INTWO (KSA)

RGF Staffing
RGF Staffing Netherlands is one of the nation’s leading Human Resources services providers.
Its numerous brands include Start People, Unique, ASA, USG Engineering, Technicum, USG Professionals and Secretary Plus. Its client base operates across a wide number of sectors – from government to technology; logistics to small and medium enterprises.

When it became clear that the company needed a high performant, future-ready, IT infrastructure, RGF Staffing began searching for a reliable solutions provider to help them migrate their entire suite of services to the cloud.

However, with a previous provider unable to migrate the environment they’d already established, RGF Staffing faced a dilemma: their entire staffing software platform needed to go live in just 8 weeks. Along with the migration was the need to support thousands of users each day, and process 20,000 pay slips every week; the pressure was on to find a capable managed services provider who could deliver the capacity, speed, security, and scalability that the business needed.

The challenge
RGF Staffing helps more than 100,000 people per year in the Netherlands to find and secure employment opportunities.

As part of a technology overhaul, RGF Staffing was in the process of adopting Mysolution staffing software – essentially the task was to replace costly siloed applications into one integrated staffing software solution, so that RGF Staffing could digitize all business processes and improve efficiency of all 1,500 of its skilled staffing agents within Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision).

While a number of its business units were actively using Mysolution, to deploy it at scale, broaden overall capacity, provide proper efficiency, and easily accommodate thousands of users each day without issue, RGF Staffing knew there was an urgency to partner with an Expert Managed Services Provider to migrate their servers to the cloud.

Microsoft Azure was the obvious choice. Not only would it allow RGF Staffing to accelerate their digital ambitions, they’d also be able to offer a best-in-class experience for both customers and candidates – helping RGF Staffing drive more profits too.

However, the current managed services provider did not have the essential Microsoft NAV in combination of Azure cloud capabilities to provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They needed a global services provider that had a proven track record with managing Dynamics NAV environments on Microsoft Azure. This was proving difficult as many providers either specialized in one or the other.

In terms of technical requirements, there was a necessity to migrate the production environments from the current business units from one managed service provider to another in just eight weeks and to scale up to 1,500 concurrent users in Microsoft Dynamics. This means that testing, validating, and sign off would need to be completed within this incredibly short timeframe, especially given the project’s scale.

With a large number of users waiting, go-live dates being postponed for the previous 9 months, and the fact RGF Staffing need to process about 20,000 salary slips every week, time was very much of the essence.

The solution

RGF Staffing turned to Intwo to make sure everything happened on time, on budget, and in the way that it was supposed to. After a series of discovery workshops to better understand their landscape, Intwo began to create a time-critical deployment methodology to ensure RGF Staffing’s deadline could be met.

By introducing Azure DevOps, Intwo was able to give RGF Staffing additional functionality they didn’t have before – including the ability to increase capacity according to the number of users, reduce the amount of time taken to troubleshoot real-time data, and speed up other aspects of RGF Staffing’s systems and its governance and security. The first step was to design a cloud native architecture for Microsoft Dynamics NAV on Microsoft Azure, before deploying Azure SQL Databases, a Dynamics NAV Service Tier auto-scaling set, and Microsoft Azure Web Apps with Azure DevOps service.

The key to Intwo’s approach with its CloudCARE service: a combination of industry-leading tools, experience and expertise, international compliance standards, and a proven four-stage methodology:

1. Assessment & Design
2. Deployment
3. Operation & Support
4. Continuous Improvement

The result

By choosing Intwo, RGF Staffing ensured their most important and business-critical applications had solid security, were high performant, and had 24/7 global support. In addition to expertise and skills, teamwork and collaboration were also fundamental to the project’s success. Once a week, both project teams would sit together and solve problems, helping make the single largest IT project in the history of RGF Staffing, thanks to Intwo, a complete success.

