First Capital Realty (FCR) is one of Canada’s largest owners, developers, and managers of grocery-anchored, retail-focused urban properties where people live and shop for everyday life.

“A shopping center is not just where people buy groceries, grab a coffee, or fill a prescription. Shopping centers are part of creating thriving urban neighborhoods. They are where neighbors run into each other; where businesses success; where day-to-day life happens.” 

-First Capital Reality

Over the last few years, First Capital Realty transformed its ERP system from a bloated ERP with a variety of disparate systems to a leaner, Hybrid ERP with a combination of Cloud and On-premise solutions. The final stages transformed it into a Hybrid ERP with integrations that allow for smoother processes, time savings, and costs savings.

Ask yourself: If your ERP system was compared to an animal, would it look more like an ape, a giraffe, or a cheetah?

Simon Streeter, Director of Applications at First Capital Realty (FCR), describes each phase of his company’s digital transformation as the animals above.

Ape Stage

When FCR was in the original “ape stage,” the on-premise ERP included:

• Manual data entry processes due to the on-prem system
• High Excel usage; the main tool for analysis to try to get data
• High development resources for custom applications and automation
• High costs for ongoing management

Giraffe Stage

As leaders decided to update the system, they moved to the “giraffe stage,” a Hybrid Cloud and on-premise ERP including:

• Distributed data entry processes
• Integration Developers
• Some Excel Usage
• Lower overall costs

Cheetah Stage

While FCR was happy with improvement so far, there was still needed streamlined processes. This brought FCR to its current “cheetah state,” a Hybrid solution with integrations. This change brought:

• Reduced data entry processes
• No code/low code development with built-in connectors
• Excel use optimized
• Even lower costs

During the “cheetah stage,” FCR implemented Magic in order to cut costs and reliance on individual developers. The Magic tool came with built-in connectors that could be maintained by business analysts. This meant that the team would no longer need to pull data from one system and input it into another. The combination of lean, integrated systems and lower overall costs left FCR leaders pleased with their new ERP.

Benefits of the Transformation

The main advantages that FCR noticed as a result of the transformation include:

• Integration of building, unit, tenant and lease data overnight instead of every other weekend
• Automated building ownership updates
• Improved data updates and integrities
• Customizations in Magic instead of JDE, which produces smoother, quicker, cheaper upgrades
• Load forecast and budget to JDE ledge
• Update JDE forecast with actuals
• Load budget recovery rates to rent schedules
• Lease docs and monthly toll reports saved in D365 to SharePoint and displayed in Propidex
• Scanned invoices sent to Canon server for AP automation