By introducing the Microsoft Dynamics NAV information system, Moderna obtained a stable and unified platform for processing business information and processes. The solution has shortened response time to user requests, reflects the fact that the company does business internationally and provided for quality on-line output for managerial decision-making. By linking the new system with electronic orders and invoice payment systems, the shipping processes have been automated in a highly secure system.

Over its 10 years of existence, Moderna became a major cutting center for all types of window boards currently used.

Moderna is employing seventy employees and is active in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austria. The company uses high performance and high quality NC cutting machines, providing for a high cutting precision, and high performance packaging lines. However, good technology is nothing more than one of the requirements needed to reach business aims. To be able to use the technology in the most efficient manner, it is necessary to link it to a reliable and high-performance information infrastructure, suitable to the needs of the company and substantially supporting the reaching of its strategic and business goals.

Analysis of Original Situation

The company used several more or less interconnected systems, used to register and process business information and processes. As the company grew dynamically, these systems failed to cope with the increasing requirements posed on them. The most significant problem was in the very long response times of individual applications. Apart from speeding up responses to users, the introduction of a new information system was to introduce automated support of production and economic processes. Optimizing the selection of semi-finished products for cutting specific dimensions is important for the production of hundreds of thousands of individually-sized window boards. This is why the most important criteria were system reliability and stability, possibility to perform maintenance in-house and to adapt its functionality, including the possibility to extend the system with new modules.

Requirements on the New System

The necessity to reflect the international dimension of business of Moderna was added to the above requirements. Besides from automating processes, legal systems, currencies and language versions needed to be interconnected as well. The aim was not only to link at the physical level but also to link internal and external processes that previously were not interconnected. For example, a method of integration with the INTRASTAT CS application needed to be designed for sending monthly electronic reports to the statistics authority. Import of sales orders in the form of a text file from an external system was required as well. The information system had to provide quality on-line outputs for monitoring revenues, up-to-date evaluation of meeting the business plan, i.e. the necessary basis for managerial decision-making. The new system also had to be linked to the system of electronic ordering and to the bank system for payment of invoices. The Multicash system provides for linking to all banks, including accounts established in abroad.

In relation to the main product line, it was necessary to provide for linking the new information system to the so-called NC stopper, measuring the length when cutting window boards. On the basis of the data measured, bar code labels are printed and stuck to the cut window boards, providing for clear further identification in the shipment process.

High Security Level

The customer selected a solution from Gratex International, based on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV information system. To reach the highest possible convergence of the system functions with customer requirements, the OnTarget methodology was used during the implementation. This method is used to monitor the adherence to the time schedule and the budget of the project.

As requested by the customer, the philosophy of architecture connecting the information system and the electronic business by an independent database has been preserved; only data necessary for independent operation of the electronic trade are replicated from NAV to this database. This architecture guarantees a high security level of the entire system and provides for maintenance of consistence of data structures.

Besides from supporting standard processes such as production, customer acquisition, price quotations and invoicing, the solution has been extended to include functions reflecting the activities of Moderna at foreign markets. As an example, accounting of receivables and liabilities uses an automated periodical transfer of the current exchange rates of the National Bank of Slovakia into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution and the subsequent calculation of the exchange rate losses or gains at the payment of the receivable or of the liability.

By implementing Business Intelligence methods, it is possible to get current outputs from the system, enabling for strategic decision-making of managers, such as analyses of sales according to goods, analyses of customer structures, and cash flow reports.

Automating Reduces Error Rates

By integrating Microsoft Dynamics NAV and its electronic store, Moderna enabled its regular customers to send their orders not only by standard fax or e-mail channels but also using a web application. Automating the entire process substantially increases production efficiency and prevents errors. For example, in the shipping process, products are loaded on vehicles according to routes of each vehicle; the window boards for the customer served first will be loaded on the very top.

In the future, the system can be dynamically adapted to specific customer needs according to the growth of the customer and/or changes in their production process.

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