As BGE HOME grew, its existing business applications became less effective and more expensive to operate. Poor integration between applications designed to support a single line of business as well as incompatibilities between acquired applications and home-grown tools meant the company needed to completely reform its application portfolio with a tightly integrated suite that would allow it to:  

• Improve overall business performance
• Remove the need for unique applications for each line of business while still allowing each the functionality required to achieve excellence
• Improve integration between applications
• Strengthen billing systems
• Allow easy exchange of information with Constellation Energy Group’s systems for corporate governance purposes
• Offer a long-term strategic IT roadmap through the adoption of a new infrastructure and enterprise platform

BGE HOME approached Accenture for assistance planning this new infrastructure, and adopted a three-step plan to conduct: (1) a Fit Assessment and Implementation Planning Phase; (2) a Billing Evaluation Phase; (3) an Application Roadmap Creation and Strategic Planning Phase.

• Accenture recommended Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ERP suite and Avanade as the ideal implementation partner to meet BGE HOME’s needs
• Avanade conducted the two-month Fit Assessment and concluded that an MBS Great Plains solution comprising MBS Great Plains Financials, Supply Chain, Distribution Suite, Field Service and Microsoft CRM would fulfill BGE HOME’s business requirements
• Avanade then worked with Accenture and BGE HOME to devise and execute an 18-month implementation plan that saw it create a new standard operating environment based on Windows Server 2003
• Avanade provided experienced MBS implementers to work alongside BGE HOME’s team and Accenture’s consultants
• Avanade also provided offshore development capabilities for custom interfaces, extensions and data conversion with Microsoft CRM