Decomo lays solid foundations for growth

Business

From iconic skyscrapers in the City of London and the storage facilities of Centre Pompidou to the Gare de Charleroi station: Decomo leaves its mark on the most prestigious construction projects in Belgium and its neighboring countries. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management helps the architectural concrete specialist meet tight deadlines, control budgets, and continue to grow.

Contractor becomes specialist in architectural concrete

Decomo's roots go back to 1977. "We started as a contracting company," explains managing director Dominique Zyde. "Due to the increasing demand for prefabricated elements, Decomo decided after a few years to focus on precast concrete. We quickly evolved into the niche market of architectural concrete. We create unique facades and other concrete elements in a wide range of colors, patterns, shapes, and finishes, all custom-made."

Booming business in the UK

Today, Decomo is one of the largest producers of custom concrete in Belgium. The company employs 180 people: from workers, clerks, and sales staff to technical draftsmen and civil engineers. Most are based at the site in Mouscron (BE), but there is also a full commercial and project organization in the United Kingdom.

"The British market is growing explosively," says Dominique. "Business in London is booming. We are working on complex, luxurious high-rise projects with large budgets and high architectural demands."

Project company

To maintain its leadership position in the competitive construction market, Decomo has implemented quite a few changes in recent years. An essential part of this professionalization effort was an upgrade of the IT platform. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 had supported Decomo well for many years but had reached its limit.

"Decomo is still a project company today. This means intensive collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders and a lot of customization. Our business processes are therefore extremely complex. You can no longer manage that with an Excel sheet," says Dominique.

Decomo plaatsing

"Decomo is a project company. Our business processes are therefore extremely complex. You can't manage that with an Excel sheet."

Solution

The management was looking for an ERP platform that could not only support current needs but also be ready for the future. A powerful cloud platform seemed like a logical choice. To ensure continuity, they turned to Microsoft again: in 2022, they kicked off the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

Powerful standard modules

"The existing Microsoft AX 2009 system consisted of a lot of customization," says Andie Cool, business solution architect at Cegeka. "Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, on the other hand, offers an extensive set of powerful standard functionalities. Decomo primarily wanted to optimize production and warehouse processes, transport planning, and the invoicing process. Their new cloud platform integrates modules that support each of these steps."

To seamlessly link these processes to the tasks of the design office, Cegeka developed an interface with the CAD drawing software. Cegeka's myPlan web application takes planning to an even higher level.

Complex processes

Dominique explains how the new platform supports Decomo's operations: "Our design office works in consultation with the client, architect, or contractor to develop a design, including all construction calculations. Once the client approves the design, we export it via the CAD interface to our Microsoft platform. The system then automatically generates a Bill of Materials, which sets the entire process in motion."

"From planning and inventory management to transport planning and invoicing: everything runs through Microsoft Dynamics 365," adds Andie. "Operators in the warehouse, for example, accurately register all incoming and outgoing materials via the warehouse app. This way, the design office and production always have a real-time view of the inventory. On the production floor, operators enter the status and their working hours into the system. This ensures efficient follow-up and accurate invoicing."

Tighter planning

Tight planning is a major advantage of the new system. Timing is crucial for Decomo, as the facades or stair elements they produce must arrive at the construction site just in time.

Therefore, Cegeka integrated the MyPlan application in addition to the standard planning. The app ensures an even more efficient production flow, manages inventory levels, and increases the reliability of deliveries to customers. The standard Transport Planning module also helps Decomo fulfill the promise of just-in-time deliveries.

In-depth insights thanks to BI

For Dominique, the extensive reporting is particularly valuable: "Because hours and costs are recorded so accurately, we know almost to the euro what each project costs and yields. The Microsoft platform is also linked to a Power BI module with advanced dashboards. These provide valuable insights into operational efficiency, financial performance, inventory management, and much more. Previously, we extracted these insights from Excel. That was extremely time-consuming and much less in-depth."

"All links in our value chain are closely connected. The Microsoft platform helps us meticulously manage the entire chain."

Approach

Cegeka has been Decomo's Microsoft partner for many years. To ensure the smooth implementation of the new system, Cegeka consultants worked closely with a large team of internal key users.

Tip: Prepare your ERP project well

"An ERP implementation is a major project that requires thorough preparation," says Dominique. "Before you start, it is important to map out and critically evaluate all existing processes. Because our IT project coincided with internal changes, such as some significant management shifts, too little attention was paid to this. We did consciously choose to involve people from all departments, but due to the many changes, they could not allocate enough time for the project."

Partners, not suppliers

"That caused some challenges and a delayed go-live," admits Dominique. "Fortunately, we have a strong relationship with the Cegeka team. In such a project, you don't work as supplier and customer, but as partners. This means you communicate openly, discuss issues where necessary, and solve problems together. We succeeded in that. We went live with some delay, but the transition never jeopardized our daily operations. And today, everything runs smoothly."

"In an ERP implementation, you don't work as supplier and customer, but as partners. This means you communicate openly, discuss issues where necessary, and solve problems together."