”We were bold in rethinking things – and it paid off.”
“Amidst the hustle and bustle, we sometimes forget that we’ve achieved remarkable things,” smiles Maarit Rantala, VP Group Business Services at YIT, thanking us for the interview invitation. Over the next hour, we reminisce together about YIT's extensive financial management transformation journey, which has brought new vigor to the financial management processes and system architecture of Finland's leading construction company and project developer.
Towards unified processes and system landscape
Six years ago, in 2018, YIT joined forces with Lemminkäinen. Simultaneously, the century-old construction company’s system environment expanded with a handful of new applications, resulting in hundreds of back-office systems at the group level. YIT saw the merger as an opportunity to innovate and establish unified practices for the new YIT. The goal was also to harmonize the fragmented system environment that had accumulated technical debt over the years. One area of harmonization was YIT’s financial management, which now had an additional local SAP system alongside the existing one, reaching the end of its lifecycle.
The aim was to find a modern, cloud-based financial management solution that would standardize practices across the organization, continue delivering reliable financial figures for the publicly listed company, and support YIT’s growth well into the future.
“We genuinely considered various alternatives – and it was a good thing we did”, recalls Rantala. In addition to the familiar SAP, YIT explored cloud services offered by other technology vendors. Soon, Microsoft’s financial management solution, Dynamics 365 Finance, emerged as an intriguing option, with digital company Efima as a partner candidate. “Our RFP phase was thorough. Since we were unfamiliar with Microsoft’s solution and Efima, we carefully evaluated whether they could serve the needs of a large corporation like ours”, Rantala explains. “While many of us associated SAP with solutions for major enterprises, Efima and Microsoft ultimately convinced us.”
Massive project required extensive change management
YIT’s transition from SAP to Dynamics 365 Finance was an exceptional project in Finland. It demanded significant efforts from YIT’s financial management team, as well as collaboration with stakeholders and partners. Eventually, intensive work paid off, and the new system was successfully implemented first in Sweden and Norway in January 2021, followed by Finland the next year. “Our collaboration with Efima went exceptionally well, and the initial quarterly closings were completed successfully”, Rantala recalls, expressing gratitude for the dedication of YIT’s staff during the project. “Amidst all the changes, our organization performed admirably, and everything was meticulously planned and executed.”
Investments in change management and controlled deployment were crucial for success. In addition to the system change, YIT and Efima jointly implemented extensive improvements to financial management processes, which also impacted the business. “We invested significantly in change management during the deployment, and I believe it was successful. We communicated the changes from all angles to different stakeholders and organized numerous information sessions for business representatives and financial management”, explains Rantala. “We also managed the initial go-lives together. We held daily status meetings in the mornings and afternoons to assess progress, solve any challenges that arose, and ensure end users received the support they needed.”
Dynamics 365 Finance won people over
Surprisingly, long-time SAP users quickly shed their preconceptions about the new system. “We did have some pretty strong doubts when we started exploring Dynamics 365. In my organization, there were experts who had been using SAP for a long time and considered it the only option at the beginning of the tendering phase", Rantala recalls and shares her apprehension about whether attitudes would change with the implementation. “Eventually, it was relatively easy when people started using the system", Rantala states.
Today, the prevailing view is that Dynamics 365 offers a more modern and user-friendly experience. “Many tasks are now easier and more efficient. Users appreciate the simplicity of Dynamics 365’s core functionalities, easy navigation, and useful view personalization. They also like that reports can be easily exported to Excel”, Rantala lists feedback from accountants and accounts receivable professionals.
Also, Microsoft Power Apps-based applications developed in collaboration with Efima have brought welcome changes to the daily life of financial management. The applications work seamlessly with Dynamics 365 Finance and serve the specific needs of YIT's financial management and its stakeholders. One of them is Invoicing App, which now makes sending invoicing requests to financial management more straightforward: "Previously, business operations would send an email or put in a ticket asking our financial management to make a sales invoice. Now, with the Invoicing App, they can enter the correct information directly into the app, which has significantly streamlined our operations", Rantala praises.
Thanks to system and process development, financial management has been able to eliminate many manual tasks: “Our operations have been significantly streamlined, and nowadays we can focus more on building reports, analyzing data, and developing together with the business, rather than just performing transactions", Rantala explains the impact of these changes.
Nothing changes if nothing is changed
According to Rantala, finding the right partner was crucial for the financial management transformation. “We were quite fortunate in terms of the project team we got from Efima. Our global process owners greatly appreciated how easily Efima understood our needs and wishes. Issues were genuinely solved together, and both parties cherished good cooperation”, Rantala reflects. Although the journey also included challenges, Rantala believes that overcoming them strengthened trust even further: “Responding to problems and ensuring they don’t recur is always a positive sign.”
The joint development has continued also after the implementation project. At the end of our conversation, Rantala encourages other financial management change planners to be bold in their decisions: “We are extremely pleased that we didn’t view the change merely as a system upgrade process but as an opportunity to genuinely rethink our processes and operating models. From this starting point, we sought the most suitable system and partner for us. We were bold in rethinking things – and it paid off."
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