Alsimet gains efficiency, productivity, and process automation by combining Business Central and Power Platform

The problem & challenge

As a leading company in the steel industry, specializing in the distribution and transformation of metals, Alsimet needed to update its business management systems in order to fully leverage its unique data and facilitate the real-time exchange of information between its offices. This would allow the company to take full control of its production, supply, and distribution chain.

In industrial environments, real-time information processing is a key factor for business profitability, since any interruption or modification of production or distribution processes and logistics can lead to significant additional costs.

Alsimet's previous business management system was based on a standard application with many custom developments that did not meet all their requirements and offered no adaptability. Its obsolescence was such that updates or new functionalities were impossible.

The company therefore needed a new solution that would allow them to define, scale, and automate tasks and processes to ensure data integrity and attain optimal, stable, and predictable performance.

Solution

Thanks to their collaboration with Sothi's development and consulting services, the company has implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS, a powerful cloud-based management system. This innovative solution allows Alsimet update to new versions of its system as soon as they become available. With the help of Business Central, the company has consolidated its data, created a dynamic, accessible reporting layer, and accelerated its decision-making processes.

Moreover, thanks to Power BI integration (as part of the Microsoft Power Platform), Alsimet now has a valuable interactive business intelligence tool which offers the flexibility and speed the company needs when generating and distributing reports, further facilitating decision-making.

Benefits

The company was able to flawlessly integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, fully covering current needs and offering a total guarantee of continuity and development to meet any future needs.

Using Power Automate (one of the pillars of the Microsoft Power Platform), Alismet has also developed workflows in line with its value chain to provide all their teams with the information they need right when they need it. This has allowed them to quickly and safely automate processes and boost productivity.

Banking was another specific area of process automation. Thanks to Banxion, developed by Sothis, financial decision-making has been simplified by compiling all bank information from all products and accounts into a single database. The finance manager now has the right tools to reconcile, advise, and make decisions, allowing them to avoid time-consuming manual processes which are prone to human errors.

Finally, we should not forget another important aspect, which was the speed of the implementation and start-up of the project, which was possible thanks to the extensive knowledge of Sothis, the ease of adaptation of the tool and its efficiency of use. Users find the system to be intuitive, resulting in a highly reduced learning curve. The speed of decision-making has greatly increased thanks to this system.

An Alsimet IT Department was created as a part of this project in order to allow full autonomy in support tasks and follow-up maintenance.

The partner

Sothis is a Microsoft Gold Partner, and its expertise includes specialization in SMB Cloud Solutions. The successful implementation of cloud-based SME projects constitutes objective proof of its technological qualifications. 

For Alsimet, there was a significant level of technical complexity involved in the project due to the number of adaptations and customizations added to the platform at various stages. In addition, in order to design the new system and make it effective, it was necessary to have an in-depth understanding of the way manufacturing environments work and the needs of each of the company's areas. In this sense, both the knowledge of the customer's business demonstrated by Sothis and their extensive experience in implementing Microsoft solutions were key aspects in choosing this partner.