Millers Mechanical is a Dunedin-based engineering firm specialising in design, manufacture and installation of machinery for the freezing works sector. In an industry which lends itself to a higher level of standardisation, Millers Mechanical recognised a need to ensure consistency across its business, a function not offered by its current accounting software.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Millers Mechanical now has important company information in a central repository which is instantly accessible by all staff members.

Poor access to historical data
Millers Mechanical was previously using an accounting package which its business had outgrown. The package didn’t give company employees sufficient access to historical data, says Allison Paterson, Millers Mechanical’s accountant.

“It’s vital for us to be able to look back at data from previous jobs as many of the customer requests we get are similar,” Paterson says.

“We need to be able to see what we quoted last time, how long it took, how much resource we allocated and what materials we used. With our old system, more often than not, we ended up pulling out the hard copies to check information. We also need to be able to access old information in the general ledger which the previous system couldn’t give the amount of detail that NAV has.”

As part of the Refrigeration Engineering Group, Millers Mechanical was introduced to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform at a conference at their umbrella company’s head office.

“Head office had been using NAV for a number of years and when we saw it we were blown away. We thought: ‘Wow, this is great!’” says Paterson.

“We needed to address the issues we were having with our accounting system and head office was already using Dynamics NAV so it made sense for us to align with them.”

New technology changes company
Since implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV in September 2006, Millers Mechanical has noticed significant time savings.

“The system has saved us a lot of double-handling of information. Microsoft Dynamics NAV has saved us three to four days per month on the time taken to prepare our financial reports. Previously, we had to work overtime to get these reports finished,” says Paterson.

Millers Mechanical had specialist requirements and worked with an IT partner, Auckland-based CAD Partners, to customise Dynamics NAV to meet their needs, as Michael van Breugel, director of projects with CAD Partners explains.

“We made three main modifications to the product to suit the way Millers Mechanical needed it to work. We made changes in the ‘Job’ area which allows Millers to review components of a job against the budget. They can review these job reconciliations on a weekly basis and have a snapshot of what’s happening across the business,” says van Breugel.

“We tailored the customer relationship functionality to record specific information about customers, allowing them to document exactly what they need to manage the sales process. We also created a drawing register where their designers can store their computer aided design (CAD) images. The registry allows them to manage the issuing of each drawing and provides a searchable database for future projects.”

Paterson says the changes made by CAD Partners have opened Dynamics NAV up to the whole organisation. 

“When we were using the accounting system, it was very much the accounts department’s domain and no one else went near it. We now have an area which is relevant to everyone, rather than keeping it in silos. NAV enables better adaptability of reporting requirements by all users,” she says.

“We have 20 people within the organisation using the system, including our designers, engineers and storemen. Our information and systems need no longer be disparate.”

Increased mobility
Paterson says an unexpected benefit of using Dynamics NAV was the ability to work remotely.

“We can access the information through our website which means I no longer need to be in the office; I can work from home.”

Paterson says the company implemented Dynamics NAV in phases, first preparing the data then lining up the technology.

“Michael from CAD Partners flew down for the implementation and was supposed to stay for a week afterwards to deal with any issues that could have arisen. Implementation went so smoothly he was able to leave earlier than expected,” she says.

“We made the odd phone call to CAD Partners in the following weeks, but there were no major issues. It is very easy to pick up and there was little disruption. Working with CAD was great; they were fantastic. Michael is an accountant so he completely understood the steps we needed to go through. He walked us through the whole process and was very professional about it.”

Building for the future
“Dynamics NAV is a product we intend to keep building on,” says Paterson.

“We’re still using our old accounting system until we migrate the fixed asset register which we intend to do in the near future. Once we have done this we will continue to make incremental improvements.”

For more information
Microsoft CRM
Anne Frith
09 357 5850
askdynnz@microsoft.com

July 2007

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