Grimshaw Architects

Grimshaw was founded by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw in 1980. The practice became a Partnership in 2007 and operates worldwide with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Dubai, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland.

Grimshaw’s international portfolio covers all major sectors, and has been honoured with over 200 international design awards for its commitment to design excellence. Grimshaw’s portfolio consists of many projects such as Eden Project, London Bridge, Elizabeth Lines, Fulton Square, Expo 2020 Dubai Sustainability Pavilion and many more.

Grimshaw Architects faced several challenges with their legacy financial system, Microsoft Dynamics GP, a solution which is now approaching end of life support.  This presented significant risks and concerns, including:

• Scalability
• Increasingly outdated user interface that didn’t match contemporary software design
• Challenging to integrate with newer cloud-based applications
• On-going technical maintenance
• Less advanced reporting capabilities compared to newer ERP systems
• Limited return on investment as the platform becomes less competitive.

With the end-of-life announcement for Dynamics GP, Grimshaw recognised an urgent need to upgrade their IT stack, particularly the financial system. Failing to do so would have left them exposed to operational risks, reduced system performance, and a greater reliance on outdated technology.

The dream project for Grimshaw would mean an end result of a newer system, better integration, substituting manual tasks with automated workflows… all whilst working with a Microsoft partner they could trust.

Enter Dynavics.

Thanks to a personal recommendation from an external consultant, Grimshaw approached Dynavics to see if they could help deliver their dream.

“The team comprehensively understood our requirements, proposed valuable improvements, and developed a detailed project specification. Moreover, they worked diligently under extremely tight deadlines, demonstrating remarkable commitment to delivering the project on time… I collaborated with several team members who were consistently knowledgeable, proactively helpful, and committed to resolving issues efficiently.”

 

Tanya Quelch, Business Systems Lead (Group)

Dynavics approached the challenge by conducting a comprehensive assessment of Grimshaw’s financial and operational requirements. Recognizing the limitations of Dynamics GP and the urgency created by its impending end of life, the team worked to:

• Propose a modern, scalable ERP solution capable of seamless integration with Grimshaw’s existing cloud-based project management tools.
• Migrate historical data from Dynamics GP while ensuring data integrity and minimising downtime.
• Develop custom integrations to automate manual processes, replacing inefficient workflows that had become a burden with the legacy system.
• Design a bespoke home page with tile-based navigation – thanks to Dynavics’ customer favourite Role Center Manager – to improve the user experience and align with modern interface standards.

“I collaborated with several team members who were consistently knowledgeable, proactively helpful, and committed to resolving issues efficiently.”

Although, still in their early days post go-live, Grimshaw Architects are already starting to see results from the seamless transition from Dynamics GP to Business Central.

The new ERP system has meant that Grimshaw will now have a reduced reliance on outdated technology, thanks to a more cost-effective IT infrastructure. As well as, access to:

• Improved system scalability to support the company’s global operations and growth
• Enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities, for better financial insight and decision-making
• Seamless integration with their new project management systems, leading to reduced manual data entry and improving operational efficiency