Aartsen builds a completely new core application
Aartsen’s growth and diversification led to an increasing load on the central ERP system. The system still met the requirements, but it was certainly on its last legs. There was a growing awareness that a drastic intervention was needed to guarantee the further growth and sustainability of the company: the 30-year-old ERP system had to be replaced. An internal project team started a selection process to find suitable (standard) packages. However, Aartsen had several very specific requirements which no standard package could support, for instance, in the purchasing and sales processes and the communication to their suppliers. Furthermore, all the standard packages offered many unrequired functions, while the actually required functionality was missing. Adding this functionality to the standard packages would cost a lot of extra time and money on top of the costs of the new implementation. And the result was extremely uncertain.
Aartsen engaged an experienced external project manager who had a background with ERP suppliers. Following market research, he proposed investigating whether building an entirely new and future-proof ERP system would not be a better choice. Thinkwise came into the picture, due to the endless technological lifespan and the platform’s focus on extensive, complex systems. In a very short time, Thinkwise developed a modernized version of the sales screen from the Aartsen system. The speed with which this could be achieved and how complete the developed screen already was generated a lot of confidence, and on the basis of this successful demonstration Aartsen decided to opt for Thinkwise.
At that time, Mathijs Buzeijn, the current project manager of Fresh as the project was named, joined the company as an application manager and business analyst. Previously, he had been indirectly involved in the project from a commercial role.
Buzeijn: “Our slogan is ‘nonstopfresh’ and this led to the name Fresh. It stands for who we are, but also for the fresh new start that we wanted to make. We immediately decided to start with a relatively small subproject, but one with a significant impact for Aartsen. Installing new software always has a major impact, especially when you have been working with the same system for thirty years. On the commercial side, we have automated all communications to the suppliers about the daily sales. With this tool, we have achieved a tremendous improvement in efficiency and accuracy, and, in addition, we have removed all paper documents from the process, thereby eliminating a large amount of error-sensitive manual work.”
During the same period, Aartsen decided to not only replace the ERP system but also to digitize the entire paperwork of the financial administration with an Exact implementation. This project was combined with Fresh as Project Blue Banana, because right from the start we saw the connection between the two systems. Combining both projects provided many benefits.
Buzeijn: “This still didn’t include everything; we also had a separate CRM system from Microsoft.Through the successes with FRESH and Exact, we increasingly had the wish to bring everything under one roof. We then examined whether we could also include our CRM system in the new core application. And that was possible. An important benefit was to simplify the management of various individual systems, in particular where it concerns customer and supplier details. The CRM system was implemented fairly recently, so we could make good use of the lessons from this process during the development and integration in FRESH.”
Aartsen now had a brand-new basis for the ERP system, a connected Exact implementation, and an integrated CRM system. Ready for the next step.
Buzeijn explains how the following steps were executed:
“It was now the turn of purchasing and transport. We included some of our in-house developed modules within Fresh, combined with the daily communication from sales, during several intermediate implementations.”
“And then we were faced with a major dilemma,” the project leader sighed. “The entire sales and logistic processes were so connected with each other that we could not handle them as subprojects. So a Big Bang implementation was necessary. This is not what you actually want with such critical processes, but there was no choice. We have worked for eighteen months on that Big Bang. The system was not just completely modernized technically, but also extended with more functionality and many new processes, particularly with respect to logistics. This involved extensive digitalization, where we switched from paper order forms to processing via tablets.”
Aartsen considered taking such a large step to be a major risk and the possibility was always held open to return to the old solution. However, following the first implementation, Aartsen resolutely opted to continue. Because the last parallel run went so well, it was decided to bring forward the go-live by one week.
“That’s only possible if there is enough confidence. And that was certainly the case with Thinkwise,” Buzeijn concluded.
“Thinkwise has been our partner during the entire development phase,” says Buzeijn, very satisfied. “Six Thinkwise developers developed our core application, where required supplemented with internal and external experts. For example, we contracted a specialist for warehousing and scanning to review the warehouse structures and, on his advice, provide the aisles in the warehouse with barcodes.”
He continues: “The most important thing for us is that Thinkwise is a model-driven platform, and that our core application can continue to evolve with new future technologies. It is now future-proof. There will be additions to our core application, but what they will be remains to be seen.”
There has only been one brief interruption during the entire process.
Buzeijn: “Something went wrong in one of the logistic processes. That had to do with the functionality and the explosive growth of the volume of generated data. We had not anticipated that and we came to a brief standstill. We subsequently excluded that process, but due to the speed and flexibility of the platform, we could quickly take action and continue with the other processes. With help from Thinkwise, our network manager Twintos, and our IT team, we speedily resolved the problem. Quickly engaging with the right parties is important.”
Good arrangements have been made with Thinkwise about the after-care and the resolution of problems.
“Naturally, we have concluded a good SLA to this effect. Up till now we have had support every day, but since everything is now running so well, we are going to switch to the Thinkwise Service & Care department for support.”
The project leader is clear about the results of this extensive project:
“We have made a vast improvement in efficiency. We have much more customized functionality and the new core application provides possibilities to plan ahead. Employees can now see everything in real time in the system, without interruptions. It is now also visible where the best opportunities lie. So everything is now much more focused, resulting in less waste. In the office, we have a far better insight into how everything is operating from purchasing through to the final invoice to the supplier. In addition, we can monitor the processes much better and answer any questions that arise from the system ourselves.”
He is even planning next steps:
“Now, four months after the go-live, due to the success of the project there is the inclination to immediately proceed and continue development, but we have started cautiously with this. During the coming period, new functions will be implemented in our production environment each month via updates. We will only continue when everybody has become better acquainted with the new way of working.
There is still one ongoing project at our sales office in Asia. That is also being carried out in cooperation with Thinkwise, but it is separate from what we are doing in the Benelux, except that we share the basis of the application and the master data. With Thinkwise, we have both the platform and the capacity to continue to support the tremendous growth of Aartsen.”
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“Standard ERP packages do not providethe specialized functionality that weneed at Aartsen. So the best optionwas to fully redevelop our own coreapplication with the help of Thinkwise.”
Mathijs Buzeijn
Fresh project leader at Aartsen -
“Standard ERP packages do not providethe specialized functionality that weneed at Aartsen. So the best optionwas to fully redevelop our own coreapplication with the help of Thinkwise.”
Mathijs Buzeijn
Fresh project leader at Aartsen