NES Fircroft
From legacy NAV to Business Central: Powering the next chapter of global growth for NES Fircroft
The Customer
With operations spanning more than 50 countries and 25,000 contractors on assignment worldwide, NES Fircroft relies on its ERP platform to support payroll, invoicing, cash collection and financial reporting on a global scale. At the heart of these operations sat a highly customised Microsoft Dynamics NAV environment that had evolved over more than two decades.
As the platform approached end of life, NES Fircroft needed to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online without disrupting day-to-day operations. To deliver this complex transformation while maintaining business continuity, the organisation partnered with Node4.
The Challenge
For NES Fircroft, the move to Business Central was far more than a routine upgrade. The company manages payroll and invoicing for approximately 25,000 contractors globally. Every month, thousands of timesheets are processed, invoices generated and payments made. Any prolonged disruption to these processes could impact contractors, clients and business operations worldwide.
Compounding the challenge was the complexity of the existing Dynamics NAV environment. Over many years, the system had been heavily tailored to support the requirements of more than 50 legal entities operating across multiple countries. The business ran on a single global instance, supported by extensive bespoke development and integrations with systems including Bullhorn and Boomi.
The scale of customisation presented a major obstacle to upgrading. More than a million lines of code required analysis and refactoring before the organisation could move forward with confidence. At the same time, the existing NAV version was approaching the end of its supported life, increasing operational and security risks.
We cannot underestimate the complexity of the bespoke coding that we had done. Because we run on one version across 50-odd countries, we had done a lot of bespoke development, and that obviously allowed us to operate globally with one version.
The Solution
Working in close partnership with NES Fircroft's finance and IT teams, Node4 designed a phased migration strategy that balanced speed, risk management and business continuity.
The project began with an extensive knowledge transfer phase, allowing Node4 specialists to gain a deep understanding of NES Fircroft's unique environment, integrations and customisations. This was followed by detailed analysis of the existing platform and the refactoring of extensive bespoke code to ensure compatibility with Business Central Online.
Given the critical nature of the ERP system, testing formed a significant part of the project. Node4 and NES Fircroft collaborated on rigorous system testing and user acceptance testing (UAT), extending phases where necessary to ensure quality and minimise risk before go-live.
Rather than rushing deployment, both organisations remained focused on achieving the right outcome.
The final cutover represented one of the most demanding stages of the project. Teams worked around the clock over several days to migrate large volumes of data, resolve issues and ensure a smooth transition to the new platform.
Following migration, Node4 provided extended hypercare support across global time zones, helping NES Fircroft maintain operations and quickly resolve issues as users adopted the new environment.
What stood out was the willingness on both sides to work through challenges together. There was a shared commitment to delivering the right outcome for the business, even when that meant adapting the approach along the way.
The Results
The migration successfully moved NES Fircroft from its legacy on-premises Dynamics NAV environment to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online. Most importantly, the transition was achieved without disrupting critical business processes.
The move to Business Central has also eliminated the need for large-scale future upgrades, replacing them with Microsoft's ongoing update cycle and significantly reducing future risk and operational overhead.
Despite the scale and complexity of the project:
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Contractor payroll continued uninterrupted
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Client invoicing remained on schedule
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Month-end reporting processes were completed successfully
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Business operations continued across more than 50 countries
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Users transitioned to a modern cloud-based platform with minimal disruption
We didn't miss any payrolls. We paid everybody, we invoiced the clients and maintained continuity of business. That's a great result.
The Node Difference
NES Fircroft conducted a thorough vendor evaluation process before selecting a transformation partner. The organisation was looking for more than technical expertise. It needed a partner with deep Dynamics knowledge, significant engineering capability, experience managing complex upgrades and a willingness to work closely alongside its internal teams.
Node4 stood out through its collaborative approach, extensive Dynamics expertise and ability to combine specialist resources with the company's in-house knowledge.
Beyond technical capability, cultural alignment played an important role in the decision.
The standout things were the fact that the business lived and breathed Dynamics NAV and had significant engineering capability available. We also valued the flexibility and willingness to work alongside our in-house team.
Looking ahead
With the migration complete, NES Fircroft is now focused on maximising the value of its modern ERP platform.
The organisation is exploring opportunities around automation, AI-powered development, GitHub-based workflows, Power Automate, Power BI and Microsoft Fabric to further improve efficiency and support future growth. The new platform also provides greater scalability and flexibility to support evolving business requirements worldwide.
We've effectively jumped forward seven years in technology. The focus now is on how we maximise the benefit of everything the platform gives us.