DQS: Management Partner for Certification-Seeking Companies Worldwide

TM Microsoft Dynamics Customer Solution Case Study

DQS: Management Partner for Certification- Seeking Companies Worldwide

Overview "Very gratifying is the development of the environment standard DIN Country or region: Germany Industry: Management Consulting, EN ISO 14001. Its distribution has doubled worldwide over the past Occupational Training & Certification year. Also the reforms in the public sector and the health care lead to Customer Profile DQS assesses the capability of an increased demand on respective vertical solutions certificates," organizations and offers a wide variety of Christiana Rambow-Krummeck, Marketing and Sales Director, DQS assessment services. DQS is part of an intercontinental network of partners with the objective of ensuring the mutual DQS is an organization founded to assess companies worldwide acceptance of each partner's certificates. that seek to obtain process and quality certifications. DQS DQS offices are located in Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, needed a software system that could support their expansion Russia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, and the recruitment of new customers. They also needed Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, USA, China, Iran, Korea, and Pakistan. sophisticated bilingual communication capabilities to support Business Situation DQS' worldwide presence. DQS selected Microsoft® Business DQS needed a software system that could ™ support management of existing customers Solutions—Axapta (now part of Microsoft Dynamics ). In and recruitment of new customers. The addition to its ability to support recruitment of customers and its software also needed to have bilingual communication and networking capabilities bilingual capabilities, users liked the integration with Microsoft to support DQS’ worldwide presence. Word, its rich graphical interface, and its unified workflow Solution capability. DQS selected Microsoft® Business Solutions—Axapta® for its bilingual user interface and ability to support network communication necessary for the network setup across all locations. Other critical factors in the choice were the graphical user interface and the transparent and unified workflows. Benefits  User acceptance  Integration with Microsoft Word  Capability to communicate across many Situation  A flexible management system helps Founded in 1985, DQS is a leading achieve company goals while registrar for management systems in continuously increasing company Frankfurt, Germany. DQS specializes in profitability. assessing companies to attain  A clearly structured workflow guarantees certifications, such as ISO 9000. The a rational order processing in services of DQS are comprised of administration and production. assessment services in the entire range of  A clearly structured workflow also quality, environment, security, and prevents double work or questions of management system certification. DQS authority and thus anticipates the concentrates on benchmarking of dissipation of valuable resources. "In the beginning it was management systems. Christiana  Smaller Companies Are Seeking overall the pressure of Rambow-Krummeck, Marketing and Sales Certification Director at DQS, says, "We indicate weak big enterprises which points and improvement possibilities." While larger companies have been the first helped the certificated to adopt certification, the trend has recently The customer register of the company become more noticeable among smaller management systems represents a compendium of the German enterprises. "In the beginning it was overall in mid-market vendor economy. The 850 auditors worldwide have the pressure of big enterprises which assessed management systems at about helped the certificated management enterprises on the road 6,500 companies at 21,000 sites over the systems in mid-market vendor enterprises to success. Today, past few years, among them such well- on the road to success. Today, most of the known German companies as Deutsche companies appreciate the potential of most of the companies Telekom, ABB, Siemens, and Degussa. documented workflows and continual appreciate the potential DQS derives 20 percent of its revenue from improvement, and certification has become abroad. the market trend," says Rambow- of documented Krummeck. workflows and Certification Anticipated as a Coming Trend in 1985 At the top of the popularity scale is the DIN continual improvement, At the time of the formation of the EN ISO 9000 standard that plays an and certification has company, widespread certification of important role for vertical supply chains. companies was anticipated as a coming "Very gratifying is the development of the become the market trend. Eighteen years later, in 2003, environment standard DIN EN ISO 14001. trend," significant adoption of certification had Its distribution has doubled worldwide over become a reality. Now there are few large- the past year. Also the reforms in the public Christiana Rambow-Krummeck, Marketing scale international enterprises that do not sector and the health care lead to an and Sales Director, DQS use regulations, such as the DIN EN ISO increased demand on respective vertical 9000 standard. There are now 560,000 solutions certificates," says Rambow- certifications currently in use in Krummeck. approximately 160 countries. The Basic Requirements There are several obvious benefits of certification: The company had several business needs fought its way through the dense software that a potential software solution needed to jungle. satisfy. Solution Support for customer recruitment—It is In the spring of 2000, Microsoft® Business important to cultivate existing contacts via Solutions—Axapta® was discovered. "We active customer care, but more importantly, mostly liked the bilingual user interface, by means of a pro-active effort to acquire which was very favorable for the new customers. With the old system, implementation of the system at all recruitment of new customers was a task international subsidiaries. In addition, that could be realized only sub optimally Microsoft Axapta provides the type of with the existing software, as Irmi Otto, communication necessary for the network employee in the IT development project of setup across all locations. DQS, explains. "So far, we have been working with a custom-made solution. In Other criteria were the graphical user the operational services, this software met interface as well as the transparent and our expectations but did not really have an unified workflows. The location of the integrated structure. implementation partner was also of great Integrated functionality and management importance. Especially in the critical initial . "With well-known reporting—other weak points were the phase, the proximity of the partner was missing connection between the order desirable. With the assistance of Microsoft solutions, unexpected processing and the financial management Business Solutions reselling partner, events can be more as well as the restricted management Seelhof SystemBeratung GmbH, DQS reports. purchased Microsoft Axapta. As to the easily compensated," Integration of contact management and e- security of their software investment, the Irmi Otto, IT development project , DQS mail—Furthermore, there was no market position of the software provider integration between the contact was of great importance. "With well-known management and the e-mail client. When solutions, unexpected events can be more an additional investment demand became easily compensated," Otto says. apparent due to the euro conversion, we decided to implement a new software. A Made-to-Measure Solution In the late summer of 2000, the Support for bilingual communication—The implementation phase began. As Company looked for a scalable, modern professional perfectionists, DQS placed system that adapts to the growing comparably high demands on the internal demands of the company. In addition, the project that they place on the certification of new software should be able to a management system. This is why the communicate with the existing system. project team, consisting of five employees At the end of 1999, the go-ahead for the of DQS and the software specialists of project was given. By way of attending Seelhof SystemBeratung, was industry fairs, making on-site inspections of complemented with an independent reference installations, and by reading consultant, who exclusively took care of the product information, the project team quality assurance. The project plan called initially doubtful attitude of many of the for a multi-stage implementation. colleagues was eliminated once they experienced the integration capabilities of The first action implemented was to Microsoft Word. "Standard templates, text upgrade Microsoft Business Solutions– blocks, reuse of templates, and the Axapta with a tool for auditor management possibility to attach Word documents to and administration. "Besides the common contacts might not be overwhelming contact information, it was important to functionalities, but they simplify everyday them to retrieve the qualification, business considerably", says Otto. background knowledge, and the admission of the auditors for the different standards. Currently, 120 workplaces are connected to Furthermore a curriculum was attached to Microsoft Axapta, which is not the end. each data record. Thus account executives DQS plans to involve all departments that can retrieve the auditor directory according are still not working with Microsoft Axapta, to criteria such as assignments abroad, such as their print office. The international foreign languages, or vertical solution subsidiaries are following this example. specializations via a multi-stage search routine," says Otto.

