Michelin drives success for its small businesses with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Rolling with a forward-looking strategy

Like the vast network of highways and roads traversed by its tires and its iconic travel guide, Michelin is always expanding. Innovation keeps the company on the move, and its goals for growth, market share, sustainability, and its competitive edge all demand that it grow by adding businesses that align with those goals. That’s why for Michelin, it’s not enough just to open more factories (it boasts 121 worldwide). The company constantly assesses the strategies that will take it where it wants to go, whether that involves a joint venture, a merger, or—often—fully acquiring a smaller company that offers specific expertise or product lines that align with Michelin’s long-term strategy. 

That means acquiring companies specializing in innovative recycled materials to further Michelin’s sustainability goals, along with diverse smaller manufacturers, like makers of industrial adhesives, fleet management companies to expand its shipping services, retailers, and much more. Those SMBs usually need help to bring their IT systems up to date and in line with Michelin IT standards. Often, they are burdened by unsupported, poorly functioning systems.

ERP systems are the lifeblood of the modern company, and Michelin knows that bringing new acquisitions online means coordinating financial systems. Its corporate ERP system is perfect for the core Michelin tire business but exceeds the requirements for SMBs on every level: it is more complex, expensive, and specialized than needed. When Michelin evaluated the features of Dynamics 365 Business Central along with the solution’s ease of deployment, it knew it had the best fit for the SMBs it had acquired.

Threading innovation throughout a global concern

Always critical to running a company at peak performance, IT systems are more vital to strategic corporate direction than ever before. “Michelin is not just a tire manufacturing company,” explains Cecile Latour, IT Director for ERPs and HR Solutions at Michelin. “Software and data are at the heart of Michelin’s strategy to support our sustainability and other goals. That’s why Michelin has designated IT as a key part of its operational structure.” 

Her team of more than 500 staff supports over 200 applications worldwide. Simplicity is essential to optimizing the talents of Latour’s IT professionals. “Our cloud-first strategy helps to minimize obsolescence,” she declares. “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-based solution that not only provides a modern interface and built-in security, it affords us the scalability of the cloud.” 

Standardizing on an ERP choice particularly suited to smaller businesses creates much-valued efficiency for Latour’s team, but like her Michelin colleagues, she’s adamant that the solution fits the business—not the other way around. And given Michelin’s expertise in Microsoft 365 for productivity apps (like Outlook, Excel, and Microsoft Teams) and Microsoft Power Platform, Business Central rounds out an interconnected environment. “We prefer SaaS and other cloud options at Michelin,” says Agnès Pourrat, Enterprise Architect, Mergers and Acquisitions at Michelin. “But for our new companies, we also look for an ERP system that facilitates the user experience securely. Business Central checks all the boxes: it’s an easy-to-deploy SaaS solution that combines ERP functionality with Microsoft 365 productivity apps and multifactor authentication.”

Putting business needs first, partnering strategically 

Arriving at a commercial agency with a sympathetic ear rather than a mandate is vital to success for both Michelin and its subsidiaries. “We genuinely want to support the commercial agencies as they adopt new processes that enable growth,” says Julie Parizel, ERP Transformation Program Manager at Michelin. She leads a cross-functional team of business process and IT professionals. “When they know that, they trust us, and that trust makes change much easier,” Ms. Parizel continues. 

At Michelin, IT and Transformation teams work together, aided by technical expertise from enterprise architecture experts, to ensure the consistency of integration within Michelin’s ecosystem. Even though Michelin has IT teams around the globe, the company benefits from engaging with a consulting firm that has deep experience in deploying and maintaining Business Central. It worked with COSMO CONSULT, a global consultancy and Microsoft Solutions Partner. “We work easily with COSMO CONSULT,” says Ms. Pourrat. “COSMO works closely with Microsoft to help localize Business Central, submit ideas for new features, and make every deployment successful.” 

Business Central enables a faster implementation than a more complex ERP. “Business Central is very agile, and the features are flexible, so it is very easy for us to install and maintain,” points out Ms. Parizel. “The IT teams can build a new production environment in a few clicks, so installation takes just 6 to 12 months.” She is gratified by the metrics that underscore low impact on business continuity. “With our latest Business Central deployment, the commercial agency reached 64 percent of its sales plan in just four days," she adds. “By the end of the month, they’d exceeded the plan, attaining 134 percent of the projection.”

Powering diverse companies with a best-fit, future-focused ERP

With a few exceptions created by very specialized needs, most companies deploy Business Central, using financial management, sales, and supply chain management features. Later, they can add more advanced functionality. “Our subsidiaries are very happy with Business Central,” continues Ms. Parizel. “It has such a clean, modern interface that people enjoy using, and the interoperability with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform is very powerful.” 

Ms. Latour finds that Business Central offers the sophisticated functionality Michelin needs for a global subsidiary network. It handles multiple currencies across the ten countries where it is now deployed, with two additional deployments underway. “We’ve connected Business Central to Power BI to build a strong data repository and generate analytics and other reports,” says Ms. Latour. 

Mmes. Latour, Parizel, and Pourrat look forward to expanding Michelin’s use of Business Central with AI capabilities and next-generation solutions. “Generative AI is part of our priority at Michelin,” concludes Ms. Latour. “So we are exploring the new opportunities, the new features that can help us to improve the efficiency of our day-to-day business, for our IT teams and all the people they support.”

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