Luma Energy
Currently, more than 4,000 ransomware attacks occur daily; for this reason, increasing security levels has become one of the priorities of all companies, regardless of their size or industry.
Our client, Luma Energy, the leading energy company in Puerto Rico, wanted to achieve better control, compliance, and governance of their 5,000 desktops and servers to ensure the proper management of their devices while minimizing the likelihood of cyber-attacks.

Luma knows that Security is not an option but a necessity since they know the consequences that an attack can cause. If a company like Luma suffered a cyberattack, it would affect the essential services offered to roughly 1,500,000 customers while having an economic impact that would cause millions in losses.

Luma has been developing digital transformation to increase its company’s resiliency. For this reason, they obtained our managed Cloud Managed Ops service, where Intwo has designed, migrated, and operated the entire cloud solution in Azure 24×7, where the most critical applications for the business reside, such as MiLUMA. MiLUMA is a portal Luma uses to serve over 500,000 customers. Even so, they had the concern and the need to increase security and compliance.

Thanks to their excellent relationship with our team of experts, we developed a bulletproof solution to offer them peace of mind. We devised a plan and deployed agents in all servers and endpoints to have better visibility and control of the patching task.

We offered Intwo’s Endpoint Security & Compliance Patch Management solution for 5,000 devices on top of our existing Azure Managed Services (Cloud Managed Ops).
 

Through this solution, we protect all of Luma’s end-user devices, including laptops, desktops, servers, and mobile devices. We offered 24/7 active monitoring and controlling endpoint behavior and connections. With this solution, we guarantee the proper use of the devices by minimizing the risk of an attack.

Now our customer can focus its forces on offering the best service to its customers because our security experts are in charge of their systems.

We use three of Microsoft’s most powerful cybersecurity platforms, which will let us take preventive and remedial action the instant that malicious activity has been identified in your organization.

Our mission is to provide you with everything you need to ensure your systems’ effective and safe operation.

Insulet Corporation
Insulet Corporation is on a mission to improve the lives of people with diabetes, through its revolutionary Omnipod® Insulin Management System.
The dedication to bring innovative products to the market and pioneer new technologies, has resulted for Insulet to be named number 4 on the Forbes 2017 list of the “Most Innovative Growth Companies”. Insulet’s strategic plan calls for growing their business both within North America and internationally.

In order to achieve a global footprint, they needed to upgrade their existing Dynamics® AX 4.0 ERP solution. Relying upon Intwo’s experience, Insulet chose to leverage the latest capabilities in the Dynamics AX 2012 R3 version by deploying on Microsoft Azure. By adopting the Intwo cloud-deployment strategy on Microsoft Azure, Insulet can focus on its core business without the headache of managing the necessary infrastructure. In this way, they are guaranteed 24/7 support from Intwo’s global operations centers and the peace of mind that comes with running their mission critical system on the world’s most stable Cloud platform – Microsoft Azure.

The decision criteria that Insulet evaluated given their options to upgrade and migrate to Dynamics AX 2012 R3 on Azure were as follows:

• Ability to expand globally
• Integration with ISV solutions
• High availability of application and services
• HIPPA and FDA compliant
• SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 audited

With over 300 Dynamics AX deployments, Intwo consulted with and advised Insulet that migrating their AX 2012 R3 system to Microsoft Azure was their best option for a successful implementation.

Agile, reliable and business critical
Several hundreds of Insulet employees are now benefiting from the full potential of Dynamics AX 2012 on Azure, including integration with Office 365, and specialized ISV solutions. Insulet can rely on Intwo’s extensive experience to run and support business critical solutions. Microsoft Azure’s comprehensive set of compliance offerings, in combination with Intwo’s compliancy measures, are a powerful combination to address Insulet’s security requirements. Expansion into other geographies is easy with all of the global Azure locations and ‘follow the sun’ support from Intwo. The Azure environments can be scaled up and down instantly to meet peak loads at month-end or to support seasonal patterns.

SPC Heat Pipes
In pursuit of enhanced integration of processes and business efficiencies, SPC Heat Pipes Industries undertook the deployment of a cloud based digital solution, for several of their internal processes.
The company adopted InTWO’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution, resulting in enhanced data driven insights and improved operational flexibility.

