Conquering the world of chocolate.Tony’s ChocolonelyC A S E S T U D Y

Microsoft Dynamics 365 by SaaSplazaClearly the best in the business

1. Tony’s Chocolonely Tony’s Chocolonely is on a mission to change the world of chocolate. What started out as an experiment to explore the possibilities of producing slave-free chocolate, has turned into an international success story for this Dutch company.

To support the growth and expansion of the business, Tony’s Chocolonely has chosen Microsoft’s Dynamics NAV-solution, designed and cloud enabled by IT partner SaaSplaza. Running this smart ERP-software from a private cloud allows them to focus on sharing their story with the rest of the world.

Speaking to Rick, Tony’s Chocolonely’s Chocomatic Fanatic, we collected insights on the automation of processes essential to this extraordinary company and are happy to share them with you.

Summary

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2. Futureproofingchocolate 4

3. Collaboration with SaasPlaza 6

4. Results 8

5. About SaaSplaza 9

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1. Tony’s Chocolonely

Not many products on the shelves today have a story to tell that is as impressive as that of Tony’s Chocolonely. Although the wide variety of surprising flavours are unique, what sets this company apart is how they are, slowly but surely, changing the world of chocolate.

Just over 12 years ago, reporter Teun van de Keuken began to investigate the cocoa industry. He discovered that almost every bar of chocolate sold around the globe was in one way or another connected to -mainly African- cases of child slavery. Despite many efforts to hold a dialogue with some of the larger manufacturers - even turning himself in to authorities for purchasing a product of which he was fully aware supported illegal activities- the industry remained unmoved.

Teun (Tony) decided to go from attempting to change an existing product, to creating a new one. In 2005, the first Fairtrade and slave-free chocolate bar was created and proved to be an immediate success.

The battle to change the chocolate industry has continued ever since. By providing consumers with an alternative, but also by tracing the origin of every cocoa bean, cooperating with a network of over 2300 African farmers and sharing the story beyond the Dutch borders.

Tony’s Chocolonely’s number one mission is to eradicate slavery from the global chocolate industry.

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2.Futureproofingslave-freechocolate

Sharing the message of slave-free chocolate is part of Tony’s Chocolonely’s mission. To increase global awareness and impact, in 2015 the decision was made to take the chocolate overseas and start spreading the word in the USA. Expanding to the USA is just one of a few ways in which the company is developing. Others include expansion of number of offices in Amsterdam and of course an impressive year-on-year growth in sales.

An essential part of any business is managing a wide variety of business processes. As you can imagine, managing the operations of a (internationally) fast-growing company comes with its challenges though.

Hassle-free IT Starting off as a small company, Tony’s Chocolonely added a variety of IT solutions on the go, mostly managed by third parties. Still, the backbone of all their internal and external processes, from financial administrations to logistics and sales, has always been Microsoft Dynamics NAV. From using a few elements when they just started, to adding comprehensive functionalities that support their success.

The Tony’s Chocolonely team consists of 40 people based in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and four members based in the newly opened office in the USA. Most chocolate bars are sold in the Netherlands, complemented by sales in Scandinavia, Belgium, the USA and finally, online purchases from the web shop. Although the bars are produced in Belgium and tracing the process From Bean to Bar (one of the company’s missions) is handled through another system, the second part is managed with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. All sales traffic, from orders to distribution, is captured and transformed into useful insights for today and tomorrow’s operations.

So far, no problem. But as sales figures keep rising, new flavours of chocolate are added to the assortment and USA sales increase, IT-demands change. Tony’s Chocolonely’s requirements are simply outgrowing the public cloud NAV solution and that’s why they asked SaaSplaza for advice.

Tony’s Chocolonely is passionate about slave-free chocolate. To focus on their mission, they need hassle-free IT.

To share our message overseas, we need a solution that can go wherever we go and grow as we grow.

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Neverchangeawinninggame

SaaSplaza works in close collaboration with ABC E Business to provide Tony’s Chocolonely with the NAV solution. SaaSplaza is well-known for their expertise and extensive knowledge of Dynamics NAV in complex cloud scenarios. After taking a closer look at current requirements as well as future ambitions, SaaSplaza advised Tony’s Chocolonely to migrate the solution from a public to a private cloud environment. Thus, creating a custom-made platform for easy integration with 3rd party apps and BI-tooling, but most importantly: futureproofing slave-free chocolate.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV foundation is retained, the only difference is that with moving it to a private environment Tony’s Chocolonely is now equipped for any change in the near or distant future. Their platform is uniquely designed to grow as they grow and cater to any need that may arise. Therefore, the decision was made to continue to use NAV, but to migrate it from a shared to a private environment.

“In the USA there are as many tax regulations as there are states. Selling our products in a variety of states used to result in many manual adjustments per order.

With our private cloud at SaaSplaza, we can add an application to our stack that automatically selects and charges the right percentage for every order, no matter where the customer is located.”

