Schréder runs digital with Dynamics 365

Like moving from incandescent bulbs to LEDs

For 117 years, Schréder has been building partnerships and relationships that guide the company in understanding the specific needs of local environments. These days, that means providing the technology to power smart cities. To meet the challenges of a new era in outdoor lighting, Schréder embarked on its own technology modernization, moving to a centralized, cloud-based, agile enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

With 11 disparate legacy ERP systems, including Infor LN (formerly Baan) and Infor M3 (formerly MoveX), misalignments were frequent. Schréder’s business is global and moving faster than ever. Projects are defined by new complexities that require more software and more data to manage. The old systems simply couldn’t keep up. Moving to a software as a service (SaaS) model with Microsoft Dynamics 365, with its single, centralized platform and continuous updates, would both eliminate misalignments and save on costly maintenance. Transforming the entire enterprise to run on Dynamics 365 would be like moving from incandescent lighting to LED technology.

Just as important as an energy-efficient ERP are Schréder’s relationships with its customers, both internal and external. The firm is committed to delivering an exceptional customer journey, and Dynamics 365 offers a common platform for customer relationship management (CRM) that includes increased security with a focus on protection, detection, and remediation.

Schréder aimed to improve quality and productivity, reduce costs, and have the right data at the right time in the right way to continue lighting the world for its customers. By illuminating data and revealing actionable analytics, Microsoft Dynamics 365 was a bright idea.

The Schréder way of running digital

The company’s reliance on multiple disparate ERP and CRM systems gave leaders an obstructed view of transactions and prevented effective collaboration among and across teams. Now, a single platform with applications shared across the enterprise allows Schréder to manage all data centrally and unify reporting.

Moreover, total digitization—this “one-flow” approach—has unified and standardized processes across a complex intercompany structure. The foundational template is the same for each of the company’s separate entities but can be customized for unique requirements.

The sweeping digital transformation involves cleansing, synchronizing, and centralizing data into a single environment. The project’s scope includes implementing Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Sales using dual-write for automated, near-real-time data flow between modules. Tightly coupled, real-time, and bidirectional integration of finance, operational, and customer engagement information offers a truly holistic view that enables Schréder to provide exceptional service to its customers.

A critical component of the project’s success was establishing a change manager to lead the process and ease the adoption of the new solution within the operating companies. Training, regular evaluation of user sentiment, and a dedicated hypercare team ensured that users were equipped with the tools they needed to be successful in the new environment. Strong executive sponsorship, sharing of best practices, and the user-friendliness of Dynamics 365 guided the transformation, delivering enhanced efficiency and productivity.

Streamlining complexity, simplifying compliance

Schréder operates as multiple legal entities in different countries, each focusing on sales, engineering, manufacturing, or distribution. As they grow, so do their product range, customer base, and business complexities like intercompany transactions. Doing business across borders makes shipping, order fulfillment, and other processes more challenging. Only a centralized, cloud-based platform with out-of-the-box flexibility like Dynamics 365 could simplify and streamline these complex interactions.

The tax implications of operating multiple legal entities around the world created a particularly complex challenge. Tax calculation in Dynamics 365 Finance automates and simplifies the process of calculating taxes in compliance with local regulations, including determining tax rates and VAT IDs. It provides flexibility to scale and support a growing international company, reducing spending that would otherwise be invested in costly customizations to support complex tax scenarios such as transfer pricing and similar distribution models. Together, tax calculation and Dynamics 365 Globalization Studio simplify global electronic invoicing, tax reporting, tax auditing, and related processes, ensuring accurate and timely tax compliance.

Brighter customer journeys, smarter production choices

As complex and far-reaching as its business is, ultimately Schréder is a family company that regards its customer relationships as its most prized asset. Schréder builds its global success locally by understanding the environments, vision, and needs of its customers—the communities, organizations, and venues where Schréder lighting systems are installed. Improving the journey from quote to installation is key to good customer relations.

