Microsoft Dynamics AX solution in the company eFront

About the Company

eFront is the leading software provider of solutions dedicated to the financial industry with recognized expertise in Alternative Investments and Risk Management. eFront’s solutions serve major companies in the Private Equity, Real-Estate Investment, Banking, and Insurance sectors. The company was founded in 1999, and now provides services to nearly 700 companies in over 40 countries. It employs over 600 people worldwide.

Background

Before the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX solution, eFront used its own software to primarily keep a record of client projects. However, this software was not designed for managing internal finance and accounting. Continued growth and scale led to eFront recognizing that the current systems & software used were no longer fit for purpose. eFront had to alleviate the disadvantages of existing software with Microsoft Office working tool, Word, and Excel programs. Using multiple programs for operational finance made the company’s daily business routine unnecessarily complex, especially invoicing and payments. It is particularly important to emphasize that within the company, there are 26 different legal entities across 11 states, and the top priority was to harmonize and simplify financial system of the whole company.

The right solution for eFront was the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX system which has the ability of connecting the entire business in one integrated system. The primary goal of implementing the AX system was the integration of all company’s data, in order to increase efficiency in keeping records of clients and receivables.

For initial phase of implementation, eFront chose a Microsoft partner from France, where its head office is located.

During the post implementation phase the company made a decision that that process of invoicing for all legal entities would be centralized and a Billing Team was created in Belgrade. Although the implementation of basic Microsoft Dynamics AX system was delegated to a French company, additional implementation of Project management and Accounting module was entrusted to the company BE-terna from Belgrade. Also, BE-terna finalized the implementation of AX system for 10 legal entities within company in the following countries: Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Canada, USA (4 legal entities), and in UK (2 legal entities).

During the implementation, BE-terna tried to help overcome some of the issues identified in phase 1 and BE-terna formed virtual teams whose members were located globally, and showed that team spirit in accordance with new technologies was the right way to success. With timely and quality deliverables, BE-terna contributed to Microsoft Dynamics AX become closer to the desired level of functioning. From January 2015, eFront will finally have the possibility to accomplish the full potential of AX system.

Benefits

The advantage of Microsoft Dynamics AX system is its efficient possibility of connecting with other information systems. The set of functional fields includes all financial operations, manufacturing and supply chain, sales and marketing, human resources management, as well as project management and service activities.

By implementing of Microsoft Dynamics AX Project module, the company eFront received improvements in terms of access to the complete analytic projects, customers and suppliers, transaction history and invoicing. In this way, the company has significantly simplified its existing processes and enabled more efficient and transparent business.

Bearing in mind that initial implementation has not been fully completed and a revision is ongoing, the most significant effects of the implementation are as follows:

• The integration of data from all companies
• Visible and transparent intercompany relationships
• Unique records on employees (HR)
• Invoicing from the AX system (reduced overhead related to data entry since it was invoiced by hand in the past and posted in the AX system).