At Antwerp Space, engineers are building the future of international space exploration, with expertise in state-of-the-art navigation, radar, and communication solutions. With around 70 to 75 employees, mostly engineers, everything revolves around precision.
However, that precision wasn't consistently good internally. When CFO Jelle De Parade came on board, he encountered a fragmented IT landscape with a lot of manual work and approvals in Excel.
Time to create one central cockpit for finance and supply chain.
Where it went wrong: fragmentation and Excel approval workflows
Together with Scapta, Antwerp Space chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as the foundation to consolidate finance and supply chain. There was a clear reason for this: purchasing and accounting were not well connected, approvals were managed via Excel, and accounting was handled by an external firm using an outdated system.
This resulted in slowness, extra manual work, and little control over the workflow. Antwerp Space therefore wanted to evolve towards one central tool, with room to handle more complex modules later on.
The right match: Business Central and Scapta
Antwerp Space compared Business Central and Oracle NetSuite in a tender. Business Central proved to be the best match: more flexible, less overkill, and more cost-effective for what they needed at that time.
After that came the partner choice. With Scapta, things quickly fell into place: the chemistry was there and their approach translated Antwerp Space's needs into workable solutions within the tool.
A controlled launch, step by step
Together with Scapta, a phased approach was consciously chosen, with a clear scope for each step and input from key users. This allowed daily operations to continue while the core was addressed first.
Specifically, the focus was on procurement and purchase orders with approval flows, warehousing as a link in the flow, accounting in Business Central, and automation around incoming invoices with OCR and Peppol.
For purchasing and accounting, Antwerp Space deliberately remained close to the standard of Business Central. This kept the project manageable and the system functional in the long term.
Ground control: less hassle, more grip
Today, the purchase flow is much tighter, from purchase quote to purchase order, with approvals, receipt, and matching.
“We now have a full flow... with three-way matching. The matching is done; you still have to press the button, but everything is prepared and verifiable.”
Jelle De Parade, CFO at Antwerp Space
Antwerp Space now sees more quickly where the process gets stuck. Lead times are clear and therefore easy to adjust. And at least as importantly: there is less frustration.
Security and rights: the right access, at the right time
At Antwerp Space, every role must have access to what is needed: no more, no less. Due to the types of projects, a strict need-to-know principle applies. This made rights and security in Business Central a solid exercise. That's why they built the set up step by step, clearly and controllably.
“Not everyone needs to see everything. It needs to align with how projects work here.”
Jelle De Parade, CFO at Antwerp Space
The following flight phase: production and projects
First the launchpad, then the rest of the mission. Antwerp Space laid a solid foundation and immediately addressed a few urgent needs, such as timesheets. Production and project monitoring are still planned for a next phase, at a pace that remains achievable for the organization.
Collaboration: one crew, one mission
The collaboration with Scapta immediately felt very practical: short lines of communication, a lot of expertise, and swift coordination with finance and supply chain. But the biggest difference was in the people. The consultants didn't just “stop by”; they looked for solutions together. They quickly became familiar with our processes, got into the flow of things, and were available when needed, even remotely.
“No project goes exactly as planned, but this pace, alongside the day-to-day, we are satisfied with.”
Jelle De Parade, CFO at Antwerp Space
Time to get your finance flow on track?
Do you want fewer manual steps, more control, and a system that grows with your organization?
Scapta likes to think along.