Case Study: Citrus Research International

Citrus Research International (Pty) Ltd (CRI) is a research and technical services organisation based in South Africa that focuses primarily on citrus. CRI coordinates and funds research conducted by the CRI Group, which includes close collaboration between CRI and a wide range of partners. There is a strong focus on the southern African citrus industry’s needs as they relate to the industry’s heavy reliance on export of fresh fruit to global markets. Citrus Improvement Scheme (CIS) is a division of CRI. The objective of CIS is to increase the profitability of the southern African Citrus Industry, by ensuring that growers are supplied with nursery trees of the highest possible quality made from the best genetic citrus material and being free from any harmful pathogens.

Challenges

With CRI being a research company, they run multiple projects where each project has an associated budget. They were looking for a cloud-based business solution that would help them gain better oversight on these projects and effectively manage them, with comprehensive reporting and intelligence, especially around the overall costs. Before, while running an alternate business management solution, CRI were not able to get the information they needed to create the necessary reports required for their stakeholders, nor were they able to drill down for further detail. The Report packs were insufficient. Additionally, their vision of running their two organisations, CRI and CIS on the same system as two separate entities created a bit more complexity - they ultimately wanted a solution that could accommodate this requirement, definitively splitting the two system-wise, so they could easily report on each one of them, enjoying an overview of both in one structured instance. 

“I was very pro moving to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central due to the previous positive experience I had with Microsoft Navision. This definitely swayed our decision.” Jon Pinker – Process Manager, Citrus Research International

Solution 

CRI chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, due to its robust reputation and comprehensive functionality, especially in the realm of Projects and Job Costing. The solution’s ability to accommodate multiple dimensions aligned seamlessly with CRI’s needs. 4Sight’s approach to the proposal and pre-sales phases reassured CRI that they were the ideal partner for this Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central project. Establishing a collaborative partnership meant CRI and 4Sight could work closely together to get the most out of the chosen solution.  4Sight implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Finance (AP & AR), Supply Chain, Projects and Fixed Assets included. Post-implementation, a strategic approach to post-go-live support involved intensive assistance from 4Sight initially, followed by a gradual shift towards self-enablement through the use of widely available knowledge sharing mediums. This would help boost user learning and ultimate Business Central adoption for CRI. 

Benefits and Outcomes 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has provided CRI a cloud-hosted solution enabling remote accessibility for enhanced flexibility. The organisation successfully achieved its objectives of improved project analysis, accurate reporting, and streamlined management of capital expenditures (CAPEX). The system facilitates effortless generation of accurate reports, allowing CRI to compare budgets with actual expenditures, as well as attain insightful project reporting across both the entities. They can now run reports to compare budgets to actuals spent and additionally, Job Costing is used for CAPEX on each project and offers visibility on the ongoing process. CRI are happy to have achieved what they wanted from the system in terms of their project management and project spend and are looking forward to the next phase of intuitive dashboarding for the management team, where stakeholders can log on and see key information to them highlighted on one screen.  

“The 4Sight team was very helpful and the implementation went off smoothly. The support received from them was good and when we needed to get things sorted out, their responses were quick.” Christine Stoppel-Grove – Financial and Administration Manager, Citrus Research International