Continuous Business Central development and customizations
for Astena’s solution for the construction sector
Challenges
Astena, our partner, invited Global Mediator to join its multifaceted Business Central development project related to software solutions for construction and installation companies, in full cooperation with Astena’s development team.
For more than 8 years of continuous joint effort, the software engineers have contributed to the following top-priority tasks in scope of Business Central development:
Conducting multiple ERP upgrades (NAV and Business Central) to the more recent versions, applying best practices, and outside-the-box thinking.
Automating manual processes for Astena’s customers with various integrations.
Providing continuous support and maintenance of the core solution and multiple customer-specific customizations.
Implementing new features from Microsoft.
Conducting automated testing of Astena’s solution for its customers.
Wim Vandesompele
Managing Director at Astena
"For our product development (standard apps), we needed skilled & experienced people who do not work on our customer projects, so we could keep all capacity and focus on the standard apps.
Global Mediator delivered those skilled people and kept them on this strategic project, so they are like real colleagues to us."
Solution
01
In close collaboration with Astena, our tech team manages the upgrades from NAV to the more recent versions of Business Central for multiple Astena’s customers.
Over the years, Global Mediator has faced multiple thought-provoking tasks like the ones below.
When Astena decided to move their complex solution to a newer version of BC, the team had to tackle a challenge as the development moved from C/SIDE to the VS Code environment. This move complicated the development process.
Astena’s team held several rounds of brainstorming and discussions with the Microsoft MVPs to discover the wisest scenarios for the future upgrade. The GM development pros contributed to the discussions as well.
To make the upgraded solution more efficient, maintainable, and customizable for specific customer needs, the team opted for code refactoring instead of moving the solution as a monolith.
The software engineers logically “split” the solution into separate extensions and re-written the code to effectively implement the solutions in the new environments (now Astena has about 50 separate extensions related to finance, job, approvals, real estate, service management, etc.).
02
Process automation is of paramount importance to Astena’s customers. Global Mediator’s team contributes to transforming manual processes, among other things, with practical integrations that help streamline access to BC documents for users, both cloud and on-premises versions.
Instead of manually storing and submitting the document needed for Business Central operations, Astena’s customers leverage the potential of Azure Blob Storage or OneDrive, integrated with Business Central, for effortless ERP processes.
03
Global Mediator’s specialists continuously support Astena’s original Business Central solution for the construction business. The solution’s scale challenges our tech-savvy engineers with:
developing new functionalities for customers’ requests;
adding specific features on top of Astena’s original solution;
addressing errors, troubleshooting, and much more.
04
Our team proactively ensures that the newly released Microsoft features comply with the solution’s functionality. The team then implements them within working solutions – Astena’s original solution and its customer-specific modifications.
05
To ensure the recently developed or updated functionality meets customer requirements and matches with Microsoft updates, Global Mediator’s team applies the best practices of automated testing to deliver secure and properly functioning solutions.
Technologies behind the project
A snapshot of what we leverage to deliver best-of-breed solutions
Wim Vandesompele
Managing Director at Astena
"We’ve been working with GM for over 8 years and the team has really become part of our team. The fact that we have been able to count on the same team for more than 8 years is a great advantage in our cooperation."
Impact
About our customer
Originating in the late 1990s, Astena has grown into an integral part of the Oxygen Group: a joint ambition, quality, and expertise in the field of Dynamics 365 Business Central. With an agile, human-first, and long-term relationships approach, Astena specializes in the construction sector and provides Dynamics 365 solutions for process automation.
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