Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics boosts business continuity and prepares for the future with Dynamics 365

For Cindy Highbarger, Senior VP of Finance and Operations at Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics, operational continuity for the company to support its aviation customers is a top priority. Mid-Continent’s competitive edge of exceptional quality and customer service relies heavily on rapid, reliable parts delivery and repairs. This keeps wings in the air for medical emergency flights, cargo planes, and passenger jets alike. The company has a diverse set of products and customers, so immediate access to accurate data is critical to its operations. Relentless demands on inventory and supply chain management industry-wide, as well as the company's commitment to agility, spurred interest in business process improvements. 

Building continuity in the cloud

Mid-Continent had initially invested in Microsoft Dynamics GP, later migrating to Dynamics AX running on in-house servers. In late 2020, the company decided to take its on-premises solutions to the cloud. The move was largely prompted by razor-sharp focus on customer responsiveness, a desire to expand tools and automate processes quicker, and the need to boost disaster recovery capabilities. "Customer-centricity is natural for us," says Highbarger. "As the company evolves, we constantly seek out additional features and functionality that we need to continue growing."

The COVID-19 health crisis also accelerated efforts to maintain continuity for both customers and employees while highlighting opportunities to improve. For example, employees could access Dynamics AX remotely, but specific security access had to be built in.

Highbarger asked Sikich, the company's long-time technology advisory partner, to help her explore possible cloud-based solutions. Together, they chose Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. As Highbarger explains, "We were looking for value-added opportunities, and Microsoft could provide a lot of options. Sikich took the tools Microsoft has available and demonstrated how they could support our various environments."

Continuity was also important during the implementation. Employees needed a smooth transition using tools they were familiar with, and easy ways to enhance them. "Ease of use is crucial for us, and we're very process-driven, so quality is key," Highbarger emphasizes. "That means confidence that the data is correct, the process is smooth, that there are no issues, and that our people can use the tools to constantly improve."

Implementation began with learning about the tools and data employees and departments were using, helping to ensure those same needs could be met when going live. For Director of IT, Mike Sanders, it was equally important to plan for enhancement options further down the road. With the flexibility of the Dynamics 365 production environment, Mid-Continent can add additional Dynamics 365 solutions or integrate with third-party technology. "The Dynamics 365 environment gives you the flexibility to have options that you may not be needing now," says Sanders. "When that future functionality is needed, you're ready."

Connecting applications and data  

Mid-Continent also facilitates continuity in the way it uses Microsoft productivity and collaboration tools. The company has deployed Microsoft 365 and Microsoft OneNote, and uses Microsoft Teams extensively, too. The integrated approach makes a lot of sense for Highbarger. "That's one of the advantages of going with Microsoft," she says. "Because there are so many different apps and different complementary products available, there are many opportunities to connect and integrate." Looking into the future, Highbarger plans to use more Dynamics 365 functionality in the Teams environment, including wiki and project management functionality, to provide better continuity during meetings.

Single sign-on access will also save Mid-Continent employees from having to remember multiple credentials to sign on to different platforms. Now, they can go from a Dynamics 365 environment to a Teams call without having to go through several steps to switch.

Sanders sees significant benefits in using the Dynamics 365 web interface. "The Dynamics 365 web offering is perfect for working from anywhere. When our sales team is travelling, they can readily pull up information, get to the data required, and make an informed decision while they're remote," he says.

Standardizing on the Microsoft solution stack lets Mid-Continent streamline workflows across the board. The IT department runs many different processes on distinct platforms. Syncing workflows to the cloud allows IT employees to drop everything into a Teams environment. This enables them to use a single platform to collaborate and quickly find what they're looking for, regardless of its location.

On the marketing side, Mid-Continent is data-rich, with a wide breadth of products. The new, interoperating solutions will provide the growth path needed to enhance the company's ability to aim complementary products at specific customer groups. Scaling up for digital marketing, the marketing team is excited to begin using Dynamics 365 Marketing to automate the follow-up process for completed repairs, tying this activity into product campaigns, and communicating more effectively with customers.

In addition, Mid-Continent is improving the company’s e-commerce and online service capabilities by developing a new corporate website concurrently with the Dynamics 365 implementation. The new site will enhance order management and online dialog, all maintained within a Dynamics D365 database.

A cloud-based solution also brings compelling simplification and sustainability advantages. With an on-premises, equipment-heavy model, it often took creativity to deliver information to users. Moving to the cloud, the company can use a thin-client-based environment, so setting up and supporting a new user configuration takes fewer resources. An additional benefit is that duplicate servers are no longer required for disaster recovery. As Highbarger puts it, "Being able to rely completely on Microsoft, knowing that the system will be up at all times and that we always have connectivity and business continuity, is important to us."

Sanders has sound advice for others contemplating migration to a cloud-based platform. He emphasizes a strong, integrated partner relationship that interacts as though there's just one team. Robert Sawyer, a Partner at Sikich, agrees. "We've worked with Mid-Continent across three implementations. Technology covers a lot of ground, but already having foundational knowledge and knowing how to work with each other is extremely important," he says.

Unlocking future innovations for greater efficiency

As for the next steps in its digital transformation journey, Mid-Continent is currently looking into a new phone solution that can integrate with other Microsoft tools to support internal and external calls with anyone, anytime and almost anywhere. Ideally, this would leverage Teams presence to provide visibility for calling, whether employees are in the office, on the road, or working from home.

In the longer term, the company expects to build cloud-based interfaces with major manufacturers. Artificial intelligence, along with mixed-reality tools such as Microsoft HoloLens, may also be on the horizon. "We have a great deal of small assemblies, fixtures that our users have to repair, often in limited physical workspaces," says Sanders. "But much of the information required is currently in hardcopy manuals. HoloLens could be a potential solution for us, and because it's a Microsoft product, it ties in with Dynamics 365. So, our technicians would be hands-free, and able to pull up information about the components they're working on, as well as customer information, without dealing with a full-sized screen in their workspace."

Highbarger is confident Mid-Continent has made an intelligent choice of partners and technologies. "A benefit of teaming up with Microsoft is the availability of relevant products that would be compatible to offer our users."