The Province of Drenthe chooses Dynamics 365 Finance with key themes of efficiency and insight

After a market survey, the Province of Drenthe chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. Conclusion MBS was chosen as the implementation partner, and BDO selected to ensure compliance with government processes and legislation.

From market exploration to Conclusion MBS as a partner

Before the Province of Drenthe actually started working with BDO and Conclusion MBS, it spent some time exploring the market and defining the scope of the project. During the market exploration, the Province of Drenthe investigated the possibilities of different ERP solutions. "Specific government processes are not supported by default in Dynamics 365 Finance, but this was a requirement for us," explains project manager Arie Huisman. "Ultimately, the choice was made for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance combined with a complementary solution (Conclusion Public Sector Solution) for the specific government processes. Conclusion MBS, in collaboration with government expert BDO and the Province of Drenthe, ensured that the application did indeed meet the government's requirements."

After a successful Proof of Concept, the expertise of Conclusion MBS was called upon for the implementation. The three parties set to work together to determine the scope of the project. "We started with a phase in which we scrutinized processes and defined the right preconditions," Arie continues. "It was a bit of a search at times in the cooperation between BDO, Conclusion MBS and us as a provincial government, but in the end we were able to distinguish main issues from side issues and set a clear scope for the project." After completing the diagnostic phase, the project execution phase was carried out with Conclusion MBS.

Input, sprint, demo, repeat

Once the "on paper" phase had been completed, it was time to dive into the system. "From this point on, things really started running smoothly," says Johan Stulp, information supply coordinator for the finance, planning and control team. "We had a small and well-run team and really got to work. We sat together regularly in a common project room. That fostered cooperation and made it easy and quick for us to confer. What I found particularly successful is that we included end users right from the start. We sat down with them and incorporated their input into each sprint. At the end of a sprint, we gave a demo to all interested parties. We did this not only for knowledge transfer, but also for gaining trust. Introducing users to a system only after the project is finished is asking for trouble. Doing it this way ensured that end users were involved right from the start."

"Because you work in sprints and always give a demo, end users see results quickly," Arie adds. "For example, they were able to see how data is stored and how they could see that in concrete terms in a report we created directly with Microsoft Power BI. This approach ultimately made for a very smooth handover."

Public Sector Solution Makes a Difference

For the Province of Drenthe, the real difference lies in a so-called add-in as an addition to the Dynamics standard. "Within government bodies, financial processes are set up in a certain way," Arie explains. "Unlike in business, government bodies work very much on a budget basis and there is, for example, a VAT compensation fund that regulates VAT. These types of specific processes are not included in Microsoft's standard solution. Conclusion MBS has developed the Public Sector Solution (PSS) for this purpose, so that the system also supports all those processes. The people at Conclusion MBS not only understand implementing software systems. They also know Dynamics well and have experience within government bodies. That combination of knowledge and expertise was exactly what we needed to develop a suitable solution together."

"The PSS add-in was not fully ready at the start of the project, and that had advantages and disadvantages," Johan explains. "For example, we sometimes ran into the fact that we already had to go live with Dynamics, but certain things still had to be developed in PSS. Other finer details also still needed to be added within the solution. The advantage was that we from the Province of Drenthe could provide input on a number of functionalities. The solution now makes a difference not only for us, but hopefully also for other government bodies that work with Dynamics, or will in the future."

Flexibility in robust solution

In the end, the Province of Drenthe went live with a robust, flexible and future-proof ERP solution. This has made shadow records a thing of the past. "We now have a flexible system that supports us well in all finance-related areas," Johan says. "Previously, entries had to be made according to a set financial process. Now the amount of data to be captured depends on the type of transaction. That's a lot more efficient. We can also extract information from the system much more easily. If the requirements for the information to be reported change, we can easily move with them. In the old system, we were stuck with a certain structure. Now we have a stable base that we can adjust when desired."

Working together

Arie describes the cooperation with Conclusion MBS in one word as 'good.' "Conclusion MBS is very flexible and adapts easily with us. What I also found very powerful is that someone from Conclusion MBS was on the project's steering committee. This meant that we weren't talking about one another, but with one another. If you ask me, this has been a crucial success factor. This person was important for damping down any unrest or explaining certain things. It allowed us to keep moving in the same direction, and we ultimately completed the project successfully. We really did it together."