Case Study
UST helped a beverage company save failing D365 implementation and support project, resolved 70% of backlogged tickets
OUR CLIENT
Founded nearly a century ago, this Japan-based beverage company strives to bring people together through shared moments of joy. The company employs nearly 1,000 people and generates more than ¥1 billion annually.
THE CHALLENGE
Saving a botched Microsoft Dynamics 365 deployment
The company hired a partner to lead its Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) implementation and provide post-implementation support. However, the bungled project caused company leaders to lose confidence in the implementation vendor and search for an application managed services (AMS) partner to help resolve these issues:
- Communication gaps—between business leaders, technical teams, and the partner
- Scope creep—from poor oversight of the agreed-upon engagement
- A lack of standardization—across processes, tools, and documentation
- Resource issues—since the partner didn’t staff the project with the right talent
THE TRANSFORMATION
Fixing communication gaps in D365 implementation to regain trust and drive user adoption
After replacing the incumbent deployment vendor, UST’s AMS team designed a four-pronged strategy to deliver a successful D365 implementation, drive rapid user adoption, and achieve maximum solution benefits. The strategy consisted of:
- An assessment of solution functionality and resources—By engaging in detailed discussions with the company’s IT team and business users, our AMS team understood functional and skill gaps and coordinated with UST’s D365 center of excellence to secure the right talent, such as solution architects, to ensure the solution would meet the company’s needs.
- Standardization of processes, tools, and documentation—By following best practices based on guidance from UST’s application development and managed services centers of excellence, such as a self-service knowledge repository, FAQs, and project management enhancements to the Azure DevOps tool, the entire project team seamlessly worked together to deploy the D365 solution.
- Tight collaboration with company leadership—By establishing a network of “change champions,” executives and department leaders collectively advocated for the D365 implementation and created a positive atmosphere for organizational change.
- Meticulous guidance by a change management office—Robust communications channels, executive and stakeholder sponsors, clear governance policies, and an issue escalation path helped support a D365 awareness campaign to drive user adoption.
THE IMPACT
Managing change drove user adoption, resolved 70% of backlogged tickets
By creating a change management strategy customized to the company’s application deployment and organizational needs, company leaders regained trust in the D365 implementation and employees adopted the solution en masse. Standardized, high-quality application support services helped resolve 70% of backlogged tickets in the first two months of AMS delivery and increased issue resolution efficiency by 20%.
Resources
https://www.ust.com/en/what-we-do/strategy-implementation-operations
https://www.ust.com/en/what-we-do/strategy-implementation-operations/custom-application-engineering