The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) is a globally recognised award ran by a registered UK charity of the same name.

As an organisation, they create life-changing experiences for young people through volunteering, self-improvement, and expedition in the UK or abroad. 

A Tangled Web of Systems

Before approaching FormusPro, DofE had multiple data systems that were not integrated with each other, leading to difficulties in generating business-wide reports.

Their business data was spread across an existing Dynamics 365 system used by the fundraising team, eDofE (a custom system managed by a team in India), Business Central (with no integration to the D365 CRM), and another custom system called Illuminator that is outdated and uses an MS Access database with a basic UI.

The compounding problems caused by the lack of integration and outdated systems lead to higher internal costs and cumbersome processes. Many employees were avoiding proper processes and relying on Excel spreadsheets, leading to data discrepancies and reduced efficiency.

DofE needed to find a solution that would reduce maintenance costs, eliminate double entry, and increase employee engagement.

Dynamics to the Rescue!

FormusPro has thus far implemented a new standalone Dynamics 365 app to help manage DofE’s licensing process. This includes recording leads (potential licensed organizations), gathering the data needed to create both the account (licensed organisation) and contact, and then qualifying them as opportunities. DocuSign is supported throughout the app, allowing for seamless handling of the licensing process as well as automatic assignment of a Duke of Edinburgh Award license once an opportunity is validated.  

Following this, FormusPro built a business process flow to guide employees through the process, helping improve employee engagement with the new system and ensuring clean data entry where needed. 

Moving on to the existing eDofE system, FormusPro created a two-way integration between Dynamics 365 and eDofE. The integration has no noticeable delay and works in real time as users enter data into either system. 

FormusPro’s solution replaced most elements of Illuminator, providing a much more user-friendly interface with more functionality, particularly with the integration with other systems.  

Phase Two of the project will soon be underway, focusing on integrating Business Central with Dynamics 365 and decommissioning the outdated Illuminator system. This will enable all business data to be available within Dynamics for simple business-wide reporting. 

FormusPro plans to work closely with the Duke of Edinburgh team to ensure a smooth transition and ensure that the new system is as user-friendly as possible, encouraging full employee engagement. The end-goal is to provide a streamlined and integrated solution that will not only reduce maintenance costs but also improve efficiency and productivity across the organization. 

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