Aptco Group consolidates growth with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Business

Aptco Group started as a distributor of laboratory equipment in Belgium. Over the years, the group has expanded both its geographical reach and activities. Today, it sells equipment, parts, and consumables to laboratories throughout Europe. In addition, Aptco Group also provides calibration, repair, and maintenance services and produces its own equipment, which is sold worldwide.

Many gears make one machine

Over the past two decades, Aptco Group has grown considerably, from a handful of employees in the early days to 150 in 2023. “We operate mainly in Western Europe,” says Financial Controller Kevin Lichtert. “There are branches in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. We also sell in-house manufactured equipment through local distributors in the U.S. and Hong Kong.”

“I like to compare Aptco Group to a machine with a dozen gears. Each gear focuses on what it is good at: selling, in most cases. To avoid fragmentation and create synergies at the group level, all overhead, from HR and logistics to marketing and administration, is covered by our HQ. For example, we all use the same CRM.”

Traceability and demanding customers

Another big challenge for Aptco Group is traceability. Kevin: “Because we supply critical equipment to laboratories and hospitals, we have to report on a laundry list of parameters to the authorities. On top of that, we have to submit specific reports to obtain our ISO certifications. At the same time, most customers expect us to keep them informed of the full delivery process, from shipment to arrival.”

“Because we supply critical equipment to laboratories and hospitals, we have to report on a laundry list of parameters to the authorities. On top of that, we have to submit specific reports to obtain our ISO certifications. At the same time, most customers expect us to keep them informed of the full delivery process, from shipment to arrival.”

Solution

In 2007-2008, Aptco Group had settled on Microsoft Navision, a scalable solution that allowed them to seamlessly integrate new ventures and strengthen operational cohesion. Almost a decade later, when Navision became Dynamics 365 Business Central, Kevin and his team didn’t hesitate for a moment...

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Kevin: “We were Cegeka’s second customer to upgrade to Business Central. When we heard it would be a cloud-based solution, it was a no-brainer for us. Moreover, it’s now much easier to add new companies onto the system. Business Central allows us to effortlessly unify the data from all our businesses and in turn drastically improve traceability and meet customer demands.”

Bring on the add-ons

To further optimize Business Central, Aptco Group is also implementing a number of add-ons from Continia. Kevin: “Document Capture allows us to scan documents via OCR and make approval flows, administration and traceability much easier. Document Output helps us to provide invoices and other documents in a ready-made format. And today, we’re in the midst of implementing Expense Management to streamline and automate our daily expense process.”

Application Managed Services

Business Central is constantly evolving. To keep up with all the changes, Kevin counts on the support of Cegeka’s Application Management Services team. “Twice a year, Microsoft introduces a number of significant changes to Business Central. Cegeka then organizes a webinar to illustrate the actual impact of those changes for our business. Our team appreciates this practical approach a lot.”

Next up: improved reporting

“Last but not least, we’re also looking to use Power BI in the future,” says Kevin. “Together with Cegeka, we’re now cleaning up all our data and building a huge data set. In the meantime, we’re mapping the reporting needs of each individual company to be able to combine them into one solution.”

“Since the upgrade, not a day has gone by that Business Central was down. In the end, that’s what matters to our end users: having a solid, user-friendly system that’s always up and running.

Approach

New year, same plan

Kevin reflects happily on the cooperation with Cegeka. “With Business Central, we now have a modern, future-oriented ERP in place that benefits all our stakeholders. Cegeka’s support is still very welcome to help us integrate our recently acquired companies and those yet to come.”

A mix of profiles

Aptco Group and Cegeka have been collaborating for almost 10 years now. “Our CFO and myself are in the lead, but we’re also trying to actively involve our key users. They’re often accountants who work day in and day out with Business Central and regularly receive questions from other end users.”

“We’re working closely together with Cegeka’s support team to implement major changes. For smaller and less urgent tweaks, we count on Frederik: he comes to our office twice a month to present results, resolve questions, and discuss next steps. We really value his input and no-nonsense approach. The same goes for Lieven, Cegeka’s AM, who steers our collaboration in the right direction.”

“It took us a while to find the right format, but since we introduced the bi-monthly meetings, we’ve made great leaps. We really value Cegeka’s input and no-nonsense approach.”

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