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“The cooperation and human interaction between our project team and the b4dynamics project team was excellent.”

Ralf Wittig, Managing Director of Wittig GmbH

Company profile

Wittig was founded in 1898 in Duisburg, Germany. Over the years, the company has developed into one of the largest ship chandlers in Europe; today they operate under Wittig GmbH and they are managed in the 4th generation by brothers Frank and Ralf Wittig.

With a range of 18,000 items, Wittig offers professional mariners and industrial customers a diverse range of products. In addition to their corporate guiding principles, which includes service, market proximity and a constant willingness to innovate, the dynamic “Duisburgers” have remained true to their headquarter location mentality.

Project highlights

Complete transfer of master and transaction data, as well as central document management for product-related information.

Reference report

b4dynamics GmbH started the implementation phase of project “Migration from Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R1” in December 2013 and successfully completed the project after 18 months.

“The goal was to connect 23 users, 21 of them in Duisburg and two in Vienna, to the new ERP system. The project was implemented according to the Sure Step implementation methodology.” Ralf Wittig, Managing Director of Wittig GmbH

The rollout was executed simultaneously for both locations and all users. Every department except production were integrated into the solution, which includes purchasing, sales, warehouse, financial accounting, and material planning.

The IT management of Wittig GmbH had the following central requirement for the ERP system: The basic processes should remain and still be carried out by the same employees, but with a significant increase in efficiency.

One of the challenges for b4dynamics GmbH was the unavailability of an industry solution.  Major adjustments were necessary at the developer level – because Dynamics AX does not offer a standard process to manage ships and integrate them into the sales process. To accelerate and simplify the main processes, the pricing was extended by an additional discount and an improved calculation was integrated into the trading process.

Additional modules and interfaces implemented by b4dynamics GmbH:

  • The CRM module including inquiry and activity modules and the integration of the CTI telephone system to AX with exchange of contact data.
  • Interfaces to a service management system for products requiring maintenance (rescue equipment / safety equipment).
  • The web portal (“Enterprise Portal”) is in the planning stage and will be introduced in the next project.

Results

The central document management provided Wittig GmbH transparency and time savings.  AX 2012 R1 increased efficiencies and met customer expectations.

The comprehensive project involved a very time-intensive migration. b4dynamics GmbH met the customers’ expectations while staying within time and budget, even though some change requests were necessary.

Wittig GmbH selected b4dynamics GmbH based on long standing, 16+ year business relationship.  Wittig worked with b4dynamics, formerly known as ConsultAX when they implemented AX 3.0.  The cooperation is based on professionalism, competency, trust, and great communication. Wittig GmbH would choose b4dynamics GmbH as their Microsoft partner again and again.

To remain flexible and competitive in the future, the managing director Ralf Wittig is planning further joint projects with b4dynamics GmbH, e.g., mobile devices will be connected to Dynamics AX.