A dash of speed and agility: Tiryaki Agro transforms operations with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Tiryaki Agro, a leading agricultural products supply chain company worldwide, has been dedicated to providing healthy, reliable, and sustainable agricultural products since 1965. The company sources from more than 35 countries with affiliates located in 11 countries on 4 continents and supplies nearly 3 million tons of agricultural products annually. Its reach has extended to more than 50 countries through perfectly efficient management of the links of the supply chain from agriculture, sourcing, logistics, processing, storage, trade, and consumer. Operating in 21 ports globally, Tiryaki Agro ensures reliable logistics of products through its expertise in storage and transportation.

As one of the world's largest organic food supply chain companies, Tiryaki Agro is committed to the principle of building a sustainable future for agriculture. It adopts the mission of leaving a better world for future generations with hundreds of thousands of farmers and more than 1,500 people it employs. Embracing environmentally friendly agricultural production practices, renewable energy resources, and introducing smart agricultural technologies to the soil, Tiryaki Agro creates agriculture for the future and the future for agriculture.

Managing the supply chain in 25 production facilities across four continents, time is of the greatest essence for Tiryaki. Previously, the company relied on an on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Dynamics AX 2009. Hosted on local servers, the system had custom modules to meet the needs of Tiryaki’s various departments, including production, logistics, human resources, accounting, and shipping. “Initially, the number of personnel using the ERP was around 700 people,” recalls Mehmet Düzel, Planning Manager at Tiryaki Agro. “Over the years, the number grew to 1,500.”

With growing sales and a two-fold increase in personnel, the company started looking for a more secure, scalable, agile, and responsive solution, accessible to its global team 24/7. “Updates and improvement releases on on-premises could take up to 24 hours, which posed a serious risk to business continuity. When we realized that cloud-based solutions could reduce these release times to 40 to 50 minutes, we decided to look for a cloud-based ERP system,” recalls Timur Karaman, Chief Information Officer at Tiryaki Agro.

Implementing a dynamic solution

After thorough market research, Tiryaki Agro chose to shift to Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain for its user-friendliness. “We had already used Dynamics AX 2009, and though the user interface was not identical, Dynamics 365 was familiar to our users,” says Kerime İkizler, ERP Project Manager at Tiryaki Agro. Partnering with ETG Global Consultancy, Tiryaki Agro went through a thorough analysis and careful planning for its new ERP, ensuring that the system could cater to its evolving requirements. The company formed a working team of 100 expert users from different operational departments, all of whom actively contributed to the design and implementation of the system. This consultative process enabled Tiryaki Agro to deploy Dynamics 365 within 14 months.

Tiryaki also adopted Azure DevOps to streamline development and manage implementation, providing a transparent environment to prioritize workloads and track jobs. “We connected Azure DevOps with Power BI and created easy-to-understand dashboards, streamlining project management and communication of progress,” notes İkizler. The company also uses Microsoft 365 and Teams, enabling employees to see, share, and edit files, and securely carry out operations from anywhere.

Enhancing efficiency and agility

With this new-found flexibility, Tiryaki employees no longer need to carry laptops wherever they go. “We can access anything on our phones and continue our operations 24/7. For example, in 10 seconds, we can get an overview of approval requests and respond. It may sound like a small thing, but it's changed our work experience,” says Özgür Özcan, Operations Manager at Tiryaki Agro.

One of the biggest benefits for Tiryaki is operational agility. "Even though we have more users, Dynamics 365 responds quickly," remarks Düzel. Today, exporting reports to Excel sheets takes three to five minutes instead of one or two hours. The company was also able to streamline the sending of contracts directly from the system and successfully integrate data flows related to shipping orders.

With the change, many operational tasks now get completed faster. “Using Dynamics 365, we decreased the month-end close time—or the time it takes us to review and close financial records—by 67%, and 12-month financial report preparation time was reduced from an overnight process to just 20 to 30 minutes,” shares Fatih Gildir, Stock and Reporting Manager at Tiryaki Agro. Audits are now completed in just three days compared to the month-long process that Tiryaki Agro’s teams were previously accustomed to. “Opening orders take one minute instead of four, and monthly closures—or completing financial activities and procedures at the end of each month—take 2.5 days instead of six,” explains Fatih Kaleli, Accounting Director at Tiryaki Agro.

By managing the company’s financial processes in an integrated way, Tiryaki gained a more transparent, holistic view of its finances. It also reduced regulatory compliance costs in financial processes. “We feel more comfortable, especially in reporting. We now have more accurate reports,” adds Özcan.

Finally, with meticulous tracking and management of virtual machines and updates on Microsoft Azure, Tiryaki Agro has witnessed a reduction in infrastructure costs. Tiryaki can also scale its operations without the complexities of traditional infrastructure management. "We don't have to worry about buying servers for growth or running out of space for backups," Karaman points out. “With Dynamics 365, we have the necessary tools for growth, and we can stay compliant with various data residency regulations.”  

Charting a future-ready path

Tiryaki Agro's digital transformation has set the stage for a future innovation. Looking ahead, Tiryaki Agro aims to explore Power Platform, which will enhance its ability to automate workflows across various departments. Tiryaki Agro also intends to delve deeper into artificial intelligence solutions, starting with Microsoft Copilot. “Technology is developing fast, and everyone’s needs are evolving. As a company, we are very much aware of this. We are young, fast, and continuously improving,” concludes Kaleli.