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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for Hotel Chains

Gem Hotels Case Study

"Users, who were used to working from the office, have been able to work from home due to the solution being deployed in the cloud."

Who are Gem Hotels?

Gem Hotels was born out of a long-established, family-owned brand of hotels. Gem hotels offer traditional comfort in elegant and beautifully designed rooms and offer a warm, personal & professional service.

What was the business challenge?

The new brand of hotels needed a finance system and one that worked in the cloud. It was required fast and ready for use on the 1st of January.

The users were used to a system that had been customised over the years to deliver exactly what they wanted, but they wanted to have a solution that was simpler, easy to keep up to date and did not require their own servers and IT team to run.

A cloud solution was important as the business wanted to start with a simple solution that was flexible enough to grow with the business and also enable a level of customisation to increase the sophistication.

THE BUSINESS BENEFITS

What business challenges lead to this project? 

The new brand of hotels needed a finance system and one that worked in the cloud. It was required fast and ready for use on the 1st Jan.

The users were used to a system that had been customised over the years to deliver exactly what they wanted, but they wanted to have a solution that was simpler, easy to keep up to date and did not require their own servers and IT team to run.

A cloud solution was important as the business wanted to start with a simple solution that was flexible enough to grow with the business and also enable a level of customisation to increase the sophistication.

What other issues needed to be considered?

The new company was going to be managed initially by a small team that needed to get up and running fast, while still having a full day-to-day workload to manage.

What possible solutions did you consider?

The users were used to an older, customised version of Dynamics NAV that was an on-premise solution.

However, going for an “on-premise” system that was a copy of their existing solution – while faster & lower risk – would not bring them the benefits of a true cloud solution. It also meant that they would be starting the new business on old technology, which wasn’t an ideal approach.

Why Did You Choose Cbiz and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Having worked with Dynamics NAV and Cbiz for many years in the previous company made choosing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central a natural progression. As Cbiz understood the business and had worked with several of the team before, they were also a natural choice to engage with and support this new venture.

What Would Have Happened If You Had NOT Made The Purchase?

Not getting a Finance system was not an option. The volume of transactions and the need to pay suppliers on time and ensure customers were effectively chased was a core requirement for the business.

Using a smaller ‘of the shelf’ solution or getting into a bigger and more complex solution were not ideas that would have worked for Gem.

What Risks Did You Consider?

The biggest risk was not getting a system that worked for us. Having a team that is used to a customised system meant that features they expected to be there were not. We knew the core of what we needed was there in the ‘out of the box’ Business Central solution, so we knew we could get going. However, the team were under high workloads already so there was a risk that they had to work even longer hours to cope with key productivity features customised into their old system.

We had trust in Cbiz that they were able to deliver these features once we got started. Meaning the extra workload could be addressed with new tweaks & features in the coming weeks and months.

We also had to selectively get data from the existing system into the new one in a short time scale over the Christmas holidays. This was complex as it needed a precise selection of data from selected dimensions and was not fully defined at the start of the project. If the initial requirements changed, this risked adding extra hours and costs onto the project.

HOW OUR SOLUTION HELPED

What benefits have you seen?
"Users, who were used to working from the office, have been able to work from home due to the solution being deployed in the cloud.

We have a system that lets us get more done and is almost up to the same performance metrics as the previous (customised) solution. Even though we have implemented some customisation, we have had several small updates and a full version upgrade happen with no issues. They were simple, easy, and without additional costs. This would have been a completely different story had we gone with the older versions of this system."

Gem Hotels Ltd

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THE MISSION

We are here to get more done. Daily.

Seeing the time saved once the solution is installed has compelled us to create this tailorable solution as an Extension to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. 

Extending your solution without compromising on getting timely upgrades.

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