With the growing demand for HVAC systems – such as large scale dehumidifiers, passive energy recovery systems, and other related technologies designed to reduce the energy footprint of built structures – the specialized heat pipes market has also experienced growth in the last three decades. In the Middle East, which experiences high day time temperatures for most of the year, environment control systems play a particularly important part in maintaining comfortable living conditions. Increasing the energy efficiency of such systems involves considerable cost, but also enables several operational advantages. SPC Heat Pipes Industries has been a leading provider of these solutions in the region.

SPC Heat Pipes Industries’ product range includes dehumidifiers, heat pipes, energy recovery ventilator units, UV sterilizers and Heat Recovery Wheels. The company has provided these solutions to more than 5000 projects in the region. Prestigious developments, that the company has been involved in, include the Opera House and Nikki Beach hotel in Dubai, and King Saud Medical City and Princess Noora University in Saudi Arabia. Further afield, SPC’s products are being used at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai and Tata Hospital in Kolkata, as well as One Peking and Polar Adventure Ocean Park in Hong Kong.

Identifying opportunities for efficiency enhancements and the solutions required to achieve this goal
SPC Heat Pipes Industries wanted to leverage the advantages of a cloud-based solution, to streamline their operations and lower infrastructure costs.  After in-depth assessment and market research, the company’s software solutions team recommended an upgrade from Dynamics 2011 to Dynamics 365. Deploying a cloud-compatible solution has greatly empowered their customer-facing and sales teams, through reduced response times and more flexible operations.

Business goals for the upgrade and making the decision to partner with Intwo
SPC Heat Pipes Industries operates in a highly competitive and dynamic industry that is influenced by several commercial and technology driven trends. The key requirements, that they put forward, were the ability to be more agile and to make data driven decisions. In order to achieve the integration of data sets with their processes and management, Intwo identified the need to maintain a central repository for sales data, to assist in informed forecasts of trends. In order for it to be effective, the solution needed to be easily accessible to all stakeholders. It was also required to integrate well with the company’s CRM system and deliver outcomes that incorporated customer feedback. At the same time, the system needed to reconcile this ease of access and integration with impregnable data security and integrity. Lastly, in addition to aligning operations with data-driven insights and efficiencies, SPC Heat Pipes Industries was looking to incorporate effective tools to liaise and communicate with their customers efficiently.

After an exhaustive evaluation, during which SPC isolated and comparatively studied a few different quotations and services on offer, the company selected Intwo as their tech partner in this journey of digital transformation. SPC Heat Pipes Industries cites Intwo’s reputation for successful deployments in the region – across a variety of industries, project types and desired outcomes – as the main reason for its decision.

Key landmarks during the upgrade and post implementation experience
The successful integration of the SPC Heat Pipes Industries’ custom engineering selection tool with Dynamics 365 CRM was a critical component for the success of the entire upgrade. The migration of SPC Heat Pipes Industries’ legacy data, to the new CRM solution, was also challenging and proved to be an extremely time-consuming and tedious undertaking. Not only was the data very extensive, it also needed to be organized and contextualized, in order for the new solution to be able to create an optimal impact. In order to facilitate these demanding requirements, the Intwo team provided SPC with extensive support at every step of the upgrade, as well as after the project went live.

About SPC Heat Pipes Trading LLC
SPC is a specialist manufacturer and supplier of heating and cooling equipment. Established in 1979 in the UK, SPC has diversified its product range to include dehumidifiers, water heat pipes, energy ventilator units and UV sterilizers.

FruitMasters
FruitMasters is a cooperative which delivers delicious fruit to retailers.
To provide the best quality, FruitMasters supplies from its affiliated fruit growers. In this way, FruitMasters has the ability to supply first-class Dutch fruit without any barriers directly to international and national warehouses and retailers. Possessing their own facility and logistics center in the Netherlands results in being a leading party in the fruit market.

