Business Challenge – Haynes International Needed to Find a New ERP System
As a nickel-and cobalt-based alloys manufacturing and distribution company, Haynes International was using a Microsoft mission-critical ERP system to perform various tasks. Some tasks included order entry, operations, and finance. However, this ERP software was nearing end-of-support life from Microsoft. They needed to find another solution to safeguard their critical business processes. Finding an immediate solution was essential in protecting security, performance and improving resiliency.
While their goal was to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, the company wasn’t prepared to perform the upgrade. Instead, they needed to find a solution as soon as possible. This solution would have to maintain support for SWL Server 2008 and Microsoft for Windows Server 2008, while planning for the upgrade.
Haynes International decided to partner with WatServe. They made this decision due to its extensive experience in cloud engineering and consulting services. This even included special knowledge for managing and migrating Microsoft Dynamics. WatServ also offered a CloudOps platform. The SOC certification process meant that the company followed the best practices in the industry for service management while also being audited yearly.
Software Solution – Microsoft Azure
WatServe recommended Haynes International to migrate from Dynamics AX to Azure due to their experience with the software. Migrating to Azure would continue to extend Microsoft’s support for SQL Server 2008 and Windows by three years, giving the company additional time to upgrade to Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations while boosting security, resiliency, and overall performance. Using this hybrid project management approach made it possible to accelerate the migration process to meet the end of support deadline.
One step the team took was to migrate the workload to Microsoft Azure while maintaining application functionality and modernizing the existing infrastructure. Instead of using the remote desktop services from Microsoft, the team decided to implement Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops for additional security. Choosing this software made it possible for the company to securely connect users across the globe. Meanwhile, it also helped load balance the application for optimizing performance with Citrix on Azure.
Afterward, the team created an application migration plan to successfully integrate and mitigate any risk of interruptions to clients during the go-live process. A few technical issues occurred during this process. But the team could resolve them quickly due to their expertise and experience.
Once the migration to Azure was finished, the team focused on converting the environment to limit costs. They also created a payment consumption strategy. This helped present cost options and recommends a blended approach as an alternative method for using pay-as-you-go pricing.
The Final Results
Using the Azure-based solution made it possible for the company to create a resilient, reliable, and more scalable environment. At the same time, it helped with improving performance. WatServ made a few optimizations to the Azure environment after migration. This reduced the number of servers to host application components by 20%. It also reduced the number of terminal servers for each user by the same amount. The company saved 33% of hardware costs by automating server infrastructure. They saved another 26% due to smart pricing strategies.
WatServ played a crucial role in helping Haynes International achieve SOC compliance. They were able to do this by enhancing technology management practices. Currently, the team at WatServ continues to work with Haynes International as one of its trusted partners. They still help them use cloud services to unlock their full potential and better serve their customers. WatServe is also working on other products with Haynes International, as this partnership will continue to produce immense benefits for many more years.
