a&n&a GmbH: Clean processes with Business Central

The changeover from NAV to BC

Jürgen Drogies is the Head of Digitalisation and Monitoring at a&n&a and is impressed by the upgrade to Business Central:

We just wanted to be up-to-date, have access to the newest apps and increase the flexibility of the software

a&n&a has been using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV business software solution for the last 15 years, making the selection of a new software solution easy: "Once Navision, always Navision," as Drogies enthusiastically reports. One of the main arguments for the changeover is the update speed and the new technical offered by Business Central. Because instead of 100 days in NAV, updates in Business Central now only take 2 days – a huge step forward! The import of industry solutions and extensions from the App Store is performed with just a few mouse clicks.

Success ultimately comes down to the project team!

In selecting an implementation partner, the a&n&a company relies on the competence of BE-terna and the employees. The project team impressed Jürgen Drogies and his team with highly-qualified product expertise and superb customer support:

Often it is impossible to say whether a company is good or bad, but when the right project leader is on board, in this case, David Thiele, it really makes the difference! Ultimately, success simply depends on the people. Overall, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised with how well and professionally the cooperation is running. The whole BE-terna team is fully on board! 

Business Central as an all-purpose cleaner

The BE-terna team will go on to implement the upgrade to Business Central in the German locations of Merenberg and Limburg. The subsidiary in the Czech Republic, which specialises in the production of sponges, will also follow suit with the upgrade to Business Central. Within the company, everything from order entry, the finance and production departments to electronic data interchange (EDI) will be handled through Business Central in the future.

There is no area in which Business Central will not be utilised,

explains Drogies. Currently, a&n&a relies on the on-premises variant for data protection reasons and infrastructure. The switch to Cloud will take place in the next few years and BE-terna will stand beside a&n&a as an experienced partner.

IOT and AI: The possibilities are endless

BE-terna set the ball rolling, as it doesn’t end with process optimisation at a&n&a! The Head of Digitalisation has big plans:

We want to be in a position to understand which cause has which effect so that we can draw conclusions for improving the processes. The possibilities are endless.

Alongside various pilot projects aimed at dovetailing business processes more closely with each other, the company has held a workshop with the Fraunhofer-Institut, IOSB-INA from Lemgo on the topic of sensor technology and retrofitting. Building on this, a pilot project in production has been utilised by which vibration analyses can be implemented in order to detect sources of interference and to be able to make predictions using artificial intelligence. The data generation during this process will be processed and made available online in Business Central for further use. Integrating IOT and AI will not only increase data quality, but also the quality of the end products and customer satisfaction. The BE-terna experts are looking forward to standing with a&n&a as partners in future.  

About a&n&a

Comprehensive service and good quality have formed the philosophy of a&n&a for 30 years. a&n&a has one of the most efficient, modern production facilities in Europe and guarantees brand quality in all fields. a&n&a offers the complete range of cloths and sponges. Own brands are a strength of this innovative company: LEH, discount and drugstores are supplied throughout Europe. a&n&a customers benefit from complete service, from packaging to design.