Democratizing ERP with fixed-price offerings

As a Microsoft Business Applications partner supporting customers with between 5 to 50 users, ERPgruppen saw the value that cloud solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central could provide to small and midsized businesses (SMBs), especially if you could increase scale and reduce implementation costs through standardized, repeatable services. In 2018, the team at ERPgruppen reworked its processes to replace project-oriented implementations with fixed-price offerings that focused on rapid deployment of out-of-the-box features to help SMBs realize value more quickly. When customers need additional functionality to meet business requirements, ERPgruppen brings in its pre-built IP solutions or third-party applications published on AppSource to fill gaps rather than turn to costly, time-consuming customization work. “We actually see our approach as a democratization of Business Central because with our fixed-price offerings, small businesses have a robust, scalable solution for managing their business operations within their reach,” said Chris Erik Jensen, Chief Product Officer at ERPgruppen. “Our onboarding process reduces customer expenses by standardizing solutions around best practices, and we are continually looking for ways to lower costs for businesses in this segment.”

ERPgruppen has achieved significant growth for its fixed-price offerings, onboarding between 50 and 60 new customers every year. This has led to a 50 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in Business Central revenue, 170 percent growth in Dynamics 365 Sales revenue, and a 20 percent expansion of overall pipeline. In addition to honing its processes to where the average implementation time for Business Central is just 80 days, ERPgruppen has also invested in streamlining how it communicates with customers – including a comprehensive implementation guide that provides clear direction on how to ensure a successful Business Central deployment. “We talk to customers about how ERP [enterprise resource planning] is basically the heart of their company that they’re about to change, so it is really important to invest the time to making it a success,” continued Jensen. “It has dramatically changed how customers engage with us.”

Using presales programs and marketing to drive growth

A key component of ERPgruppen’s success is scaling its presales motion to help accelerate buying decisions with a broader set of SMB customers. Internal efforts around building out one-to-many communications through webinars and free online training seminars have been very effective. The partner has also leveraged Microsoft Business Applications Partner Activities, such as the Business Central Needs Assessment and the Business Central Migration Assessment, along with Microsoft AIM Migration and High Volume Program resources, to demonstrate solution value. “The presales programs available through Microsoft to support SMB customers have enabled us to boost our growth. In addition to helping customers accurately assess the value Business Central can provide, funding shows that Microsoft is serious about making them successful,” said Jensen.

One of the customers that benefited from these presales engagements was Scandi-Roc, a Danish masonry company that creates eye-catching specialty stones and tiles for pools and terraces. Scandi-Roc was looking to modernize its ERP system, since existing processes relied heavily on time-consuming manual workflows. ERPgruppen used Microsoft funding to demonstrate how Business Central could help automate and digitize daily tasks, particularly inventory and supply chain management activities. Scandi-Roc selected to move forward with Business Central and has already seen a 30 percent reduction in processing time for orders in just the first few months since it went live. “We were able to clearly show that Business Central would be a game-changer in terms of enabling faster delivery times and helping the organization adapt to changing business needs,” said Jensen. “By replacing manual processes with automation and providing built-in integrations with Power BI and third-party document management and payment systems, Business Central is already boosting efficiency and contributing positively to customer satisfaction.”

Continued investment in customer success and efficiency

ERPgruppen’s customer success program provides dedicated support, accessible through an integrated service app built to be installed as part of Business Central. This app, developed using Dynamics 365 Sales and Power Apps, allows customers to submit support tickets directly within the Business Central user interface and provides visibility into customer subscriptions, billable hours, invoices and more. Customers also get access to the partner’s 365 Academy online, self-service training for Business Central, including specially developed learning paths and test exercises to help them get up to speed at their own pace. “We’ve invested in building out the right resources for our target customers. It’s another way that we can increase their engagement with the product and foster success without requiring them to pay per-hour consultant fees,” remarked Jensen.

Moving forward, ERPgruppen is looking to Microsoft Copilot as a way to add further cost efficiencies to both internal processes and customer implementations. “With the sheer volume of data that ERP systems contain, we see the opportunity for generative AI to be a revolutionary force in enabling insights, analytics, and even automation for SMB organizations,” concluded Jensen. “We are already using Copilot internally to enable our own consultants and look forward to empowering our customers with these innovations.”

"We actually see our approach as a democratization of Business Central because with our fixed-price offerings, small businesses have a robust, scalable solution for managing their business operations within their reach."

—Chris Erik Jensen, Chief Product Officer, ERPgruppen

"With the sheer volume of data that ERP systems contain, we see the opportunity for generative AI to be a revolutionary force in enabling insights, analytics, and even automation for SMB organizations."

—Chris Erik Jensen, Chief Product Officer at ERPgruppen

ERPgruppen achieves 50 percent YoY growth for Business Central practice