Case Study: Azure Cloud Migration
WatServ Helps EchoVera Scale its Enterprise Software with Dependable Cloud Services and Readily Available Support
See how WatServ worked with EchoVera from its initial Microsoft Dynamics integration to its migration to Azure.
Over the past 10 years, WatServ has worked with EchoVera.
EchoVera was looking for a company that could do more than just host its software. It needed an expert in handling Microsoft Dynamics. WatServ not only fit these qualifying characteristics, but also assisted EchoVera in successfully navigating its cloud migration journey.
EchoVera has been a customer of WatServ since 2012. With WatServ’s deep knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics hosting, the company offered both application-level and infrastructure-level SLAs to match EchoVera’s needs. The partnership has grown since its inception, and over time, WatServ has maintained and updated EchoVera’s systems to meet industry best practices and keep them relevant to the changing digital landscape. In 2019, WatServ helped modernize EchoVera’s business by fully migrating it to Microsoft Azure services.
“Microsoft Dynamics was an area that was important to us. From my perspective, if you’re hosting accounting systems used by numerous companies, certain competencies are expected. It’s better to go with a company that actually does host Microsoft Dynamics, which many organizations run on,” says Ralf Leitner.
Leitner continues, “There’s our software that does the work, then there’s the infrastructure that houses all that software, and finally there’s the management of it. At EchoVera, we need to ensure that the infrastructure is solid, in place, and managed well. This also applies to security, which is of paramount importance to our operations. WatServ has made sure that all of these are taken care of.”
EchoVera has customers that span the globe. Transactions happen 24 hours a day. Because WatServ has teams in Toronto, Portugal, and India, it could provide continuous support for all EchoVera’s customers.
The Global Accounts Payable Automation Market was estimated to be worth USD 2.5 Billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 4.47 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12.3%.1
83% of accountants agree that investing in the latest technologies and digitalization is necessary to keep up with the market. 2
51.4% of finance professionals said they believe that automation will impact their company within the next five years. 3
EchoVera banks on WatServ
Agile organizations with dispersed workforces need an AP solution that is compliant, secure and reliable, and EchoVera wanted a seamless transition toward modernization and digital transformation. WatServ became its partner of choice to manage cloud operations, allowing EchoVera to focus on its core business.
WatServ’s team worked with EchoVera to determine its optimal cloud strategy and IT transformation plan. They provided future state planning with recommendations on how to move the business forward. Their Microsoft Dynamics specialization combined with cloud expertise were among the key features for EchoVera that set WatServ apart from the competition.
“We are built to help companies, like EchoVera, maximize our fully managed cloud services by providing dependable support that lets them operate optimally and scale reliably, all while keeping their businesses secure. Our professional team supports and delivers dependable IaaS and PaaS at all times of the day or night,” explains Joshua Satheiswaran, Director of Client Success at WatServ.
WatServ strives for simplicity in solving the most complex situations. Its automated cloud solutions are uniquely engineered to optimize business operations and reduce lead time through features like self-healing and task automation.
Satheiswaran adds that “Collaboration with our customers is important to us. We listened to EchoVera’s challenges and provided industry-specific solutions for their business operations. Over the years, we earned EchoVera’s trust by reacting quickly and responding efficiently to ensure EchoVera’s operations continue to run smoothly, at any hour of the day. This is a core value in our business.”
A long-standing partnership built on trust
“Thanks to WatServ’s services, small companies like EchoVera are better able to compete in the enterprise space. We went from hitting 3 billion transactions to almost 5 billion, and the future can only get better because we have strong and reliable partners who use the latest technologies to help us scale,” Leitner states.
That partnership has been highly successful and has paid off for both companies. WatServ has proven itself a steadfast partner for EchoVera, limiting downtime and frustration.
Leitner explains that “Compliance is important to our customers. A number of them are publicly traded companies. WatServ’s SOC 2 Type II compliance assures our clients that we work with partners who adhere to strict information policies and procedures around security, processing and confidentiality of customer data.”
“We take trust, security and operational effectiveness very seriously,” says Dave Lacey, CEO of WatServ. “Demonstrating SOC 2 Type II compliance with a gold star outcome – especially since it was achieved during the height of the global pandemic – is another way we’re showing our deep commitment to serving our clients.”
A long-standing partnership built on trust
WatServ prides itself on being a reliable and cost-effective outsource partner that removes the need for hiring additional personnel. It has a proven record of reliability for cloud-hosted services in Azure. It also offers diverse IT expertise in different areas like hosting, networking and security gained from working with various third-party companies. Its reliable and proactive support ensures better security, control, resiliency and agility.
Leitner notes that “WatServ gives us confidence knowing that we have a comfort zone. There are certain things that we do not need to concern ourselves with because of the consistent service that WatServ provides.”
WatServ lets EchoVera keep its focus on managing all the data it processes every day. The WatServ team enables the company to meet new demands and explore new ways of serving its customers.
“Our move to Azure reduced some of our costs thanks to WatServ’s expert cloud migration strategy. Storage costs were so prohibitive at the time, but these are no longer the burden that they were in the past. This helps us stay competitive,” says Leitner.
WatServ delivers every time
A fast-scaling business needs a lean organization. To achieve this, EchoVera outsources some of its administration to WatServ using its software as a service (SaaS) to help provide additional support.
“As a lean company, our goal is to automate as many tasks that our people do as much as possible. Part of the reason we have done that extremely well is because of our partnership with WatServ. We can do business as well as anyone anywhere in the world because we have the tools, we have the people, and we have the platform. To me that’s important. It’s allowed us to do the business that we do. I’m never hesitant to compete against companies that are much larger than we are,” declares Leitner.
WatServ’s expertise in handling complex, high-usage environments for enterprise-level applications is the perfect fit for EchoVera, and WatServ might be your company’s perfect partner as well. To learn more about what WatServ brings to a partnership, visit https://watserv.com/solutions/.
Select Business Outcomes
Integration of multiple business solutions enabled Champion to improve financial planning, gain better visibility, consolidate reporting, improve customer relationship management and more.
WatServ hosted regular status calls with Champion and their VAR partner to ensure transparent communications with all parties. These calls ensured both a proactive and reactive focus on performance, technical tuning and application optimizations. Over the years of working together, this amounted to more than 225 status calls.