Challenge
Simply Green Home Services, a fast-growing home energy product and services company, needed a centralized, unified platform that would provide a single point of business intelligence and assist in acquisition integration.
Toronto-based Simply Green had grown 300 percent since its launch in late 2014, primarily through acquisitions. The rapid growth led to a number of IT challenges:
- The company had inherited multiple Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems which were incompatible with one another.
- The systems of newly acquired companies could not easily be integrated into Simply Green’s existing platform.
- The systems were not able to deliver a single point of business intelligence that the company needed to map further growth.
A solution was needed quickly if Simply Green was to continue its growth trajectory.
“We needed smart people to deliver a lot of work in a short period of time,” said George Konstantopoulos, SVP Information Technology. “The real driver was to have an integrated view of the business, the customer, and the cost and potential upside of opportunities.”
Solution
Knowing that IT was not a core competency, Simply Green issued an RFP. After a rigid vetting and review process, OnX was chosen not only for its expertise, experience, and strong record, but also because it was a good cultural fit with the agile and execution-oriented work culture at Simply Green.
After a thorough analysis of Simply Green’s operations and projected needs, OnX determined the company would be best served by a fully managed Microsoft Office 365 hybrid cloud environment that includes a customized SharePoint environment, fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM.
The migration, set up, and deployment was handled in three phases:
- Phase 1 eliminated multiple manual processes, centralizing them into one integrated cloud environment that is fully managed and secured.
- Phase 2 integrated the accounting platform into Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting software, which provides automated and digitized reporting.
- Phase 3 delivered deep business intelligence analysis through a sophisticated dashboard, including web analytics for lead generation.
Results
Simply Green’s growth is no longer constrained by multiple ERP systems and disparate sources of business intelligence.
“Our partnership with OnX provides us with the tools and scalability to continue with our agile delivery process that enable us to be a leader in our industry.
Having an integrated ERP allows us to continue with trailblazing strategies intended to transform our business,” said Lawrence Krimker, CEO.
Its new Office 365 hybrid cloud platform can easily integrate the systems of acquired firms while providing data analytics and business intelligence that lets Simply Green quickly monetize the additive operations.
“We’re able to mine our own data and use third-party research to unearth potential sales opportunities. That’s our roadmap for growth,” Konstantopoulos said.
Just as importantly, Simply Green knows it has found a long-term partner that will grow along with it and respond to its needs quickly and expertly.
“The key decision and what we focused the most on was finding the right partner,” Krimker said. “OnX came to the table, not only willing to accept the challenge, but owning up to the challenge and saying we’ll put our money where our mouth is.”