Schréder prides itself on its ability to offer endlessly customizable product solutions to suit its customers' needs. With a portfolio of 300 products, each with a million standard variants, its catalog can potentially include 300 million SKUs. Dynamics 365 provides the flexibility required to maintain the best variation output for customers based on enterprise-wide availability and lead-time for transport. Using DXC Technology’s solution for master company data sharing, Dynamics 365 makes sure that data that’s released to Schréder's commercial entities is clean. This is critical, because at the scale at which Schréder does business and with the company’s deep commitment to customer relationships, a standardized but local approach to quotes is essential. Configurable price quotes and speedy generation of accurate proposals improves lead conversion and promotes faster sales cycles.

Dynamics 365 is the perfect tool for Schréder to streamline the relationship between sales and manufacturing. "Imagine our sales teams sitting in a cockpit. They have all the controls at their fingertips and can deliver exactly the right information to get them where they want to land,” says Denis Mortiaux, Chief Regional Director, Benelux, Schréder. With one common Dynamics 365 solution around the globe, each commercial entity can execute transactions in the same system, with real-time data, eliminating inconsistent or inaccurate quotes and supply chain misalignments. The commercial entities can collaborate with factories to ensure that materials are in the right place when they’re needed, reducing stockpiles and speeding delivery.

With a business that has many configure-to-order needs, product maintenance is complicated. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management seamlessly integrates with the Bluestar PLM (product lifecycle management) solution for full visibility between production and sales, not just speeding the quotation process but harmonizing it. The result is a more agile company that’s able to identify and remediate quality issues before they become too costly to fix or risk disappointing customers.

Dynamics 365 streamlines product delivery cycles, driving superior customer and sales journeys. It eases the job of Schréder’s sales teams, who work in the field to stay close to customers to better understand their needs. The company’s vision of a future in which sales representatives work on site with tablets to design a lighting solution with pricing and timing on the spot is fast becoming today’s reality.

Shining a light on results

The success of the sweeping initiative can hardly be overstated. Here are just a few of the benefits Schréder has realized as a result of its digital transformation.

Risk mitigation

Replacing multiple dated systems with Dynamics 365—a modern, resilient SaaS solution—has increased security with a focus on data protection, anomaly detection and remediation, removing risk from antiquated, out-of-support system failures and reducing cyber security vulnerabilities.

Cost savings

The breadth of configurable capabilities, a common data platform, and flexible architecture of Dynamics 365 have reduced costs through more fluid and efficient supply chain and quote-to-cash processes and better data quality and visibility.

Faster, more predictable rollouts

Schréder defined a template for future Dynamics 365 rollouts to make the work more predictable and efficient. The company’s One-flow framework speeds data migration and all other aspects of implementation, supporting the goal of seven or eight rollouts per year.

Central data management

With common data definitions, centralized data management, ease of integration, and simplified maintenance, Schréder has enhanced enterprise-wide analytics capabilities to inform business decision making. As Mortiaux puts it, “Our growth and our ability to proactively serve our customers relies on robust data and a robust platform. Simply put, Dynamics 365 is key to our future.”

Simpler tax compliance

With Dynamics 365 Globalization Studio, Dynamics 365 Finance tax calculation, and built-in compliance reporting, tax compliance is straightforward and easily maintained with no custom logic needed. Configurable parameters allow handling more complex scenarios, are fully integrated end-to-end, and support tax reporting formats in different countries.

Lighting the way forward

Schréder has a cloud-first, Microsoft-first strategy and looks forward to a long partnership as the company continues its journey, rolling out Dynamics 365 to all sales entities worldwide. Next steps include a planned expansion to seven manufacturing sites, and further investments in Dynamics 365 planning optimization, asset management, and inventory management tools.

At its core, Schréder is a customer-driven company dedicated to achieving its customers’ vision. With Dynamics 365, it has a powerful tool to help its customers more accurately plan the budgeting, timing, and execution of the projects that light up our world.