Digital transformation and operational optimization at One United Properties
One United Properties, the leading developer of sustainable residential, office, and commercial real estate projects, turned to ELIAN Solutions for its digital transformation and modernization of work processes. The project aimed to increase operational efficiency, consolidate activities, and develop an easy method for financial reporting to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Through the technical and business expertise of ELIAN’s consultants, as well as the capabilities of the Microsoft Business Central ERP solution, One United Properties achieved all of its established objectives.
Client profile
Founded in 2007, One United Properties is the leading investor and developer of sustainable residential, mixed-use, commercial, and office properties in Bucharest. The company is renowned for its landmark developments and innovative design, with its buildings recognized in the local market for their strict sustainability criteria, modern technologies, and energy efficiency. The developer’s core expertise lies in urban regeneration projects with mixed-use functions and innovative real estate concepts, encompassing residential, office, and commercial developments.
The One United Properties portfolio includes developments such as One Cotroceni Park, One Lake District and One Floreasca City, as well as historical building restoration projects like One Gallery and One Athenee.
Since 2021, One United Properties has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and is also included in multiple local and global stock indices: BET, STOXX, and FTSE. As of March 2023, One’s shares have also been included in the ROTX index of the Vienna Stock Exchange.
Context
The company has dedicated departments for project management, finance, and sales, which oversee specific activities across all projects. Although these departments are well-structured and have clearly defined workflows, the high volume of transactions created the need for a more robust digital collaboration framework.
Given that One United Properties’ projects carry the inherent complexity of the real estate sector (building design and construction, subcontractor management, property sales, etc.), maintaining strict records of operations and ensuring accurate data correlation posed specific challenges in the absence of a fully digitalized workflow. While there were some tools in place for project management and customer relationship management, most One United Properties employees relied on data stored in Excel files, which complicated both financial management operations and the sales process itself.
Moreover, in the context of its interest in listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the company initiated the implementation of an integrated IT system to provide greater transparency over transactions and support specific financial reporting requirements. The decision to digitalize operations was complemented by the recruitment of a new Chief Financial Officer to drive the modernization of the entire workflow.
For this project, One United Properties selected ELIAN Solutions based on its proven track record in implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP solutions and its ability to translate the specific requirements of the real estate sector into an integrated IT system.
Project implementation and proposed solution
Following an extensive business analysis, ELIAN initiated a comprehensive project to adapt and customize the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solution to the specific needs of One United Properties, in order to support all workflows and the high volume of transactions. In addition, the Microsoft solution was enhanced with modules developed by ELIAN, which tailored Microsoft’s capabilities to fully cover the client’s processes. Complementing this, in the reporting area, the ERP system was integrated with Microsoft Power BI, enabling self-service access to data.
The system has over 100 users with various roles and access rights, optimally combining individual licenses with full access rights and group licenses with limited access, in order to keep costs under control. The period from the start of implementation to the first Go-Live was 6 months; however, the full development, customization, and implementation of the integrated system took over 1 year, carried out dynamically and adapted to the company’s evolution.
Integrated Management System with Multiple Customized Functionalities
Alongside the standard modules in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the ELIAN team developed a series of functionalities tailored to the client’s needs:
Managing in Dynamics 365 Business Central a single template for all legal entities within the group, using the same chart of accounts, journal entries, subcontractors, and suppliers. This functionality enables a unified approach to management and reporting, as well as relevant comparative analyses between different profit centers.
Defining in the ERP system a dedicated module for managing major projects based on the actual structure: types of buildings, spaces, floors, apartments, rooms, amenities, prices, and a specific numbering system to ensure transparent record-keeping and improved control over sales.
Consolidating the sales process in Dynamics CRM, which provides the team with a simple interface for accessing leads and linking them to projects, space types, sources, etc. The platform also enables lead pre-qualification/qualification, follow-up, assignment or reassignment by managers, and recording the outcome of each lead.
Advanced options for managing contractual documents. When a new order is placed, the system automatically generates a workflow that involves the legal department in preparing the documents required for the transaction (property deeds, technical documentation, cadastral plans, etc.).
Budgeting module with breakdown by projects, areas, phases, and construction elements, featuring advanced functionalities for budget allocation/reservations, work contracting, requests for budget overrun approvals, analysis of reserved versus consumed amounts, allocated versus project progress, and more.
Dedicated self-service web portal for subcontractors. The portal allows them to view contracts and annexes (prices, delivery terms, etc.), submit work estimates (bills of quantities) for approval, and issue tax invoices after the work is approved.
Mobile app for project-level expense management, enabling site supervisors to enter invoices directly on a tablet; the system automatically allocates expenses to the associated budget codes. The app also matches invoices with purchase orders.
The system also checks whether budget codes are correctly allocated and sends the documents for review and approval to the project manager, CFO, and top management, depending on the situation.
Dedicated workflows for issuing tax invoices according to the specific terms of each contract, including alignment with a payment schedule for contracts with installment payments.
Mobile app dedicated to sales agents for accessing all workflows, adjusting contract data, and issuing tax invoices.
The platform allows a requested unit within a project to be reserved for a limited period, after which, if the deadline expires, the unit becomes available again to the rest of the team.
Agents can publish listings (text, images, prices) directly to real estate websites from within the platform, based on a group contract and the individual allocation of credits.
Customized pre-approval/approval workflows for a sale, with agents having the option to request additional discussions with their direct manager.
Benefits
Through the implementation of this project, One United Properties achieved a high level of digitalization, successfully modernizing its entire operations and providing the team with a collaborative way of working. At the same time, the company gained complete visibility over all entities within the group and full operational control. Data is centralized in a unified system, which increases trust and supports decision-making. Extensive automation eliminates manual data processing and delivers significant time savings in generating any financial or managerial reports.
Consolidation of all legal entities’ activities into a single management system and adoption of a unified way of working
Optimization of project management activities through the digitalization of specific document administration operations
Simplification of the process for preparing quarterly financial reports for the Bucharest Stock Exchange and a significant 50% reduction in the time required to produce them
Reduction of the risk of errors in financial data processing through the automation of treasury operations
100% automation of subcontractor relations by fully transferring the management of documents generated through collaboration into the portal integrated within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Given that there are thousands of transactions within each project, the time and efficiency gains are significant.
Enhanced visibility over financial operations and cash position, supporting business decision-making based on real-time information.
Achieving a higher level of operational traceability
Improvement of sales and customer relationship activities through the use of the mobile app for agents and the establishment of strict workflows for validations, approvals, and follow-ups.
“The company has grown at an accelerated pace, and in this context, it was essential for business processes to adapt to this growth, with volumes across all key indicators increasing more than threefold in the past four years. In 2021, with the listing on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the management team’s desire to modernize and streamline work processes, One United Properties decided to implement an integrated financial and operational management system. We found in ELIAN Solutions the right partner for this implementation, one that understood the complex nature of our business and proposed a customized technical solution. Through this collaboration, we achieved a complete digital transformation, giving us total visibility over our operations and a level of flexibility that allows us to adapt quickly to market changes.”
Cosmin Samoilă, CFO, One United Properties