MV GROUP, which has more than 1,000 employees and companies in the Baltics and Poland, has launched a new phase of internal digitization. The Group is moving its business management system (BMS) to the cloud, opting for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution.

“Until now, we have been using a legacy BMS that was fully operational on our on-premises infrastructure. However, we have ambitious plans to digitize our internal systems and upgrade our current processes – we realized that the legacy BMS would not allow us to implement our plans as quickly and efficiently as we would like. Moreover, it is common practice worldwide to upgrade systems of this level every five years. That is why we started this huge digitization project last year – to our knowledge, it is the largest migration of a BMS of this complexity to the cloud in the Baltics and Poland” says Seitumer Čurlu, IT Director at MV GROUP.

He says that the company chose from all the major global BMS vendors: “It’s like a wedding, because the platform we choose will determine our digitization path for at least a decade. After analyzing all the offers, we chose Dynamics 365 because Microsoft has a wide network of local partners, the BMS is fully localized and tailored to the Baltic markets in terms of language, legal and regulatory aspects. In addition, we have been using Microsoft Office 365 for a long time, so the integrity of the two platforms was a big plus.”

The company has already completed the first – analysis – phase which involved more than 180 company representatives. It focused on the company’s digitization needs. The design phase of the specific changes is currently underway, and the migration is scheduled to be completed in 2024.

“We are delighted to see such complex and large-scale digital transformation projects in the Baltics. Cloud-based Dynamics 365 provides organizations with what they need most today – flexibility, as this business management system allows to easily adapt or extend the functionalities required for different functions of the company in an app-based manner, and efficiency, as the system is equipped with powerful business analytics tools to help make data-driven decisions,” says Simonas Černiauskas, General Manager of Microsoft Lithuania.

Cloud service – cheaper by one third

“The majority of global companies have recently been choosing cloud-based BMS. However, we notice that Lithuanian businesses still underestimate their benefits, have various unfounded myths, and quite often prefer to rely on on-premises solutions. Nevertheless, we want to be a leader in our field and have decided to move BMS from on-premises infrastructure to cloud computing. If you would like to compare apples to apples, the final price is about 30% cheaper in favor of the cloud” observes Čurlu.

Savings come from less need for internal infrastructure – no need to invest in upgrades, server maintenance or the power it needs. “Security is another important consideration. We don’t really have the resources that organizations the size of Microsoft can use to secure their servers and products. In addition, at least a few times a year, a BMS like ours is subject to significant updates – we have had experiences where we think it would be good to improve something and then, during the next update, we find that the desired features have already appeared themselves. After all, the cloud offers more mobility and allows people to work securely from anywhere – something that is very important in today’s context.”

As the MV GROUP representative points out, this model also offers more flexibility and speed: “With this step, we are standardizing certain processes across the Group – we want to centralize some of them, so that in the future, if something is updated in one company, it can be implemented just as quickly in the rest of the Group companies. In this way, we will eventually move away from various ‘paper’ processes, until we will eventually become a ‘paperless’ organization.” MV GROUP is one of the largest corporate groups in the Baltic countries and Poland, uniting companies operating in 4 sectors. The production sector is represented by the Stumbras, Alita, Anykščių vynas and Gubernija factories, the distribution of goods in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland is carried out by MV GROUP Distribution companies Mineraliniai vandenys, MV Latvia, MV Eesti, MV Poland, the logistics sector is represented by the MV GROUP Logistics company, and the retail sector is represented by the Bottlery and Nespresso stores. The Group employs more than 1,000 people in the Baltic countries and Poland.