Case Study 1 - Media
Global Media Giant Achieves Finance Transformation with Konexxia
A Dynamics 365 Data Migration Success Story
Introduction
When a global media and advertising powerhouse with 68,000 employees faced the challenge of unifying their financial operations across four continents, they turned to Konexxia for a solution.
The result? The world's largest Microsoft Dynamics F&SCM implementation at that time, with over 450,000 master data records and 1.5 million transactions migrated across 53 legal entities in a single weekend. This landmark project transformed a patchwork of legacy systems into a unified global financial platform, delivering operational efficiency and strategic insight for years to come.
A Dynamics 365 Data Migration Success Story!
Client Profile
A leading global media and advertising company with 68,000 employees worldwide faced significant challenges with their financial systems. Having grown primarily through acquisitions, the organisation had accumulated numerous disparate systems, each with different processes and varying levels of data capture quality. The lack of a common operating model for finance was hindering their ability to operate efficiently on a global scale.
Project Overview
The client embarked on an ambitious implementation of Microsoft Dynamics Finance & Supply Chain Management (F&SCM) across four continents. At the time, this represented the largest rollout of Dynamics F&SCM in the world.
The project began in January 2017 with a strategic plan for multiple phased rollouts across different regions over a six-year period. The scale and complexity of the project were significant, particularly regarding the capture and enrichment of financial dimension information from multiple source systems, some of which were extremely outdated.
This high-profile transformation had executive visibility, with both the CEO and CIO identified as main stakeholders, underlining the strategic importance of the initiative to the organisation's future.
The Challenge
The client faced numerous significant challenges:
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Legacy System Complexity: The company operated numerous legacy systems, many of which were antiquated and had undergone substantial modifications over the years. These systems lacked appropriate integrations and reporting capabilities, severely limiting the company's business intelligence efforts.
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Fragmented Processes: Different acquired companies operated with their own systems and processes, with varying levels of data capture sophistication and no standardised approach across the enterprise.
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Data Quality Issues: Much of the existing data was of poor quality, and in many cases, the source data simply did not contain the information required by the new system, necessitating significant enrichment and augmentation.
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Global Coordination Complexity: The phased rollouts often occurred simultaneously across different continents, creating significant resource allocation and timing challenges for the central team based in London.
Solution Approach
Konexxia implemented a comprehensive solution using their proven methodology and proprietary technology:
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Structured Discovery and Documentation: Konexxia employed their standard 6-step methodology, beginning with thorough data discovery of legacy source data and analysis of the target data model requirements. The team created structured mapping documents, improving upon the client's existing poor-quality documentation. A rigorous issue logging system was implemented using Azure DevOps, which helped identify upstream issues affecting the data team's ability to deliver quality results on schedule.
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Automated Data Platform: Konexxia leveraged their Generix data platform to automate legacy data extraction and the creation of target load structures from the required Dynamics data entities. The platform executed deterministic transformations, while a new multi-threaded loading process was specifically designed to handle the large data volumes within increasingly challenging cutover windows as more markets went live.
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Multi-Market Parallel Processing: A standout feature of the Generix data platform was its ability to run different markets independently from a shared code-base. This architecture enabled simultaneous transformations across multiple geographical regions, significantly accelerating the global rollout. Each market's unique data requirements and configurations could be managed separately whilst maintaining consistency in the underlying transformation logic. This parallel processing capability was crucial for the client's ambitious timeline, allowing the central London-based team to orchestrate concurrent implementations across different continents without compromising on quality or performance.
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Specialised Expertise: The Konexxia team consisted of six highly experienced ERP migration specialists. Team members with expertise in specific Dynamics functional areas were assigned responsibility for migrating all data entities within those functional domains.
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Comprehensive Validation: Konexxia developed automated data validations to check against target configuration and perform referential and duplication checks. Identified issues were reported back to the business for data cleansing or to functional teams to address configuration gaps before the next cycle.
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Iterative Validation Cycles: Konexxia implemented four data validation cycles per market, extracting data at key month-ends, transforming, validating, and loading it into a test environment. Data was then reconciled using the Generix platform. Business users were guided through detailed validation processes in Dynamics, with issues logged in Azure DevOps for tracking and resolution.
Transformational Results and Benefits
The project delivered exceptional results
for the client:
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Impressive Initial Go-Live: Konexxia's first go-live successfully brought businesses in both Australia and France online simultaneously. In a single weekend, we migrated over 450,000 master data records and 1.5 million transaction records across 53 legal entities; an achievement made possible through our powerful automation capabilities.
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Sustained Success: Over a five-year period, subsequent market implementations were delivered on schedule with minimal hyper-care requirements. This enabled the business to establish a common finance operating model across all major global business units.
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Accelerated Global Deployment: The multi-market parallel processing capability of the Generix platform dramatically compressed the overall implementation timeline. What would have been a sequential, decade-long rollout under traditional approaches was completed in just five years. This accelerated timeline delivered earlier ROI for the client, with some markets achieving financial benefits up to three years earlier than originally anticipated. Additionally, the parallel implementation approach reduced overall programme costs by approximately 30% through shared resources and consolidated testing cycles.
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Data Harmonisation: The Generix data platform facilitated the harmonisation and cleansing of master data through an intuitive, traceable process that reduced complexity and implementation time.
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Self-Sufficiency: Konexxia trained the client's team on the Generix data platform, enabling them to continue using it independently for new acquisitions and smaller markets without requiring consultant involvement.
Conclusion
This landmark project demonstrates Konexxia's unrivalled expertise in delivering complex, global-scale data migrations. By combining methodical planning, proprietary technology, and deep domain knowledge, Konexxia transformed a fragmented financial landscape into a unified, efficient operation spanning hundreds of legal entities across four continents. Beyond the immediate technical achievements, this project
enabled the client to standardise financial processes, improve data quality, and gain unprecedented visibility into their global operations; creating a foundation for continued growth and agility in an ever-changing market. For organisations facing similar challenges with disparate systems and complex data environments, Konexxia's approach offers a proven pathway to transformation success.
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