Tobermore chooses ANS to provide a bespoke Dynamics 365 system
Tobermore is a family-run business that has been specialising in the manufacturing of block paving and walling products since 1942.
As one of the top paving manufacturers in the UK and Ireland, Tobermore sources world-class manufacturing machines and continues to invest in technology to ensure the superior quality of its products.
The Challenge
Tobermore had been using an on-premise Dynamics 365 as its CRM system until 2021, which had restricted functionality and scalability that prevented the business from fully using the system. The company has been experiencing tremendous growth over the last four years, highlighting the need to further develop and add new capabilities to the CRM system.
So, Tobermore decided to migrate Dynamics 365 to the cloud and sought a partner to help with this migration and develop bespoke functionalities on the platform to suit its growing business needs.
The Solution
Tobermore partnered with ANS to help achieve these objectives. ANS completed a deep dive into Tobermore’s on-premise CRM, familiarising itself with the client’s environment and carried out a trial migration in the sandbox environment before the actual migration. After successfully transitioning to the cloud, Tobermore continued to access ANS’ Centre of Excellence (CoE) service to make new changes to its Dynamics 365 system on demand.
ANS CoE is a dedicated team of functional engineers, consultants, account managers, and project managers who provide ongoing assistance and customisations on Tobermore’s CRM system. Tobermore collaborates closely with these experts to address any issues or queries or explore opportunities for implementing new features in a bi-weekly call.
On ANS CoE, Louise Gunn, Dynamics CRM Manager at Tobermore, said: “The CoE service we use gives Tobermore dedicated resources, and it’s evident that the team I work with are very skilled and knowledgeable, and the developers take some of our ideas and bring that over the line.”
“The time we have with the ANS consultants is invaluable because we can talk about what’s coming up in the pipeline, discuss any issues we’re facing or bounce ideas off with them.”
This collaborative relationship built over the last four years has enabled ANS to provide tailored solutions that align perfectly with Tobermore’s needs and goals.
Louise continues: “We’ve been very lucky to have a dedicated point of contact, both at an account level and a functional consultant level from the beginning. Having that relationship is essential when it comes to customising and developing your system. Having someone know your CRM system inside out means they can better understand what we’re asking.”
One such requirement the company wanted to add to its Dynamics 365 was ‘Constellations’. It was a particularly complex feature, and Tobermore sought the assistance of ANS CoE to fulfil it.
Constellations is a new concept in Tobermore that showcases its paving products in a variety of sizes, colours, and finishes. Tobermore wanted to associate an Opportunity in Dynamics 365 against a Constellation and needed the ability to record and report this to capture the right ROI from its products. They sought bespoke customisation as the out-of-the-box functionality of product bundles in Dynamics 365 didn’t meet the business requirements.
“The time we have with the ANS consultants is invaluable because we can talk about what’s coming up in the pipeline, discuss any issues we’re facing or bounce ideas off with them.”
Louise Gunn
Dynamics CRM Manager
Tobermore
The Outcome
The bespoke solution designed by ANS streamlined the process of capturing and reporting on Constellation data within Dynamics 365. ANS team added 70 Constellations to the system and enabled users to associate them with Opportunities in just four steps.
With significant automation running in the background, the user experience of using the new functionality is a lot simpler within Dynamics 365. This is a much more efficient process, and the users don’t have to worry about manual pricing calculations.
The Future
Looking ahead, Tobermore is eager to continue benefiting from the Constellation functionality in the CRM system and maximise ROI from its products.
Tobermore is also looking to embrace new technology in Dynamics 365, with Copilot being the main priority. ANS CoE will demo Copilot and other new functionalities to help the company maximise the value of its Dynamics 365 system.
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