Thorp Precast

Founded in 2004 by Harvey Thorp, Thorp Precast started as a small company operating in Chesterton but has since steadily grown to now encompass a 20+ acre site, employing over 150 staff across five factories.

Thorp Precast specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of architectural precast facades, and have a particular specialism in brick and stone facades.

Continually driving development and innovation, making use of the next generation of concrete technologies and 3D modelling technology to continually push the boundaries of precast façades, Thorp were looking to consolidate some business systems within the company… enter Dynavics.

Thorp Precast were looking to consolidate some business systems within their existing company. After researching, they soon recognised that Business Central was the platform to choose and integrate, however, they also knew what they wanted to do on top of the existing system so set out to find a company who would collaborate with them in the design, development and deployment of the solution, and help them achieve their goals.

We were hoping to integrate the Business Central platform to the business, but build on top of the ‘out of the box’ product with developments to suit our manufacturing and financial processes. 

– Karl Murinas, Manufacturing Director at Thorp Precast

 

With over 20 years’ experience in the Dynamics NAV/BC world and various skill sets, Dynavics offer a professional and reliable consultancy service that is fully competent in managing all the responsibilities that are involved in an ERP project, as well as providing ongoing strategic advice.

We found that Dynavics were the perfect fit due to the hands-on approach throughout the company, with other potential partners we felt they didn’t have this approachable and proactive ethos and felt we wouldn’t have been able to have the direct input and ability to shape our development potential.

– Karl Murinas, Manufacturing Director at Thorp Precast

Dynavics used their tried and tested approach to scope out the task and setting it out into project sized chunks from the beginning, getting a firm understanding of the business and their specific requirements from the outset. There was then a very close working relationship along the testing and implementation phase of all the projects.

The guys were very approachable and willing to adapt and change things along the way for the benefit of the solution. We found the approach was very fluid which was exactly what we wanted so we could move and change along the duration of the project as we found out what ideas worked, whereas some benefitted from a change of approach along the way.

Dynavics implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central for Thorp Precast to work as their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, as well as implementing products offered by various Dynavics Partners, including; Expense Management and Document Capture from Continia, and powerful reporting and business intelligence solution, providing fast, flexible reporting and analytics from Jet Reports.

Dynavics also worked closely with Thorp on bespoke development for apps to run within and alongside Business Central.

The Dynavics team worked extensively on the Jobs Module, within Business Central, to facilitate their construction needs. The building module incorporated directly into the standard Jobs module in Business Central would ensure the standard benefits were all available to Thorp.

Developing the Jobs Modules and creating bespoke web apps, used to scan panel tickets throughout the manufacture process, seamlessly integrated with Business Central to ensure up to date and accurate job costing, working effectively and efficiently with Thorp’s existing company processes.

The team created an interactive graphical scheduler, allowing Thorp to manage the planning of panel manufacture, and complete CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) integration to HMR allowed for simple subcontractor validation and monthly return submission.

Dynavics also implemented a version of their bespoke Role Center Manager extension, meaning Thorp could improve their efficiency by transforming their landing page and have it focus on key business areas, to improve decision making.

As well bespoke development within Thorps new ERP system, Dynavics created a custom Outlook add-in, to enable all relevant employees of Thorp to perform job specific tasks, from directly within Outlook.