Microsoft Word Integration Developers also had their sights on the integration of Microsoft Word. It was necessary to establish links to an individual wizard program for the document design. When creating a certificate, the wizard queries the single components and enters these in the corresponding fields of the Microsoft Dynamics template. For accessing all these data, the Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, entire database of Microsoft Axapta can be adaptable business management solutions used. The old software could only access that enables you and your people to make single data areas. This explains why in the business decisions with greater confidence. past only a half-automated entry was Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar possible, according to a DQS IT specialist. Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning There were relatively few problems during curve for your people, so they can get up the implementation, and when there were and running quickly and focus on what’s problems, they were mostly in the most important. And because it is from communications area. Microsoft, it easily works with the systems your Benefits company Within six months following the already implementation, the software found great has implemented. By automating and acceptance among the employees. The For More Information streamlining financial, customer For more information about Microsoft relationship products and services, call the Microsoft and supply chain processes, Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426- Dynamics brings together people, 9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft processes and technologies, increasing the Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- productivity and effectiveness of your 2495. Customers who are deaf or hard- business, and helping you drive business of-hearing can reach Microsoft text success. telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) For more information about Microsoft 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 Dynamics, go to: United States and Canada, please www.microsoft.com/dynamics contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information Seelhof SystemBeratung GmbH products and services, visit the Web site at: www.seelhof.de

For more information about DQS products and services, visit the Web site at: www.dqs.gr

Software and Services © 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case  Microsoft Dynamics study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN Microsoft Business Solutions–Axapta THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Axapta, − Navision, BizTalk, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft Business Solutions ApS is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published June 2005