Our client
Our client provides change management consultancy services for their clients in the public and private sectors, mainly in the defence industry. They were undergoing a rapid programme of change themselves as they had been acquired by a larger organisation that was looking to increase the team from 130 to around 300 people.
Challenges
When they approached City Dynamics, the client was running 8 disparate systems to manage the various steps in all their projects. All integrations involved manual interventions, making it impossible for the organisation to grow as rapidly as they required. A team of 2 people was dedicated to maintaining their systems and they were struggling with a growing number of challenges relating to data and compliance.
The main issue was an inability to generate truly consolidated forecasts, which involved combining reports from their multiple systems. In addition, the client’s project structure did not follow industry practice.
Solution
- City Dynamics implemented Dynamics 365 Project Operations so that projects have multiple billable contracts. Now the client can run multiple projects within a ‘master’ project.
- Multiple pricing dimensions were used to meet their specific requirements for project and consultant pricing.
- Power Automate workflows are used to update each project’s status for reporting.
- Power BI reporting is used to forecast reporting and revenue, enabling the client to make better resourcing decisions.
- Schedule Board is used by the client’s team of consultants, so everyone knows which projects they are working on and when.
- Email workflow reminders are incorporated into the solution for approvals and time entry.
We followed an Agile process throughout the implementation, held weekly meetings with the client, and worked closely with their team to carry out testing and data loading.
Benefits
- All projects are now consolidated onto one Dynamics 365 platform
- Inflight forecasting and figures are readily available
- Time for consultants can be scheduled accurately
- The client can manage their data better and gain more value from it
- All projects are now transparent and accessible to everyone
- The new system provides a strong and secure platform for growth with inbuilt data protection
- The platform can scale to incorporate further Dynamics 365 apps (Sales, Marketing and Business Central)
Unrivalled expertise
For this project, the City Dynamics team drew on our broad range of expertise including:
- In-depth knowledge of Project Operations and our inherent ability to apply this app’s features to meet the client’s exact requirements
- Training to enable the client’s team to manage their own system updates
- Experience of collaborating closely with clients to achieve go-live on time and within budget.
The future
City Dynamics is currently working with this client to implement more Dynamics 365 apps including Business Central. Power Platform portals are also in the pipeline, which will enable contractors to manage their own projects on a self-serve basis. In addition, we are planning to implement a data warehouse for reporting.
