The company
SPIE provides expertise and services in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, HVAC engineering, energy, communications and rail infrastructure to industrial, commercial and institutional clients. The company, in collaboration with its customers, designs and build customer projects, and supports them during the operation and provides on-going maintenance.

SPIE has highly skilled workers throughout its European network of local businesses and specialized regional service centres. With these resources, SPIE is able to develop and deliver effective solutions tailored to meet the current and future challenges of both its local and international customers.
SPIE Netherlands B.V. is part of the SPIE SA Group and delivers products and services in more than 28 countries. SPIE SA, is located in Cergy, France, has a turnover of approximately € 3,500 million (2007), more than 23,000 employees, and via a network of 400 local offices in Europe, can always remain close its Customers.

The Need for Change
SPIE wanted a new ERP system as the original systems within SPIE were very old, and addition they had three other legacy ERP systems, which came with the acquisition of the Controlec companies. These all required rationalisation.

The restructuring of the company from a regional organisation to a market led organisation, with divisions, also prompted the need for a uniform and standard ERP solution.

The choice
SPIE had a list of essential requirements that must be satisfied with the selection of a replacement ERP system. On this basis SPIE prepared a detailed RFI (Request for Information) in which questions were asked about how business processes and specific functionality were supported within the proposed system. Based on answers received back from the RFI, a thorough understanding of SPIE business processes and activities, HSO and Microsoft Dynamics AX were shortlisted and accepted as the best parties to go forward with.

Implementation
SPIE insisted that  internal support and user acceptance was very important during the implementation of the new Dynamics AX ERP system. This support was needed for timely knowledge and skills transfer to everyone in the organization that had to come in to contact with the ERP system. They therefore had a communication plan prepared as a thread running through the entire project. Provision was made for continuous information via an intranet and staff participation was expected.

The actual implementation started with the replacement of existing systems, at the various business units.
SPIE Netherlands B.V. went live with Dynamics AX 2009 - Finance, Service, Logistics, Projects and  HSO Technical Services add-ons. With these add-ons, HSO extended the standard AX functionality and application controls in all functional areas including Sales, Costing, Projects, Purchasing, Equipment, Trade, Warehouse Management, Accounting, Production, Service and Maintenance. As a result of this HSO Business Platform, many legacy customisations were no longer needed, including interfaces with industry specific calculation packages and other service and maintenance systems.

Benefits
- Business Processes around the company are now optimized and harmonized and all working in the same way
- Stephan Anzenhofer, CFO of SPIE, expects that in due course more efficient administrative processes will give rise to greater efficiency and improved and quicker reporting