From focusing on local VAT to representing the EMEA region to the global parent company in the US.

Before DevElite

When the Center for Creative Leadership implemented Dynamics 365 under the guidance of their global ERP partner in the US, the Belgian office, responsible for the EMEA region, felt they were not getting enough local support.

The structure of CCL within EMEA is, in fact, quite complex. Not only are there several branches in Brussels, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Ethiopia, South Africa, Germany and the UK, each of those branches also constitutes a separate legal entity. Moreover, each of those countries has its own specific requirements.

This complex context meant that they were, for instance, unable to produce VAT reports, were late with submissions and had to do manual calculations outside the system to still more or less meet the requirements. In short, the structure they had implemented here was not working.

Therefore, they decided to look for an international partner with the necessary knowledge of Dynamics 365, the Belgian regulations, the various localisation modules and capable of providing that support directly to them.

Key pillars of collaboration with DevElite

It soon ensured that we did not just focus on VAT but deepened our collaboration and looked at a much broader scope.

We took the lead from an EMEA perspective, but it wasn’t just EMEA counterparts within CCL we needed to talk to. We also had to align ourselves with the global parent company in the US, and there, in addition to the finance team, you also have the IT team, who coordinate global projects.

So we had to integrate into the structure of the Center for Creative Leadership, rather than act as an external consultant. And we had to be prepared to understand their business first before making proposals. Therefore, to think along with them and help them understand what changes were imminent, we conducted regular, extensive discussions with their organisation.

We also gave examples of best practices at previous clients and discussed how this could work for CCL’s system.

CCL’s evolution and results

With our approach, we enabled CCL to make better decisions, which means they now have a working system that allows them to meet requirements. In short, they need to spend less time to be successful in what they do.

Giorgi R. Komakhidze has already worked with many consultants, from large multinationals to small, regional consultants. He appreciates DevElite in particular, not only because we have met their needs so far, but also because of our willingness to understand their organisation and the way we approached it.

Peter Maginelle: “You know, we were in a very vulnerable situation where things were not working, so our expectation was: make it work for us! And in that, DevElite succeeded with flying colours.”