January 2019 Automation Hero: Mark-Jan Hennink of SucceedIT

January 2019 Automation Hero: Mark-Jan Hennink

Congratulations on the award! Tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do, Mark-Jan.

I’m the Director and Co-owner for a company called SucceedIT in the Netherlands. We are experienced ERP specialists specialising in implementing Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly known as NAV) and EazyStock for our clients. This unique combination helps our clients’ businesses run smoothly and efficiently.

As this month’s Automation Hero, you know how automation can benefit a business. What kinds of tasks have you helped your clients automate?

Mainly the purchasing process. Since we work exclusively with Dynamics 365 Business Central, we know every in and out of that ERP. The ERP really lacks support in the area of purchasing; the added value of EazyStock in combination with the ERP really saves the users the hassle and cost of adding more and more customisations to get these same valuable results. Plus, with an automation solution like EazyStock, users can share forecasts with suppliers and show the real lead times the suppliers have (compared to the lead times in the contracts).

How do tasks change when you implement automation solutions? What benefits do your clients see?

Since we focus on implementing EazyStock as an automation solution, we see a lot of improvement in inventory management. Inventory planners and purchasers go from just blindly ordering inventory to more strategic purchasing. With a system like EazyStock in place as a daily support system, clients have more time – time to spend talking to suppliers or making strategic decisions. It’s a lot less putting out fires and more strategic planning.

One of the biggest benefits I see is that users get faster insights into their inventory. One of our customers, Araco, does cotton products and they aggregate the need from all their products to forecast how much cotton they’ll need for the future and then share this info directly with their cotton suppliers. Based on this knowledge, Araco can make better decisions on whether they should buy cotton in big batches or not. Overall, automation leads to a lot less time being wasted on manual administration and people being more productive.

Now we know how you help others achieve their automation goals, what other kinds of automation tools do you use?

I’ve adapted my private life to include more automation, it’s really boosted my efficiency. I have an automated heating system at home that I can control from my phone and a music system with speakers in every room. Wherever I go in the house, the speakers follow the phone and pick up the music where I am. Next is automating my coffee machine so it makes me coffee in the morning.

Where do you see the future of automation going?

Automation will be all throughout the supply chain. I think we’re going to see robots doing those repetitive tasks especially; we’ll have completely automated physical warehouses. All robots, no people.

Great, thanks for your insight, Mark-Jan!

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