Thy-Mors Energi embarks on modernization journey with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Thy-Mors Energi is an energy company owned by 44,000 shareholders in the Thy and Mors regions in the northwestern part of Denmark. In June 2022, the company extended its collaboration with Cepheo by deciding to switch from Microsoft Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

"We have long felt that with Dynamics AX, we are dealing with an outdated system with old customizations that create daily challenges for us. The impending end of support has only made the need more evident," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann, CFO at Thy-Mors Energi.

She adds that she, along with the rest of the management, believes that the employees are on board with getting a new ERP solution:

"We have heard from users throughout the organization that Dynamics AX can be cumbersome to work with, so there has been clear support and a desire for a new solution across the organization.

How Thy-Mors Energi identified its needs

With the decision to move on from Dynamics AX, Thy-Mors Energi quickly identified three crucial needs:

"Partly, we could see that user-friendliness is important to us. Additionally, the solution should be a better tool for our project managers. Last but not least, we want to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem, as all the other programs in the organization are from Microsoft, so we wanted to continue with that," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann.

The desire to remain in the Microsoft ecosystem narrowed down the options, and Thy-Mors Energi had to choose between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to succeed the Dynamics AX solution.

Together with Cepheo, Thy-Mors Energi made a pre-analysis that clarified the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the possibilities and limitations of the two solutions. In dialogue with Cepheo's consultants, the choice fell on Business Central, despite the fact that Finance and Supply Chain Management were seen as more straightforward:

"Technically, it would have been easier to convert data from Dynamics AX to Finance and Supply Chain Management, whereas switching to Business Central means that we will need to rethink our processes and ways of working. This is positive, as we have had processes and work practices solely because we have always done it that way. I think it's very healthy for an organization to go through such a process," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann.

Strengthened finance function and project management

First and foremost, the switch to Business Central is aimed at strengthening the utility company's finance function, where several currently manual processes can be automated. Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann highlights invoice handling, bank reconciliations and inventory management as areas that will particularly benefit from the new solution.

Additionally, she looks forward to easier maintenance and updates with Business Central compared to the Dynamics AX solution.

To meet Thy-Mors Energi's specific needs, the Microsoft Business Central solution is being enhanced with a standardized industry solution from Cepheo, Power BI and several smaller software solutions.

Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann expects that the company's project managers will also appreciate the comprehensive solution, where Power BI will provide them with more and better insights:

"They will be able to easily see what has been posted on their projects and have tools to work with the data, so they won't need to extract it into various spreadsheets to work with the data."

In the typical modest manner of the northwest Jutland region, Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann and Thy-Mors Energi have not set specific goals for how many working hours they expect the transition from Dynamics AX to Business Central to save in their daily operations. However, Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann is confident that the impact will be noticeable, both in the finance function and for the project managers.

Cepheo had all the answers

When the decision was made to move away from Dynamics AX, Thy-Mors Energi was already a Cepheo customer. Familiarity with Cepheo's employees, methods and expertise, as well as the results of Cepheo's pre-analysis, made it an easy decision for Thy-Mors Energi to kickstart the migration process with their existing IT partner:

"We were already familiar with Cepheo and were also assigned some of the same consultants we had worked with before. We could feel that Cepheo understood our business, and we've been able to get answers to all the questions we had. So, it has been a good process, and we look forward to the implementation with confidence," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann.

The ongoing digital journey

In the future, Thy-Mors Energi has several initiatives on its agenda. According to Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann, there will be further development in digitalizing processes across the organization using Business Intelligence, Power Automate and Power Apps. Resource planning, in particular, is an area with significant potential gains through the utilization of these tools.

Overall, the focus for Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann and Thy-Mors Energi is to become less manual and more digital and automated.

"We have far too many manual tasks today. Expense reports are a good example, where a receipt is submitted to the finance department, which then goes through several processes to process the expense. In the end, the money is paid out, and we end up with a physical receipt that we also need to decide what to do with. It is, of course, very easy to just submit a receipt and get your money, but behind the scenes, we spend too much time. Here, we need automation and digitalization," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann.

Another example of Thy-Mors Energi's ambitions regarding automation is a desire to use Power Automate when employees join and leave the company.

This will create better processes for the routine tasks that managers and employees have to perform every time a new employee starts. This could include various registrations or equipment purchases.

"If we can automate these tasks and reminders using Power Automate, the process will just need to be initiated every time we have a new employee. We will also be able to get an easy overview without having to contact multiple people. This will make the onboarding process more efficient and probably more pleasant for the new employee because they can see that we have control over our processes," says Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann.

When the time is right for the next phase, Helle Baunsgaard Aachmann is confident that Thy-Mors Energi is well-positioned with Cepheo as its IT partner."