Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management up and running in 2 weeks? Extraordinary but possible

In just two weeks, the teams from Agic Technology and Invitalia, the National Agency for Economic Development, worked together to implement the ERP Dynamics365 Supply Chain Management system, succeeding in making the entire supply chain management system operational.

Implementing a supply chain system for a company is an operation that has always taken months, especially to make a complete and efficient solution capable of managing all phases and actors operational. How was it possible, in just 2 weeks, for Agic Technology to make Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management operational to help Invitalia deal with the pandemic?

When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Italy, Invitalia took over the management of the acquisition and distribution of essential personal protective equipment (PPE), medicines, medical devices and other supplies from various international sources. At that point, Invitalia needed a new logistics solution to streamline the process of purchasing and distributing the many units of PPE from international manufacturers that met safety, quality and expedited shipping standards.

"The situation in Italy was critical at the time, and the international PPE market was complicated, with many buyers all looking for a limited supply of equipment. Because demand for IPR worldwide was so high and supply was limited, very often it was a first-come, first-served situation, so it was essential to react as quickly as possible," - Fabrizio Bellezza, Chief Information Officer at Invitalia.

In this emergency scenario, it was not possible to wait for the canonical timeframes that a software platform and an ERP need. The implementation of an intelligent and fast cloud application was the only solution to consider. After careful evaluations and with the support of the Microsoft and Agic Technology teams, the solution fell on Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. With the aim of giving maximum support in the management of the pandemic, the Invitalia team began working with Agic Technology to make Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management operational.

"The pandemic was ongoing, every day Invitalia had new requirements to manage. They were really overloaded, and the solution had to be quick and simple, but comprehensive. In order to achieve the goals in time, we had to get through the pandemic." (Giuseppe La Mantia, partner at Agic).

Agic Technology helped Invitalia (which had previously embraced Microsoft's cloud, Azure) implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management in just two weeks, providing a comprehensive, secure and streamlined tool to manage planning, production, inventory and transportation functionality.

"We worked day and night," explained La Mantia, "seven days a week. In a very short amount of time, we executed all phases of a project plan, from analysis to deployment, working together to produce a solution design that could be representative of the needs of the COVID task force. Each deliverable was shared with the IT project team and then the business team to make sure we were getting the expected results. After designing the solution, we performed configuration and simple customizations, showing defined mockups to share interim results. Then we made adjustments and moved forward to the final goals, tested the solution and trained the users, and then organized everything for the implementation of the solution."

Thanks to Agic Technology and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Invitalia has drastically reduced the time it takes to implement an ERP, using it for purposes that are as important as they are urgent. Invitalia's team put Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to work in managing relationships with all suppliers, fulfilling hundreds of orders per day and providing more than a thousand hospitals with what they needed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

"Agic and Microsoft really brought their best resources to help us, and we really appreciated their deep knowledge and expertise. We also learned a lot about our own capabilities, because a critical moment like this teaches you a lot about yourself and makes you discover strengths you didn't know you had," commented F. Bellezza on behalf of Invitalia.

"As a company and as a team we have learned that we can achieve very challenging goals by working together with partners and customers in the same direction and understood that if you are driven by a very strong motivation you can overcome personal limitations and aim straight for the goal," (G. La Mantia).

Danilo Stancato