Rick, Chocomatic Fanatic at Tony’s Chocolonely

Importantbenefitsinclude

Improvedscalability:expected future growth and requirements are considered

Extremelyflexible:quickly adapt to any new (international) business situation

Third-partysoftware:a wider variety of applications can easily be integrated

24/7supportavailable: across all global timezones that Tony’s operates in

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3. Collaboration with SaaSplaza

IT-partners are often referred to as trusted advisors or strategic partners, not only implementing a solution but also providing business advice. For Tony’s Chocolonely, this element of engagement is vital and one of the main reasons they chose to collaborate with SaaSplaza. Another reason to choose SaaSplaza was their ability to offer global 24/7 support in timezones and offices matching Tony’s international business operations.

Partnership As mentioned earlier, Tony’s Chocolonely started using elements of Microsoft Dynamics NAV at a very early stage, working closely together with SaaSplaza and ABC E Business.

Before the migration multiple conversations provided all stakeholders an overview of specific requirements to create the desired private cloud. Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers endless possibilities, which is great, but also poses a risk. By thoroughly analysing real business needs, important elements can be extracted and less relevant functionalities can be ignored (for now).

A plan was put in place on how to migrate the solution to the new environment with preservation of current functionalities and minimal interruption during migration.

Working in the cloud allows Tony to know that their applications and data can safely be accessed, at any time and any place without any hassle. And working with SaaSplaza means that they can trust applications and business process to be run in the best possible way, through specific tuning and vast experience of Dynamics and the cloud. This allows Tony to focus on the chocolate business.

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FromstarttofinishAlthough Tony’s Chocolonely didn’t introduce a completely new solution, a migration still needs to be planned in detail to prevent downtime or interruption of processes. To ensure a smooth transition the following was put in place:

• Each party (Tony’s Chocolonely, ABC E Business and SaaSplaza) assigned dedicated project managers and consultants

• Weekly calls took place to keep everyone updated on the progress

• A WhatsApp group was created in case of emergencies

The migration was scheduled in a few hours and, due to proper preparation by all involved, caused near to none operational issues during that time.

Fast forward to present day, Tony’s Chocolonely is using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 after a recent upgrade to unfold even more benefits like improved integration and usability.

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4. Results

Tony’sChocolonelywasalreadyfamiliarwiththevastpossibilitiesDynamicsNAVoffers,butafterthemigrationtoaprivatecloudenvironmentthebenefitshaveonlyincreased:

Futureproof Tony’s Chocolonely has a very impressive YoY growth, with expansion to the USA, continued growth is to be expected. Whatever need arises along the way, the new customised cloud environment is ready to scale with the business.

IncreasedintegrationandefficiencyOne of the most tangible results of migrating to a private cloud is the ability to integrate a wider range of applications. For instance: Selling products in a variety of states used to result in many manual adjustments per order. With the SaaSplaza solution, a third-party integration automatically selects and charges the right percentage for every order, no matter where the customer is located.

Flexibility Tony’s Chocolonely is known for introducing spectacular new flavoured chocolate bars. Not only are they an inventive company when it comes to adding unique ingredients to their chocolate, but they are also a fast moving and front-running business. The flexibility of the new private platform supports their innovative character.

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5. About SaaSplaza

SaaSplaza is the world’s leading cloud Service Provider for Microsoft Dynamics and Azure Services.

Dynamics Cloud and Azure Services are our specialty. Because of this focus SaaSplaza is the world’s leading cloud Dynamics provider. Today we work directly with more than 100 enterprise customers and 250+ Microsoft Dynamics partners around the globe, powering 1500+ Microsoft Dynamics SaaS applications worldwide. Our commitment to Dynamics earned membership to the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle in 2014, 2015 and 2016, putting us amongst the top 1% of the most successful Microsoft Dynamics partners globally.

SaaSplaza delivers services globally on 10 Microsoft Azure platforms and from our private cloud platforms in Europe, the USA & Canada, and the Asia-Pacific region. We support our customers from offices in Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Munich, San Diego and Toronto, with a global 24/7 “Follow the Sun” support model.

Our extensive Dynamics and Azure capability means we can deliver Azure and hybrid cloud solutions that exactly meet your customers’ needs. We continuously invest in innovation, devops, customer experience and security to make the customer experience for Cloud Dynamics and Azure Services hassle free and easy.

TheSaaSplazadifference:

• Experience and Expertise: 15+ years in the cloud, over 7 years of specialisation in cloud Services for Microsoft Dynamics, Azure and complex ISV solutions.

• ISAE 3402 and SSAE 16 Type II Security: the only Cloud Service Provider for Microsoft Dynamics to conduct annual audits with independent auditor PWC.

• 99,9% application level service guarantee: Our SLA guarantees a 99.9% availability on all levels of the solution.

• Global Network: Wherever you and your customers are, we are there! We are in three regions across the world and our network of 250+ partners serve customers in more than 40 countries.

• Support and Simplicity: 24/7 global support and online portal insight into all service characteristics.

Formoreinformation:

SaaSplaza Prins Mauritslaan 29-35 1171 LP Badhoevedorp the Netherlands Phone: +31 20 547 80 60

For international contact details (Germany, USA, Canada, Asia & Pacific) please visit our website: www.saasplaza.com

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