Migration from 1C to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: successful experience of Eurocon Ukraine

The migration from the russian accounting system 1C to the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has been successfully completed at Eurocon Ukraine, a leading construction company. The project was delivered by Innoware, a consulting company with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations in Ukraine and worldwide implement innovative Microsoft-based ERP, CRM and HR solutions.

Eurocon Ukraine is a subsidiary of the international construction group Nordecon, operating in nearly every segment of the construction market. As one of Estonia’s largest construction groups, Nordecon has more than 26 years of experience delivering projects in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Germany and Ukraine.

Eurocon Ukraine entered Ukrainian market in 2003 and has completed more than 90 projects across the country, including industrial facilities, logistics complexes, shopping centers, residential complexes, hotels and business centers. General contracting services are the core business of Eurocon Ukraine. The company performs a full chain of the construction process from architectural design works to handing over a project as a turnkey solution.

Organizational prerequisites

Driven by rapid business growth, Eurocon Ukraine required a modern ERP solution with advanced functionality and seamless integration capabilities for specialized construction industry applications. At the same time, the management of both the parent and Ukrainian companies considered the continued use of 1C unacceptable in Eurocon Ukraine. Given the financial, security and reputational risks, the company’s management initiated a project to migrate from the sanctioned russian accounting system to the modern, secure and world’s most widely used ERP system – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Solution selection

The parent company, Nordecon, has been using ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as its corporate solution for more than 10 years, enabling the automation and unification of business processes across the international construction group. Based on Nordecon’s many years of successful experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the company’s management decided to implement the same ERP system at Eurocon Ukraine.

Additional arguments in favor of implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central included:

• the availability in Ukraine of a company that develops Ukrainian localization of the solution, which fully complies with local legislative requirements for financial accounting, tax accounting, personnel accounting and payroll processing;
• the high level of security of Microsoft software products;
• flexibility and the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products and third-party solutions, including Bauwise (specialized software for managing construction company costs);
• the optimal balance between price and quality.

Implementation partner selection

Nordecon’s management took a highly responsible approach to selecting an implementation partner for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central at Eurocon Ukraine. The mandatory requirements for the partner included a proven implementation methodology, the ability to analyze and model business processes within the ERP system, a high level of expertise in Ukrainian financial and tax legislation among the consultants involved in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation project at Eurocon Ukraine, as well as an officially developed Ukrainian localization published on Microsoft Marketplace (AppSource).

Based on the results of a detailed analysis, Nordecon’s management selected Innoware, a certified Microsoft partner that fully met the above requirements and has successfully delivered more than 500 Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, CRM and HR implementation projects for companies across various industries in Ukraine and around the world.

Implementation approach and project stages

The implementation of ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central at Eurocon Ukraine began with defining and agreeing on the project scope. Workshops and training sessions on the standard functionality of the system were conducted for the customer’s team based on the identified business processes. As a result, the customer’s additional needs, objectives, requirements and expectations were identified.

The next stage involved migrating the industry-specific modifications developed for the parent company, Nordecon, to the system, as well as implementing the customizations required for Eurocon Ukraine.

At the same time, the implementation team from Eurocon Ukraine prepared the data for migration from 1C to the new ERP system Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Where necessary, the data was supplemented with additional information.

The final stage of the project included additional user training and system testing by end users.