Seamless integration is a necessity for any vendor seeking to establish its solutions with users of specific ERP systems. In order to capitalize on the opportunities present within the Microsoft Dynamics market, Bottomline Technologies needed Dynamics Connectors for its Create!form solution, a document process automation solution for formatting, personalizing and delivering ERP application output.

“Bottomline has established a significant presence within several ERP markets for our document process automation solutions, and we are always looking for new channels where we can add value to our customers’ ERP investments. Within the Microsoft Dynamics® market, there was a clear need, and an exciting opportunity to enhance the system’s native output and reporting capabilities with our expertise in dynamic document processing,” said Gregory Park, Bottomline’s Vice President of Software Development.

Understanding that entering a new market can be a challenging proposition, Bottomline elected to engage an SI partner with whom it could collaborate for specific elements of the Dynamics AX and NAV development work. By doing so, the company would be able to not only accelerate its time to market, but simultaneously expand its internal knowledgebase for Dynamics.

Celenia chosen for experience and industry knowledge
As part of its SI evaluation, Bottomline considered other partners but ultimately chose Celenia because of its market presence, experience with Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV, and general industry knowledge.

“When we first entered the Microsoft Dynamics market, we sought support from a partner who specialized in Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV and could offer full product development lifecycle capabilities. After an extensive search, we partnered with Celenia because of their technical knowledge and ability to assist us in creating a much smaller code footprint that would be easier to install, configure and support,” added Mr. Park.

Bottomline and Celenia initially collaborated on the development of key feature sets, including the underlying framework of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Connector, which encompassed coding, testing and documentation. Once this project was complete, Celenia helped Bottomline with the development of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Connector.

With the Dynamics AX Connector, Celenia’s system knowledge enabled Bottomline’s solution to integrate with Dynamics AX at a level that supported the greatest possible number of business use scenarios. This approach resulted in a smaller application footprint, and significantly eased the requirements for installation, configuration and ongoing support.

Time-to-market advantage was a key benefit
The time-to-market advantage gained through Celenia’s ability to bring a large number of Microsoft Dynamics experts to the project in a very short period of time was a key benefit in developing the Dynamics NAV Connector.

A full service partner, Celenia also provided ‘boot camp-style’ developer training for Bottomline’s staff, which helped Bottomline quickly increase its internal expertise for both Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV.

Bottomline Technologies’ award-winning Create!form solution is now available to Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV users in a number of key global markets.

“Celenia proved to be the ideal partner because of their reputation, Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV knowledge, and close ties to Microsoft. They met each of our expectations, delivering on the SLA and significantly reducing the time and costs associated with this type of development work,” said Mr. Park. “Partnering with Celenia helped to establish a foundation from which we’ve been able to subsequently expand our expertise relative to Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV. It also significantly reduced our time-to-market.”

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