[VIDEO] How ATS Group rebuilt its ERP foundation for the next decade of growth

Oct 26, 2026
  • customer experience
  • Microsoft

Four million products, around 35 companies and more than triple growth in the past decade: that’s the scale that ATS Group’s ERP system had to run on. The platform dated back to 2014 and could no longer keep pace. Together with delaware, ATS rebuilt its entire operation on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (FSCM): from finance, purchasing and sales to sophisticated warehousing. The product catalog, which was too complex for any off-the-shelf-system to handle, got a custom-built solution of its own. (Reading time: 8 minutes)

Challenge

More products, more entities, complex warehousing and an immense product catalog: ATS Group’s existing ERP system could not keep up with the group’s growth. Performance stalled, new entities or features (e.g. Peppol) could not be integrated and there was no outside support to fall back on. 

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Solution

delaware implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (FSCM) across the group in one go, including tailored solutions for ATS’s complex warehousing and a custom-built master data system for the product catalog. 

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Results

One shared system and process, group-wide. Logistics handles volumes faster than before, real-time insights support decision-making and, most importantly, ATS has a foundation to keep growing on. 

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Challenge

ATS Group is a multidisciplinary technology group that runs on two main pillars: executing technical projects, and distributing electrical components. Over the years, the organization has diversified its portfolio from industrial installation projects to electrical engineering, mechatronics, HVAC and energy efficiency solutions. 

“We’ve roughly tripled in size in the past decade, in terms of people, revenue, and the number of companies in the group,” says Chris Corijn, Board Member at ATS. The ERP system, however, didn’t grow with the organization. Live since 2014, it was technically at its limits, and the cracks showed up in very concrete ways. Performance was slowing down and transactions took longer than they should. Integrating the Peppol e-invoicing standard, which would become mandatory from January 2026 onwards, would be impossible. Moreover, outside support had dried up.

“The system could only keep running thanks to daily interventions of our IT team,” Chris continues. “IT even begged us to stop acquiring new companies as it had become impossible to integrate them.”

All of this made replacing the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 backbone non-negotiable. But with 35 companies that all needed to go live at once, a database of 4 million SKUs, and advanced warehousing, the move would be no small task.

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The system could only keep running thanks to daily interventions of our IT team. IT even begged us to stop acquiring new companies as it had become impossible to integrate them.
Chris Corijn, Board member at ATS Group

Solution

ATS brought in Foocus as an independent partner to help structure the selection process and make the tough calls when needed. Together, they first mapped the requirements and then took those to market. The process was thorough, which made choosing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management and delaware a well-founded decision.

”The switch from our in-house package to Microsoft, back in 2014, had been tough,” says Chris, “so we absolutely wanted to choose the right platform and partner. Even though there was a good chance that we’d end up with Microsoft because we’re familiar with the stack, we needed to consider every possibility.” 

delaware won ATS over for a series of reasons: expertise, transparency, and a personal match too.  “More than the objective scoring, gut feeling weighed in too,” ERP Application Manager Wieland Tytgat admits. “We insisted on knowing the consultants who’d be working on our project during the selection process and appreciated their openness and pragmatic approach.”

delaware’s project approach actually sealed the deal. At delaware’s own cost, consultants spent half a day at the ATS headquarters and some of the subsidiaries, seeing warehouses and processes firsthand, before workshops were planned. “We took the knowledge we gained from those visits to the blueprinting workshops,” says delaware’s Laura Van Roey, solution architect. “This helped smoothen the learning and adaptation process, as key users immediately recognized their business in our approach.”


What did
we do?

One system, every classic process

At its core, Microsoft Dynamics 365 FSCM covers the classic modules, including finance, purchasing, sales, and logistics. As ATS came from a single, integrated system with all subsidiaries in one legal entity and shared logistics, splitting the rollout by domain or company wasn’t really an option. So the platform went live with a big bang across every domain and every entity at once. 

Getting warehousing right

ATS initially questioned whether Microsoft Dynamics 365 FSCM could handle its complex warehousing needs. delaware proved it could through comparable projects, but customization was still essential. “No two ATS warehouses look the same, and the main warehouse in Merelbeke is top-notch,” says Laura. “So we couldn’t just drop in a standard solution.”

A master data system built from scratch

ATS’s existing product catalog included far too many SKUs for the ERP, or any off-the shelf system to handle well. ATS first trimmed that catalog down to 3 million articles through its own data cleansing. delaware then built a custom master data management system to hold the bulk of it. Only the actively used subset, some 10%, sits inside the ERP itself. 

What struck us most wasn’t just the expertise of the delaware consultants, it was how engaged they were. They went well beyond what was asked of them, because they genuinely wanted to get this right for us.
Wieland Tytgat, ERP Application Manager at ATS Group

Results

The set up went live at the end of January 2026. Later than planned due to the complex warehousing, but just in time to send the first invoices via Peppol. The switch went pretty smoothly, the bugs that surfaced in the first weeks were fixed quickly. There weren’t many problems with deliveries, and projects never came to a standstill.

Logistics saw the clearest turnaround. The system handles large volumes faster than expected, with only minor backlog in the first weeks after go-live. Warehouse visibility improved sharply. Scanners that had fallen out of use came back into play and now give ATS real-time insight into what’s happening on the floor. “A few weeks after go-live, our warehouse manager confirmed he wouldn’t want to go back,” says Wieland. “For a transformation this big, that already says a lot.”

The product catalog isn’t necessarily simpler, but definitely more accurate. The number of errors has gone down. For Chris, however, the big win runs deeper than any single metric: “The old system had quietly put a ceiling on ATS’s growth. That constraint is gone. We now have a foundation the group can grow on again.”

ATS Group & delaware

The professionalism and honesty that made ATS choose delaware in the first place held up throughout the implementation. More than the consultants’ expertise, Chris and Wieland praise their commitment. “On Saturdays, in the early morning, even on Christmas eve and after go-live: when they need to step in, they do,” Chris says. 

“Of course, a project this size and this challenging is never without friction,’” Wieland admits. “But we were always able to keep talking. If something really wasn’t going well, there was always room to raise it, right to the end.” Laura sees it the same way, from delaware’s side: friction is part of any project this ambitious, but what matters is the openness to discuss it.

Both ATS and delaware confirm that this is a long-term partnership. As ATS’s invoice-matching software was discontinued after an acquisition, they are now building a custom add-on together. More is already on the horizon: several production companies still need to be brought onto the same ERP, and ATS is exploring a field service solution it wants to generate directly out of Dynamics.

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