DXC Technology helps Australia-based car auctioneer to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365
Rebecca Gibson |
This article first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of The Record.
For more than 50 years, Pickles Auctions (Pickles) has provided car valuation and auction services across Australia. In the past, Pickles solely relied on in-person auctioneers, but competition from the online car sales industry prompted it to offer online bidding for in-person auctions. However, its aging and expensive legacy systems prevented it from further expanding its services.
“Pickles needed to replace its entire business platform, not just to free up the IT team from the burden of daily maintenance, but also to improve the company’s competitiveness in the disrupted marketplace,” says Ivan Goh, enterprise resource planning (ERP) delivery lead.
Pickles wanted a cloud-based ERP solution that would provide visibility over all operations, a single source of truth for decision making, and the flexibility and scalability to develop new partnerships and expand its buyer base. As an existing Microsoft customer, Pickles opted to implement the cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations solution with the help of Eclipse, a DXC Technology Company.
“From the initial evaluation, we could see the DXC Eclipse team was highly cooperative, knowledgeable and credible in the industry,” Goh explains. “The team took the time to understand our business, which was very important to us. When an auction is scheduled, come rain, hail or shine, the auction will go forward. We do everything it takes and there was that same sense of spirit we saw in the DXC Eclipse team.”
DXC Eclipse and Pickles agreed on a five-phase project that started with restructuring the company’s accounts to give the car auctioneer access to operational and financial performance data. Phase one was completed on time and under budget.
“Now that we have a cloud-ready solution that can scale up easily and quickly, we can start exploring some of the opportunities in new ventures,” remarks David De Jonge, chief financial officer at Pickles. “The technology implemented with this project is the backbone of the wider digital transformation of our business.”
DXC Eclipse has completely replaced one legacy system with Microsoft Dynamics 365, and integrated the solution with Pickles’ other large legacy systems. Employees can now access systems from anywhere, rather than just from inside the office, improving productivity.
Pickles plans to grow the Microsoft Dynamics 365 footprint throughout the company, decommissioning legacy systems as it goes.
“We have an exciting journey ahead of us that is going to impact many people,” says Goh. “There’s an absolute trust between Pickles and DXC Eclipse. We’ve created a strong partnership and we’re invested in carrying on the journey, especially now we’ve seen the success of phase one.”