About the client
The client is a global leader in material handling equipment manufacturing. Its North America-based operation is known for innovation, dealer support, and high-performance products.
Through a network of independent dealerships across the continent, the company delivers new and used forklifts, rentals, parts, and service to a wide range of industries.
Its dealers needed a single, modern system to run their day-to-day business.
Client challenges
The client wanted to give its dealers a modern Dealer Management System (DMS) to support day-to-day operations across sales, service, parts, and operations. An existing ERP implementation had failed to meet the dealers’ evolving business needs.
- Fragmented legacy systems: Disconnected systems, including SAP, Oracle, Epicor, and on-premises Business Central, created operational silos. Dealers struggled to track inventory, manage customer relationships, or generate meaningful reports.
- Manual processes: Manual work limited visibility across sales, service, and rental operations.
- Weak field and back-office coordination: Back-office teams and field service personnel lacked real-time coordination.
- Complex data migration: Migrating master and transactional data from multiple systems was complex and inconsistent.
- Need for a repeatable rollout model: The client needed a scalable, repeatable model to support dealership rollouts.
Solution
The DMS was initially developed by another vendor. A global systems integrator then took over the program and partnered with LevelShift. Together, the teams built a unified DMS on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Field Service across three workstreams.
Workstream 1: Unified Platform and Integration
The solution was organized around the dealer product journey. Business Central became the backbone for financial, sales, procurement, and warehouse management, with Dynamics 365 Field Service handling field service operations.
Azure Logic Apps formed the real-time integration bridge between ERP and CRM, enabling real-time data exchange across both systems.
Outcome
A single, integrated platform replaced disconnected legacy systems and gave dealers real-time visibility across sales, service, and rental operations.
Workstream 2: Dealer Capabilities and Rental Management
The team built capabilities across sales, parts, service, and operations, including a custom rental management module embedded in sales and service workflows.
Service management was enhanced with scheduling, service contract handling, and telematics integration, improving coordination between field and back-office teams.
Outcome
Rental operations became part of core sales and service workflows, and field and back-office teams gained real-time coordination.
Workstream 3: Data Migration and Repeatable Rollout
The team executed structured data migration using standardized templates for master and transactional data from SAP, Oracle, Epicor, and on-premises BC.
The team designed a scalable, repeatable architecture to support localized deployments across dealerships.
Outcome
Dealerships can be onboarded through a consistent, repeatable deployment model.
Capabilities delivered
The DMS covers the full dealer lifecycle across four product areas.
| Product area | Capabilities |
| Sales | Inventory search, Build & Price equipment configuration, new and used equipment, rental management, sell and trade-ins, CRM |
| Parts | Inventory search, vendor catalog access, purchase order management, advanced warehousing |
| Service | Field service, shop service, service contracts, scheduling, telematics integration |
| Operations | Dealer reporting and analytics, ERP, finance, jobs, logistics, product information management (PIM) |
Technologies used: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Field Service (Customer Engagement), Azure Logic Apps, telematics integration.
Benefits
Working with LevelShift, the client moved its dealers from fragmented legacy systems to one integrated DMS.
- Unified dealer platform: Dealers manage the end-to-end dealer lifecycle in one platform built on Business Central and Field Service.
- 50% improvement in deployment efficiency: Standardized processes and a repeatable architecture support consistent dealership rollouts.
- 45% improvement in field coordination: Scheduling, service contract handling, and telematics integration connect field and back-office teams.
- 40% improvement in rental operations accuracy: A custom rental module works within sales and service workflows.
- Real-time visibility: Azure Logic Apps integrate ERP and CRM for real-time visibility across sales, service, and rental operations.
- Reduced manual effort: Standardized processes replace manual work across dealer operations.
- Enhanced customer experience: Integrated CRM supports better follow-up, service tracking, and communication with customers.
- Scalable foundation: A repeatable deployment model supports consistent rollouts across the dealer network.
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