Element Case Study: Removing Key-Person Dependency from Global Finance Data Migration

Background

Element Materials Technology (Element)’s Fusion programme was a five-year transformation focused on standardising and modernising its global Finance processes and operations. The programme involved centralising Finance and Operations across around 150 legal entities into a single instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365, alongside multiple lab implementations and integrations with dozens of laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and other business-critical platforms.

As the programme entered its final stages, Element needed to maintain momentum across a complex series of data migration and rollout activities. Vizify Analytics joined the programme during its final nine months, providing specialist data engineering expertise to support some of the most challenging remaining migrations.

Working alongside Element’s wider migration team, Vizify supported the transition of financial data from legacy systems into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O), helping the programme navigate tight deadlines, concurrent migrations and testing cycles, and a complex stakeholder landscape. A second strand of the work ran alongside the migrations: reducing the programme’s reliance on a small number of individuals by moving repeatable steps into a technology framework.

Element’s data goals and objectives

Element needed to:

Migrate financial data from multiple legacy systems into a single D365 F&O environment

Minimise the effort and license costs associated with several legacy systems

Support phased migration of around 150 legal entities through controlled rollout waves

Maintain data quality and consistency throughout the migration process

Coordinate complex migration and testing activities across multiple teams

Adapt migration processes as new systems and requirements emerged

Automate repeatable processes to support successive rollout waves

Minimise disruption while working to tight, externally driven deadlines

Minimise finance system freeze periods by development and testing around fixed business cycles

Create documentation and self-service guidance to support knowledge transfer and continuity

The data transformation story

Element’s challenges

Complex migration landscape:

Financial data needed to be migrated from multiple legacy systems into a single target environment, involving numerous manual steps, dependencies and moving parts.

Tight delivery deadlines:

Migration activities were delivered against demanding deadlines, increasing the need for careful preparation and proactive communication.

Concurrent migrations and testing cycles:

Multiple legal entities were being migrated in waves, with migration and testing activities running concurrently.

Complexity of the target platform:

D365 F&O introduced a new platform requiring both technical understanding and knowledge of the underlying finance and accounting processes.

Fragmented stakeholder landscape:

The programme involved a large and distributed group of managers, consultants and contractors working remotely and across different time zones.

Complexity increased towards the end:

The remaining migration waves included some of the more complex entities, with multiple source systems and increasingly demanding requirements.

The solution

Vizify Analytics partnered with Element’s Fusion migration team to provide specialist data engineering expertise, and establish Unify as a framework for standardising and automating future migration processes.

Working alongside Element and other project stakeholders, Vizify supported financial data migration into D365 F&O across successive rollout waves, helping prepare data, investigate issues, support testing and manage technical dependencies.

Alongside the migration activity, Vizify established Unify as a technology-driven framework for repeatable data processes, designed to reduce reliance on manual intervention and individual subject-matter expertise in future migration waves.

Automating and standardising future migrations: Unify provides a low-code framework for standardising and automating repeatable data processes across migration waves. By establishing reusable processes for data ingestion, validation and management, Unify helps reduce manual intervention and dependency on individual subject-matter expertise. The framework can also be adapted as new systems and requirements emerge, giving Element a consistent foundation for future migration activity without rebuilding processes from scratch.

Key features

Phased migration of legal entities from 10+ legacy financial systems, including Sage, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Financial data migration into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

Structured migration and testing cycles

Data validation and issue investigation

A framwork for automated, repeatable data processes in future migration waves, enabled by Unify

Adaptable data processes supporting changing migration requirements

Documentation and knowledge sharing to support continuity

Cross-team collaboration across Element, Vizify and specialist delivery teams

The collaborative delivery process

Knowledge transfer and discovery
Vizify rapidly built an understanding of the existing migration solution, processes and technical landscape, despite limited handover time.

Migration preparation
The team prepared each rollout wave by reviewing migration requirements, runbooks, and potential data issues ahead of execution.

Testing and validation
Migration and testing cycles were managed across successive waves, with issues investigated and resolved as they emerged.

Cross-team collaboration
Vizify worked alongside Element, contractors, consultants and project managers to coordinate technical activity and maintain alignment.

Proactive communication
Clear and regular communication helped stakeholders understand progress, dependencies, risks and the specific stage of each migration.

Knowledge sharing
The team actively shared knowledge to reduce bottlenecks and minimise reliance on individual team members.

Process automation with Unify
In parallel, Vizify established Unify as a reusable framework for standardising and automating repeatable data processes, helping reduce manual effort and dependency on individual expertise.

Business impact

Supporting complex global migration

Vizify supported the final rollout phases of Element’s financial data migration project “Fusion”, which involved consolidating its global Finance operations across around 150 legal entities onto one Microsoft Dynamics 365 instance.

Process automation

Unify provides a technology-driven framework for automating future repeatable data processes, reducing manual intervention and helping standardise migration activity across rollout waves.

Reduced dependency on key individuals

By embedding repeatable processes into technology rather than relying solely on individual expertise, the approach helps reduce knowledge bottlenecks and improve continuity across a complex programme.

Faster response to changing requirements

The flexible framework enabled migration processes to be adapted as new systems and requirements emerged throughout delivery.

Supporting complex rollout waves

Vizify’s data engineering expertise helped Element navigate demanding final rollout phases involving multiple systems, concurrent testing and tight delivery windows.

Knowledge continuity

Processes that were previously undocumented are now covered by documentation and self-service guidance, so future migration waves can be run without depending on the individuals who ran the last ones.

Testimonials

Slide Background

Vizify Analytics' partnership and expertise helped us successfully navigate the final stages of Fusion's data migration journey. Their support enabled us to maintain momentum through the final rollout phases and ultimately reach the finish line.

Barry Wright, Director, Business Enterprise Services, Element Materials Technology

Key statistics

150 entities migrated to Microsoft Dynamics 365 as part of Fusion

Dozens of LIMS and other business-critical integrations

80% lower cost of ownership after migrating to one F&O instance

Running a complex program that depends on a handful of people knowing how it works? Speak to a Vizify consultant about your data challenge:

max.kenney@vizify.co.uk | tim.archer@vizify.co.uk | hello@vizify.co.uk | 0208 050 3635
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