In order to increase their performance and be more efficient in meeting seasonal and on-demand business requirements, FruitMasters chose Intwo to implement and manage a Fruit Processing Application which is based on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This resulted in more business efficiency for FruitMasters and cost reduction.

We chose Intwo’s cloud services because they have a close relationship with Microsoft coupled with AX on cloud experience. This gives us the confidence to move onto a new platform for our most business-critical system with 99.9% uptime guarantees and 24/7 continuous support. Our business continuity is secured by having Intwo as our cloud provider.

FAWAZ
The exponential growth of Fawaz Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Co. into several new countries, within the Middle East region, necessitated a consolidation of data flow for their managers and stakeholders.
The company undertook a digital migration to successfully adopt InTWO’s Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution, for enhanced operational coordination.

The GCC Air Conditioner Market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.3% for the five year period between 2017-2023, according to researchandmarkets.com. Major infrastructure development projects in several countries in the region – including metros, airports, high value hospitality properties and malls – are a prominent driver for this anticipated growth. The emerging emphasis on economic diversification and associated government initiatives are another reason for the expected growth in the GCC refrigeration and air-conditioning market. This expansion is in contrast to a brief lull which coincided with the slump in oil prices that began mid 2014, which especially affected sales in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman most significantly. With a new impetus in activity, enterprises operating in this highly competitive space are responding with a focus on reinforcing process efficiencies, in order to generate operational advantages.

At Fawaz Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Co. we realized that our rapid expansion into new territories needed to be accompanied by enhanced coordination between geographically remote teams. In order to reinforce our competitive edge in this keenly contested business sector, we undertook a company-wide migration to a comprehensive ERP solution. Our business model is driven by a commitment to delivering the highest standards of service and products within the new markets we have entered. Adopting an effective ERP solution was crucial to addressing these challenges and developing the efficiencies required to meet and exceed our goals.

Rationalizing a system of multiple silos to create synergistic applications and data flows
A central motivation for the implementation of an effective ERP ecosystem, for Fawaz Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Co. was the rapid growth of the company into diverse locations and countries across the Middle East. With operations expanding into Oman, Bahrain, KSA, Kuwait and UAE, the high visibility of group performance metrics, across locations and teams, was a crucial operational ability for the company to achieve.

From a customer perspective, in order for the enterprise to deliver the highest standards of service possible, we needed to address a consolidation of data that was previously in discrete silos. As a business, we were also aware that some of our most mission critical functions were hamstrung due to the use of obsolete technology. We recognized that some of the software solutions we were using to coordinate and monitor our operations were very rudimentary. A dependence on solutions with limited functionality – such as Excel sheets and ad-hoc home grown legacy applications across the business – was resulting in bottlenecks in terms of efficiency. The company’s ambitious growth and our desire to optimize our processes were the key drivers for the ERP solution we chose to implement.

Embracing the adoption of process optimized technology and targeted solutions
Our commitment to this digital revamp of the operations has been a crucial strategic initiative for the company to take. Having process critical information at our fingertips – in real-time – delivered numerous advantages for the company and our customers at diverse locations and across our entire value chain. Our vision for Fawaz Refrigeration and Air Conditioning’s future business operations is reflected in our decision to pursue a presence across several countries in the region and we felt that addressing process efficiencies and capacities was key to the success of this initiative.

We are in fact among the first movers in this space to implement the new Dynamics 365 in an enterprise segment. There are some unique requirements that we needed to implement from a contracting perspective. Microsoft provides a highly effective base environment for processes such as accounting, procurement and sales etc. but there is a vertical component pertaining to contracting which we also needed to address as a company. I am glad to say that, having implemented this upgrade, we were able to add significant value to some engagements that are unique to this aspect of our business.

A hands-on and empowering transformation facilitated by implementing the right solution
Our vision, for this implementation, was to create the most coherent and internally consistent operations possible, for our organization. Our mission was to create synergies in capacity and efficiency that would deliver a much more future ready business model for the company, along with enhancing current operations.