the company in a segment of business software against the background of domestic developments?

Dmitry Kozlov: Naturally, the situation in geopolitics influences economy. And it is natural as Microsoft is the company after all not Russian, but western, American, its positions in a public sector can theoretically be weakened. Even if it will occur, it will be compensated by promotion of vendor in the commercial sector where demand for NAV and AX will constantly grow. It is connected with the fact that the real sector is forced to be rebuilt actively today under new realities of the market: retail, industrial, financial the companies it is necessary to change processes under the new rules of the game connected with sanctions and regulatory requirements and here they need base in the form of a flexible IT system which will give them the chance quickly to react to changes and to make the correct decisions.

Would like to note also one more moment, if it was necessary to a word. It is considered to be that the western ERP systems do not give the chance normally to conduct the Russian accounting. But it not so. Many consultants just are not able to do it based on the western platforms. About a half of our customers conducts accounting on NAV, for the second half we do integration and gateways with a 1C system. The first half does not look dissatisfied. As for the second, need for use of 1C is more connected not with a product, and with mentality of accountants who are very conservative in itself.

TAdviser: How you are going to develop the ERP direction in your company?

Dmitry Kozlov: An important task for WillMore today – growth of turnover and number of the implemented projects. On our experts and so improbable, double and threefold loading lies, but we cannot take 15-20 more people of such unique consultants, it is "piece", but not mass "product". Therefore we are going to select a number of the directions where we will implement the standardized solutions. Under these directions we will also attract the kvalitsirovanny personnel, but it will already be not "dinosaurs" of the ERP industry who by determination cannot be much. Such standardized solutions will be created as in a vertical, and horizontal section. In horizontal we have developments of shrink-wrapped software products which only need to be issued, in the field of distribution, professional services, for management of holdings and also management of warehouses.

One more interesting direction is a creation of complex projects based on NAV and BI- systems QlikView. For business data analysis we began to work with this platform quite recently, in the spring of 2014, but already we see, its advantages and as far as it is interesting to business are how big. In this system among other advantages the principle of data discovery, i.e. quick search and data analysis in large volumes of information including which is not typified is implemented that is very relevant today. Based on QlikView we already implemented implementation in Toshiba and we keep some more projects, I cannot call customers yet.

Also I can note the perspective direction of automation of legally significant document flow (YuZDO) based on NAV. We have a ready-made solution of own development which we did not announce yet. On it we, of course, will not stop and we will continue to look for interesting solutions for our customers.