Business Integration Solution for Service Management

Dynamics AX development case study

Company 

One of the leading European Repair Services and Logistics companies for electronic devices and home office products.

Business situation

Due to a wide array of electronic devices in need of repair, the Company has a variety of partners, such as manufacturers, mobile operators, points of acceptance, and other external contractors it has to interact with. Along with the end-customers and the Company’s own departments, such as engineering, logistics, shipping, accounting, etc., it needs to build a network that will work as a single unit, providing reliable services and customer care across several EU countries. Effective teamwork with external partners is crucial for the Company’s business.

Each of the Company’s partners has their own information systems and established business processes. The interaction with them has to be individualized, while staying consistent and unified. The Company was using Axapta 3.0 and several external systems. It turned to Axiopea to assist in developing a business integration solution that should work a single entry point for employees, customers, and partners, addressing the specific needs of each group of users.

Challenges

The Company needed a new functionality for its ERP system in order to

• Enable fast order placing at the scattered acceptance points (retail stores, service shops, mobile selling points, etc.)
• Provide high-speed order processing and offer an average repair time of 3 days
• Present additional services to business partners, such as logistics, customer care, and reporting.
• Enable customers to trace repair stages online
• Improve the document flow
• Support data exchange with business customers (manufacturers, retailers, mobile operators, etc.), each of whom has their own systems and document processing rules.
• Enable efficient communication through Dynamics AX with non-AX users

Solutions

Axiopea assigned a team of Dynamics AX developers to create a new functionality that will address the Company’s needs. We have re-implemented the system on the new platform—Dynamics AX 2012 R2—while making substantial modifications to its standard features. Services management, Inventory management, and Enterprise Portal were among the Dynamics AX modules that we had extensively customized.

As part of this project, we created Dynamics AX add-ons that we now offer as separate solutions: Document Management Studio and Data Exchange Studio. Axiopea’s development services included:

1. Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal implementation and customization to provide a secure unified access point for partners, customers, and staff

• Common interface for order placing. The staff at each acceptance point can now start the order processing through the web browser.
• Secure access to the required documentation for non-AX users. Each service point can only work with devices and documents specified for them.
• Order acceptance/delivery to different locations. The customer can bring a device to one service point and pick it up at another.

2. Track and Trace system

• Physical items tracking. The standard Dynamics AX 2012 functionality offers tracking only those items that were purchased by the company. We have customized the system to make it possible tracing physical transactions of the inventory items, not only financial ones. Now, there are over 100 repair statuses that can be tracked through the system.
• Non-AX users can trace orders through the web browser.
• Efficient logistics and customer care solution. All the devices, along with the needed documents and repair statuses are tied to the AX entities and can be managed and analyzed.

3. Service Order form customization to provide more features and user settings

• Service Order form displays different information to technical and non-technical employees. Its layout and content can be switched from the logistics view (used by managers) to the technical view (used by repair service experts).
• Repair Wizards enable to use the ready-made text for the common tasks instead of typing it. The users can indicate different types of the service needed (warranty, out of warranty, dead on arrival), describe the services provided with a couple of clicks.
• Multilingual Text Templates fasten order placing, processing, and revision. The staff at points of acceptance can use templates in their native language and the system will translate the text if the repaired device will be serviced and/or picked up in another EU country.

4. Document Management Studio reduces handling time for both paper and digital documents

• Captures and processes both paper and digital documents, associates them with appropriate AX records, and stores their digital versions in SharePoint
• Documents tied to a customer, vendor, order, invoice and any other AX entity can be retrieved anytime from a shared repository.
• Powerful storage and content search features of SharePoint provide even non-AX users with a quick view of the important information.
• The documents are generated and archived automatically.
• Flexible configuration of documents’ settings at all stages of their lifecycle. The types of documents, e.g., service reports, invoices, packing slips, were configured individually for each receiving party.
• Allows printing barcodes from AX. Paper documents can be associated with AX records via barcodes printed out and attached to copies before scanning.
• Service Quotation, a new document type, is used to give an estimate of the repair services to the customer. It allows accessing some documents from the Service Order form omitting the Project Module.

5. Data Exchange Studio: automated data exchange with external systems

We developed a solution that simplifies the set up and management of integrations between Dynamics AX ERP and other business systems. The solution’s advanced mapping capabilities allow configuring interfaces without dealing with the complexities of the data model in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The solution enables seamless connectivity with other systems, providing the Company with information sharing that is crucial for its business.

We set up the integration interfaces with external contractor’s business systems. The technical staff can easily manage exchange interfaces and set up new ones when needed, as the solution is highly intuitive and easy-to-use. Other features include:

• CSV, Excel, XML, Dynamics AX database support out-of-the-box. The additional media can be easily developed for custom data formats.
• Allows working with heterogeneous data.
• Helps avoid the most common data-handling pitfalls associated with human factor, prevents data inconsistency.
• Keeps data synchronized between applications. It is possible to choose periodic instead of real-time synchronization for better performance.
• Enables to easily view, understand, and extend functionality. All stages of data processing can be replaced with custom ones.

6. Issue of Purchase Orders from the Service Order lines bypassing the Master Plan

The system checks if the parts needed for repairs are available at the warehouse. In case they are not, the system creates the Purchase Order automatically from the Service Order lines. This helps shorten the repair time, as the parts can be requested immediately.

7. Reporting and BI features

We have introduced a robust BI functionality. Now it is possible to analyze the Company’s business processes, as well as provide various reports to partners. The reporting is tailored to the exact needs of each Company’s department and external contractor.

8. Enhanced customer care

Fast order placing through Enterprise Portal and Track and Trace system were not the only innovations to boost the customer satisfaction rate. We’ve also developed a number of tools to address the needs of the repair service customers.

• Escalation Tool works as a trouble-shooting system giving a complete overview of the issue.
• Re-repair Order Form tracks devices that need recurring warranty repairs. It contains a full description of damage and measures taken. In case the device that has already been repaired breaks up again, the system highlights that the customer should be offered a new device. The recurring issues with certain models are reported to the manufacturers

Results

With Dynamics AX 2012 R2 customized to fit its specific needs, the Company obtained a full scope business integration solution to address Dynamics AX service management. With Axiopea’s services the Company was able to

• Fasten order processing, now offering the average repair time of 3 days.
• Provide a unified access point for partners, customers and employees.
• Enhance interaction with partners. Each external contractor receives personalized packages of documents and reports.
• Provide additional services to business partners and customers.
• With data exchange solution, the company is able to efficiently interact with all external contractors integrating them into a single, well-coordinated network.
• Improve customer care and logistics.
• Optimize the document flow and reduce the handling time for both paper and digital documents.

The Company has streamlined the entire working process and created a well-coordinated network of customers and partners.

Need to develop similar Dynamics AX service management solution? Contact us!