Woking, 30 May 2023 – TVision Technology is delighted to announce that their existing client, Gallowglass, has successfully moved from their outdated NAV system to Business Central, Microsoft’s cloud-based business management solution.
Gallowglass is the premier event support company in the UK and mainland Europe. They cover a whole range of event types from small marketing pop-up stands in the high street, to film and TV work, to large-scale events like the Olympics.
Gallowglass is a UK based company but works on events globally. They have ten key operational staff managing around 300 – 400 crew members with additional six people in their accounts, HR and IT departments.
Moving to a modern SaaS solution
Prior to their move to Business Central, Gallowglass had been using NAV (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s predecessor) for over 20 years. There were a number of reasons why the business felt that the time was right for an upgrade to Business Central. Firstly, the NAV version they were using was NAV 2018, an aging legacy system that went out of mainstream Microsoft support in January this year. Secondly, the COVID pandemic and changing working patterns meant that more and more of their team now work remotely. Therefore, it was important to move to a cloud-based system such as Business Central SaaS that can be accessed anywhere 24/7. Thirdly, and most importantly, Gallowglass make use of bespoke web apps to manage their operations. A move to Business Central promised them improved integration between these apps and their ERP system.
Due to the importance of this integration with their bespoke web apps, particularly their crew assignment app, Gallowglass kicked off their move to Business Central with a pilot project in April 2022. The purpose of this project was to verify that the existing integration between the apps and NAV (On-Premise) could be replicated when they moved to BC SaaS. This was successfully verified, so work started on the rest of the implementation project and Gallowglass went live with Business Central on 1 May 2023.
Commenting on the project, Darren Thorley, Gallowglass’s Head of IT, said: “Here at Gallowglass, performance is key. At first, we were therefore very nervous that a web-based solution, such as Business Central SaaS, would not meet our needs in the way that NAV 2018 did. These fears were unfounded and we are already seeing the benefits of the move to BC SaaS.”
“This move has also provided us with an excellent opportunity to rationalise the code we use and improve the customisations so that they are more in tune with how we work today.”
Making their “jewel in the crown” even better
As a business, Gallowglass is extremely proud of their Crew Assignment app, Gallowglass Crew, and regard it as the “jewel in the crown” of their operations. It allows their teams to quickly and efficiently focus on tasks that need completing with clear visual indicators.
The move to Business Central SaaS, and their app’s very successful integration with it, has already proved to be an overwhelming success for Gallowglass. It has already helped them to quickly identify potential issues (such as when they need to allocate a crew person with a specific skill set to a shift). Plus, functionality improvements such as address lookup have already proved a huge time saver for the business.
Darren continued: “We are getting very positive feedback from our team members on the new system. One of our duty managers recently said to me that they really like it and that it is much better than NAV for them. It is great to see this kind of buy-in happening so quickly for this kind of project.”
Speaking about the successful go-live, Andrea Concato, Software Development Director, TVision Technology, said: “We are delighted that Gallowglass’s move from their legacy system to Business Central SaaS went so smoothly.
“Over the last 20 years, Gallowglass has invested a great deal of time and effort in developing a highly customised NAV system. With their move to Business Central SaaS, their customisations are much more streamlined. They also will not need to undertake a full-scale implementation project like this one ever again as long as they continue with Business Central as the web-based nature of the solution means that it is always up to date.
“We look forward to working closely with Gallowglass on many more exciting developments in the future.”
Future plans
Now that the first phase of the implementation project is completed, Gallowglass and TVision have already started work on Phase 2 with the aim to make further improvements to their use of Business Central and their bespoke apps.
Darren concluded: “Having worked with TVision for as long as we have, it has been fantastic to deliver a huge project once again.
“Business Central SaaS has huge potential for us and the Gallowglass team are looking forward to building more functionality to improve the operational performance of our business.”
ENDS
About TVision Technology Ltd
TVision delivers efficiency, control and growth by having one of the largest and most experienced Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central teams in the UK. In addition to deep technical know-how, every member of the team takes real pleasure in implementing solutions that are just the right fit for your business – no matter what industry you are in. That’s why our customers stay with us for the long term, whether they are implementing a new system, enhancing their existing deployment or looking for an outstanding support partner.
For more information about TVision Technology and Business Central, contact us.
