Punch

Smooth transition to Dynamics NAV

When the time came to change to the new system, it was critical the migration took place from Friday and over the course of one particular weekend to fit in with Punch’s financial period that runs on a four-week calendar basis – and that it was ready for the business to run live on Monday morning (no pressure!).

Over that weekend, everyone involved in the ‘go live’ process from Punch’s project team and TNP’s team, ran through four different scenarios, imitating what ‘could’ happen during ‘go live’. This was an important part of the process, testing everyone knew their roles and that the system worked exactly as required. They finished with enough time on Sunday evening to be ready to ‘go live’ on Monday morning…and they did!

David adds, "the implementation was very successful with a minimal amount of noise, as business users were prepared, they knew it was coming and they adapted to the new system very well. There were no major teething problems, which was great!

"I think the training and preparation prior to going live really helped with that and the system did exactly what we needed it to do. Everybody within the business quickly got used to those changes – which can always be difficult to manage – but the approach Punch and TNP adopted with the ‘go live’ worked very well".

With so much planning, preparation and training, Chris says the whole implementation of the project to move from the old system to the new Dynamics NAV system went incredibly smoothly.

Working with Dynamics NAV

Head of Financial Business Support at Punch, Becki Hewson, who was the finance lead on the project says, "we now use Dynamics NAV for absolutely everything. It’s an integral part of the company - it’s our accounting system, we use if for the beer ordering, through to the EDI process, accounts payable, accounts receivable, publican rent billing, paying rents payable on our leasehold properties – and that’s only part of it. Dynamics NAV is fundamental to our day-to-day operation".

"Dynamics NAV is fundamental to our day-to-day operation"

Business Benefits

Dynamics NAV now gives Punch the ease of integration with its e-commerce website where publicans can place their beer orders. These are fed into Dynamics NAV and costings of those products and how they are charged to the publicans, generate an invoice through the finance system. It’s a lot simpler than the old finance system which was very cumbersome.

Becki says the area they have seen the biggest improvement on is within the workflow. They have developed the workflow from the accounts payable process using the nHanced Forms and nOra modules (developed by TNP) which they adapted to get what they needed for the invoice approval process. 

"It’s been very successfully implemented. Historically with our field-based teams, they used an old, separate system but this gives the field-based teams more flexibility and they’re able to recharge an accounts payable invoice into an accounts receivable invoice in a very simplistic manner using the nHanced Form".

“The teams have picked it up and ran with it, as it’s so user-friendly and familiar”

From a user-perspective, since having Dynamics NAV installed, Becki has found the teams have picked it up and ran with it, as it’s so user-friendly and familiar, as Punch was already a ‘Microsoft house’ and Dynamics NAV is a Microsoft product. "From Day One it’s gone really, really well. Also, some of the processes were quite long-winded in our previous system. We’ve streamlined those processes in Dynamics NAV and found masses of improvement, more efficiencies and it’s easier to use," says Becki.

Favourite Add-ons

Continia and Jet Enterprise for Punch’s accounts payable processes have been seamlessly integrated into Dynamics NAV and as a result, users do not feel as if they are using multiple platforms.

As well as nOra and nHanced Forms, David says the nHanced Panels and Tiles module is particularly good. "It’s a great graphical way for our users to see counters, changes in numbers, how many orders we’ve got, how many orders have failed, how many open invoices, how many purchase orders have yet to be closed and also it’s able to have quick views into pages within NAV via the Tile view. We certainly use the Tiles as the main hub of NAV, which everybody uses as their homepage – it’s exceptional!"

Future-proofing the Business

When looking at new systems, Punch’s approach was to have a system that was fit for purpose but kept the base format as close to ‘default’ (how it came out of the box) as possible, without too much bespoke work.

From previous experience, they had learned that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were platforms that were not often replaced in business. When a system had a great deal of bespoke work, if problems arose over the following 5 to 10 years and people who knew the intricacies of the bespoke work were no longer working for the company, it could cause all sorts of headaches. 

"I think Punch is in a really good place now," says David. "We have a good ERP system, everyone in the business understands the environment and not only what it does but why it works that way. If something goes wrong, we can understand why it’s doing what it’s doing and not what it’s supposed to be doing. I think this has given a lot of confidence to our business users.

"We’ll be self-sufficient on support"

"This also gives us a lot of leverage, not only with the implementation of new projects but with changes within the business because we’ll know whether that change can cause problems with the NAV system or not. Also, it means we’ll be self-sufficient on support, for example, we’ll be able to resolve the issues ourselves without having to lean on companies like TNP to resolve those problems for us. That’s certainly a massive step change within Punch!"

For Punch, a major change in bringing Dynamics NAV on board is having an ERP system which is new and up-to-date. There is no longer the worry about taking on a host of new pubs and wondering how they will get those new pubs onto the finance system. In the past this took a lot of planning and preparation as it was a very cumbersome system.

"Punch now has business champions"

With Dynamics NAV, it is so much easier as it has a clear and concise user-interface, it’s easy to load information into it using a process called ‘rapid start’ - and as part of its strategic planning, Punch now has business champions. What are business champions, you ask? They are subject-matter experts in their area but not only from a business point of view but also from the Dynamics NAV point of view.

The beauty of this is when Punch wants to do some major projects in the future, these individual business champions will be key in those strategic changes and in those projects. They will ensure Dynamics NAV will be able to handle those changes and projects into the future.

Excited about the Future

Now Punch has implemented Dynamics NAV within the business, it will make it easier to move with the times and solutions. Chris says he’s very excited about the future of Punch. "We’ve got great owners who are committed to investing in the business - in pubs themselves and also in people and technology".

Punch’s journey with TNP

"TNP were fundamental to our implementation programme," says Becki. "We spent a lot of time during the ‘Day in the Life’ process discussing what our requirements were. They went away, came back with solutions, alternative improvements or better ways of working to our current processes. They were extremely patient with us and extremely knowledgeable and without them, I don’t think the implementation would have worked or gone as smoothly as it did. I would one hundred percent recommend TNP. They’ve been brilliant!"

David add, "their business knowledge, certainly within the pub industry, is second to none. Their expertise and knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is exceptional, and another key area is their development and modules that they provide on top of Dynamics NAV".

"Extremely happy with the implementation"

Punch’s head of IT, Chris Mountjoy, sums it up: "Doing a system change on this sort of scale is always going to have twists and turns along the way but overall, I couldn’t be happier with how the implementation went.

"Our relationship with TNP doesn’t feel like a supplier-customer relationship – it’s very much more a partnership".

Are you thinking about upgrading your business system? Contact us for an obligation-free chat with one of our Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central specialists. We’ll be happy to assist you any way we can.

To learn more about Punch, visit its website here.

Visit our dedicated page to learn more about our Property Management ERP solution.