NSW Ports shaves up to 80% off its invoice approval time using Dynamics 365

NSW Ports is a cornerstone of Australia’s trade infrastructure, managing millions of tonnes of freight each year through Port Botany in Sydney and Port Kembla in Wollongong. This includes both imports and exports destined for domestic and international markets. In fact, more than 42 per cent of goods in a typical Sydney household are imported in containers through Port Botany, while all of NSW’s motor vehicle imports arrive through Port Kembla.

The organisation also manages the Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre and Cooks River Intermodal Terminal. With direct rail links to Port Botany, these intermodal hubs play a key role in supporting freight movements across NSW and helping to reduce the number of trucks on Sydney’s busy roads.

NSW Ports’ finance division serves as the backbone of this extensive operation. It has a vital role to play in ensuring the seamless and efficient management of all the financial transactions that underpin trade flow. With its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform nearing the end of its lifecycle, NSW Ports needed to find a suitable replacement – one that could not only maintain but improve the productivity of its finance team and the broader business.

“Our on-premise platform – built on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 – was heavily customised, so we needed to ensure that we wouldn’t lose any of those capabilities that streamlined our processes,” says Ruby Mamungay, Group Finance Manager at NSW Ports. “We needed a SaaS [software-as-a-service] solution that could enable us to do more and align with our future plans.”

Deciding on Dynamics 365 Finance

NSW Ports’ selection process for its new ERP platform was thorough and included weighing up Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance against competing solutions from SAP and MYOB. Ultimately, the organisation chose Dynamics 365 because it was a natural progression from Dynamics AX and also integrated seamlessly with other Microsoft services.

“Dynamics 365’s alignment with our existing Microsoft tech stack promised a level of integration that was hard to match,” says Joshua Davidson, Head of IT at NSW Ports. “We were already heavily invested in Microsoft Power BI as our business intelligence and data visualisation tool, so the ease of integrating it with Dynamics 365 was a huge plus.

“Another advantage was the ability to build on the ERP platform in-house using Microsoft Power Platform.”

Gaining a Professional Advantage

In September 2022, NSW Ports engaged Microsoft partner Professional Advantage to help migrate its core financial system to Dynamics 365. The company had previously supported the implementation of NSW Ports’ Dynamics AX platform, so it was already familiar with the many customisations that had been put in place to serve the organisation’s unique operational needs.

“This familiarity enabled us to efficiently determine which customisations to migrate to the new cloud-based system, identify the Dynamics 365 standard features that could replace custom ones, and pinpoint new functionalities to improve the user experience,” says David Duke, a Dynamics 365 Functional Consultant at Professional Advantage.

Professional Advantage’s prior knowledge of NSW Ports’ existing ERP platform also proved beneficial in rapidly coordinating integrations with the technology vendors that power the organisation’s other key systems, including asset management, property management and shipping.

“Because we had already worked with some of the vendors, we were able to avoid the finger-pointing that can happen in multi-party projects,” Duke explains.

Healthy communication and a mutual sense of respect built up over many years working together was essential to the successful migration, according to Davidson.

“We were very transparent about what we wanted to achieve, and they were very honest about the best approach to take,” he says. “Our relationship is very open and honest, which allows us to trust one another.”

Executing an agile ERP reimplementation strategy

Importantly, Professional Advantage helped NSW Ports decide whether to perform a code upgrade or reimplement the ERP platform by setting out the pros and cons of each approach.

“We ended up choosing to do a reimplementation because we wanted to de-customise our ERP platform and try more of an ‘out-of-the-box’ approach,” says Davidson. This decision gave NSW Ports the flexibility to selectively transfer customisations and explore new enhancements to ensure Dynamics 365 could meet its current and future needs.

However, the reimplementation wasn’t without its challenges. The sheer number of customisations that needed to be transferred or replaced, and the multiple integrations with other systems that were required, added layers of complexity to the project.

“For example, our asset management system was integrated with Dynamics AX by SOAP [the Simple Object Access Protocol endpoint] but that API option wasn’t available in Dynamics 365, so we had to re-architecture the integration,” Davidson explains.

NSW Ports and Professional Advantage overcame these challenges by taking an agile approach with clearly defined development sprints, allocating necessary resources, and maintaining consistent communication between all parties via Microsoft Teams. This resulted in the reimplementation being completed on time and within budget in July 2023, according to Julia Tully, Engagement Leader at Professional Advantage.

“NSW Ports provided an excellent team to support its ERP migration to Dynamics 365,” she notes. “Having people seconded onto the project allowed us to move forward very quickly and efficiently, covering more ground than we had originally planned.”

Darran Croft, a Technical Consultant at Professional Advantage, praises the rigorous user acceptance testing of each customisation by subject matter experts at NSW Ports. “The engagement of its finance team was excellent, and Ruby was particularly meticulous with her testing, which meant very few issues emerged post-production.”

Streamlining the procurement process

NSW Ports has seen a marked transformation in its procurement process following the migration to Dynamics 365. Mamungay says the new ERP platform has enabled the automation of more business processes while boosting productivity, letting a wider range of employees to approve invoices through sub-delegation.

“Dynamics 365 has helped us significantly reduce the lead time for invoice approvals and minimise errors by keeping the entire process within one system,” she explains. “Previously, it could take up to one week before an invoice was approved, but now it can take as little as one day."

Davidson is also enthusiastic about the user-friendly nature of Dynamics 365, which he says has been well received by staff – especially those who interact with it intermittently. “People who only need to use the ERP platform a couple of times a week have told me it’s much easier to use,” he says.

Davidson also notes the ease of extracting data and generating financial reports in Dynamics 365, which in turn is enabling greater transparency and quicker decision-making.

Charting the course for continuous technological enhancement

NSW Ports is not just looking to sustain its current level of technological sophistication. It also wants to build on it, adding new ERP enhancements and integrations. These include continuous updates to future-proof its core financial system, as well as modernising its asset management system using Dynamics 365.

In addition, NSW Ports and Professional Advantage are exploring how Dynamics 365’s AI tools – including its invoice capture solution and cash flow forecasting capability – could further optimise operations. The organisation also aims to leverage Microsoft Fabric, an end-to-end data analytics solution, to elevate its business intelligence.

NSW Ports’ ongoing journey is a testament to the power of collaboration, the importance of a strategic vision and the boundless possibilities that a commitment to technological advancement can unlock.

As Mamungay says, “It’s not just about upgrading systems. It’s about propelling the business forward to new levels of efficiency and capability”.

With its new ERP platform, NSW Ports is well-equipped to continue driving the economic prosperity of NSW and Australia through its key trade gateways.

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