Custom platform · Nonprofit
This nonprofit ran its finance and operations on a local ERP tied to a single ageing server and a single person who understood it — a continuity risk hiding in plain sight. intSignal migrated the organisation to cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central without losing history or stalling day-to-day operations.
The problem
Core financial and operational data locked in an on-premises ERP.
What we did
Migrated the local ERP to cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
The outcome
Retired the on-premises server and its maintenance, power, and refresh costs.
The challenge
Core financial and operational data locked in an on-premises ERP. A single aging server as a single point of failure for the whole organization. Remote and multi-site staff couldn't reach the system reliably. Upgrades, backups, and continuity all depended on one internal person.
The approach
Migrated the local ERP to cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Rebuilt financial and operational workflows in the cloud platform. Made the system reachable and secure for multi-site and remote staff. Handed over a supported platform with vendor-maintained upgrades and resilience.
The thinking
Here the right answer was cloud — but the right kind of cloud. Lifting their old ERP onto rented servers would have moved the problem, not solved it. A managed SaaS platform (Business Central) hands upgrades, backups and resilience to the vendor, which matters far more than infrastructure control for a small nonprofit team. We chose the option that takes infrastructure off their plate entirely, because their scarce staff time is better spent on the mission than on patching a server.
Why it works
The quieter win is accountability. When a custom platform, its hosting, its security and its phone system come from four different vendors, the gaps between them are where things break — and no one owns the gap. Building and running it as one means a single team is answerable for the whole, the systems are unified by design rather than integrated after the fact, and there's one relationship to manage instead of a switchboard of suppliers. For a small team, that unification is the difference between technology being a tool and being a second job.
Outcome
The on-premises server is retired, financial history moved across intact, and the platform is now reachable and secure for multi-site and remote staff. Upgrades, backups and resilience are vendor-maintained, returning scarce nonprofit staff time from babysitting infrastructure to the mission.
Removed the manual backup and disaster-recovery burden from staff. Cut the administrative overhead of patching and upgrading the ERP in-house. Freed limited nonprofit staff time from system babysitting back to mission work.
How these figures were derived
Effort and outcomes are reconstructed from production systems of record — ticket histories, call detail records, dispatch and SOC/NOC telemetry — read end to end rather than sampled. Cost comparisons are indexed to a baseline, never a fee or rate. Where a figure is modelled rather than measured it is labelled as such, and the model is documented and available to defend on request.
Customer
Shown on request. Some engagements remain confidential by contract.
Nonprofit
A nonprofit research organization needed real technology backing — not donated licenses and goodwill. We built and run their platform, from CRM and ERP to an AI-integrated phone system.
Read ➔Nonprofit
A national nonprofit coordinating volunteers and homeowners needed a platform that could scale, protect personal data, and not consume the donations funding it.
Read ➔Nonprofit & media
An educational nonprofit publishing on contentious subjects needed a platform that stays up, stays fast, and doesn't hand attackers an easy target.
Read ➔Tell us your environment and priorities — we return scope, ownership, and a plan.