PARTNER SUCCESS STORY: University of Washington
Improving Student Housing and Food Operations by Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics GP
Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is the flagship public university and one of the largest employers in the state of Washington. Its Housing & Food Services (UW HFS) department supports more than 10,000 students who live on campus, all without funding from the state or university. In other words, its services are paid for by those who benefit from them. This makes it particularly important for the department’s operations to be efficient and effective.
As a self-sustaining department, UW HFS essentially operates as its own entity within the university, and its account system operates on a different basis than the rest of the institution. The department is a long-term Microsoft Dynamics GP customer and Enavate partner, and when it came time to upgrade their GP version finally, they knew they could rely on Enavate’s expert team.
“Enavate has been nothing but supportive in helping us identify the right solutions for the right scale that we need, even though it seems to keep changing on us on a semi-regular basis,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst
Avoiding the Cliff
UW HFS had been operating well on GP for years but eventually found itself a bit behind on the upgrade cycle. After all, a university has finite resources with which to manage dozens, if not hundreds, of different business systems.
“We were approaching the end of extended support for the version that we were on,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst. “We naturally wanted to make sure we avoided that cliff and got an upgraded version that would allow us to maintain that support and ensure security and data integrity.”
Enavate had already been providing excellent support on the current version, so UW HFS decided to have Enavate help manage the various moving parts of a comprehensive ERP upgrade, too.
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with you all on this project. I have over 20 years at UW, working on dozens of implementations, upgrades, customizations and integrations in all manner of business systems. I can easily say you all were one of the most efficient, effective and easy-to-work-with vendor teams I’ve encountered. We overcame challenges as they arose through great action plans and communication. You all made our job easier, which is always a welcomed outcome.”
- Business Systems Analyst, University of Washington
A “Laser-Focused” Implementation Process
A large public university’s housing and food department has many unique needs when it comes to serving its students, so having a knowledgeable and attentive technology partner is crucial.
“I’ve gone through dozens of implementations and upgrades of various business systems throughout our entire universe,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst, “and I have found it relatively rare to have a vendor team that is responsive, engaged and constantly working towards making sure that we’re supported. Sometimes you get pieces of each, but not necessarily all together.”
For UW’s Business Systems Analyst, Enavate provided a clear contrast from the experiences of other partners.
“The whole team was laser-focused on strong communication, problem-solving and making sure that we felt comfortable with each step of the process,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst. “It was just fantastic, and we were able to resolve everything that came our way, which sometimes can be a challenge.”
Results
UW HFS worked with Enavate to successfully upgrade their Dynamics GP system, which had the following benefits:
Continued Microsoft Support
The department avoided the support cliff so they could continue to get regular updates from Microsoft and keep their business operations as efficient as possible.
Enhanced Data Security and Integrity
UW HFS could rest easy knowing that Microsoft’s newest security tools protect the data of their students and residents, and that redundant or inaccurate data wouldn’t create issues with housing and food plans.
Hands-On Training and Widespread Adoption
For new and improved features of the upgraded GP system, UW HFS received superior hands-on training led by Enavate customer care expert Kyana Brooks. “We were given all the space and the freedom to ask the questions that we need and the right level of support in case we had questions along the way,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst.
A Fulfilling Partnership
Ultimately, Enavate’s work on the GP upgrade project gave UW HFS exactly what it needed.
“We try to be very careful about balancing our resource investments,” said UW’s Business Systems Analyst, “so that we don’t go to the latest and greatest and put a whole bunch of money into something that we may be asked to strip out very quickly in the near future.
“We tend to be later adopters in that sense so that we’re getting good value and making sure we’re good stewards of our resources.”
Working with Enavate has helped UW HFS do just that, and while this particular project may be complete, the partnership continues.