Columbus streamlines and optimises its resources through the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations

The challenges we faced

For the past 15 years, Columbus had been using Microsoft Dynamics AX4 as its main ERP solution. Like many professional services businesses, Columbus were suffering with some of the typical challenges facing companies using disparate legacy systems, such as:

• Accuracy and timeliness of data
• Difficulty in generating reports
• High head count

Columbus came to the unsurprising conclusion that like its customers, it was time to digitally transform and start reaping the benefits of the new leading technologies it implements.

The company started on a journey to a new common 
platform for all its businesses. This would not only bring forward a more modern and ‘friendly’ user experience, but also align all processes, enabling Columbus to remove friction from the business and easily work across countries and products.

Becoming a true global consultancy

Columbus decided that Microsoft Dynamics Project Operations was the best move strategically as it was a new, large platform with great functionality that Microsoft were looking to invest in and grow rapidly.

Since launching the new solution in March 2021, Columbus has seen the following benefits:

• One common way of working across the business globally - Columbus now has one billing solution instead of five separate systems, eliminating internal billing and ‘lunching’ from each other which reduces the manual workload for many employees
• Harmonised and maximised resources - everyone in Columbus now uses the same set data sources, regardless of the legal entity they’re coming from, which improves accuracy, visibility, and overall report
  performance in Power BI
• Implementation of a largely standard, next generation scalable solution - this gives Columbus the flexibility for future growth and safeguards them with evergreen updates from Microsoft