Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to standardise operations, modernise legacy systems and create the agility needed for future growth.
With more than 20 years of experience in the manufacturing and ERP sector, Hitachi Solutions helps organisations navigate this challenge. As Microsoft’s Finance Partner of the Year, we’ve worked with businesses around the world to simplify complex technology estates and deliver lasting operational change. Rotork, a global engineering and manufacturing company, partnered with Hitachi Solutions to unify a fragmented landscape of more than 75 applications into a single global platform, creating a scalable blueprint now being deployed across 39 sites worldwide. As manufacturers continue to balance global standardisation with local requirements, Rotork’s journey offers valuable insights into what it takes to deliver transformation at scale.
The customer
Rotork is a global engineering and manufacturing company, providing intelligent flow control solutions that support a wide range of industries and applications. With a focus on safety, reliability and performance, Rotork’s technologies help power critical operations around the world, from energy and utilities to industrial automation and infrastructure.
Headquartered in Bath, Rotork has grown into a truly international operation, with over 3,000 employees supporting customers in more than 170 countries. Backed by a strong engineering heritage and a reputation for technical excellence, Rotork continues to invest in innovation to meet the ever-evolving needs of its customer base.
As the business expanded, it became clear that legacy systems were no longer fit to support its future ambitions. Under its strategic Growth Acceleration Programme (GAP), Rotork launched a company-wide initiative to modernise its digital infrastructure, starting with a complete transformation of its ERP and CRM platforms.
The goal was to create a connected, scalable digital foundation that drives operational efficiency, supports growth, and improves the customer experience.
The challenge
Over time, Rotork’s ERP landscape had become fragmented and increasingly difficult to manage. Different business units operated on different versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, some dating back to 2009, each heavily customised to meet local needs. These bespoke systems created silos across the organisation, with isolated processes, disparate data, and complex integrations hindering standardised global collaboration.
This fragmentation extended across the broader IT estate. More than 75 line-of-business applications were in use, connected by over 100 custom integrations. Maintaining and scaling these connections was resource-intensive and unsustainable, particularly as the business grew. Critical operational data, such as service history and parts availability, was scattered across systems, limiting visibility and slowing down customer support.
Rotork’s customer engagement processes faced similar constraints. Sales and service teams operated differently in each region, with varying systems and workflows that made it difficult to deliver a consistent customer experience. Compliance added further complexity, especially in highly regulated sectors like nuclear and defence, where traceability, export controls and strict safety regulations demanded rigorous oversight.
One pressing issue was Rotork’s internal Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) system. Built on .NET, it required users to manually input between 25 and 45 data fields to generate a quote. The process was time-consuming, error-prone, and directly impacted quoting speed and customer responsiveness.
It became clear that a patchwork of incremental fixes would not suffice. Rotork needed a scalable, integrated digital platform that could drive consistency across global operations while still allowing for the flexibility required by local markets and regulatory environments.
The solution
Rotork partnered with Hitachi Solutions to design and deliver a modern, cloud-based ERP and CRM platform built on Microsoft Dynamics 365. The programme aimed to replace legacy systems with a unified digital foundation that could drive global consistency, streamline data flow and scale with the business as it grew.
The new platform brought together Dynamics 365 Finance with Customer Engagement, supporting core business functions including finance, sales, marketing, field service and customer service. Given the complexity of Rotork’s existing systems and data volumes, a standard approach to integration was not suitable. Instead, Rotork adopted Hitachi’s Integration Framework, a robust, flexible solution tailored to accommodate the organisation’s intricate landscape of line-of-business applications and high-volume transactions. This approach enabled seamless data flow between systems while minimising risk and reducing integration overhead.
To further accelerate the transition, Hitachi Solutions deployed its data migration accelerator to cleanse, map and transfer data from legacy platforms. This significantly reduced manual effort and ensured the integrity of historical data throughout the move to the cloud.
One of the most notable technical achievements was the successful integration of Rotork’s complex .NET-based configure-price-quote (CPQ) tool. Despite its intricacies, the solution enabled users to create highly detailed quotes more quickly and accurately, delivering a tangible boost to sales efficiency and customer responsiveness.
The rollout followed a carefully phased strategy, beginning with a successful go-live at Rotork’s Bath factory after an extended period of collaborative planning and design. This was followed by further deployments in Germany and Saudi Arabia, building momentum and refining the global rollout approach. By prioritising factory locations first, Rotork was able to establish a strong global blueprint before extending the solution to commercial entities. Each deployment was shaped by cross-functional teams that brought together factory leadership, IT, business analysts, and project managers, ensuring that global standards were met while accommodating local requirements.
Delivery of the programme required close coordination across multiple workstreams. While the CRM elements were delivered using an agile methodology, the ERP programme followed a more structured, waterfall approach. Orchestrating these parallel tracks across different time zones, stakeholder groups, and systems demanded a disciplined delivery model and a close working relationship between Rotork and Hitachi Solutions.
The transformation also extended to Rotork’s field service operations. Health and safety processes, once manual, were digitised and embedded into the platform. Escalation paths were formalised to ensure that issues in the field could be addressed quickly and consistently. These enhancements not only improved compliance but also gave Rotork greater visibility into how its products were being used and maintained, enabling a more proactive and data-driven approach to service delivery.
Why Hitachi Solutions
Rotork valued a genuine partnership rather than a traditional systems-integrator relationship: a structured methodology, accelerators that de-risked migration, and a single united team across both organisations.
The benefits
- More efficient customer service operations with improved access to critical information
- Stronger, more consistent compliance processes, particularly in regulated markets
- Greater leadership insight through improved reporting and data transparency
- Enhanced customer experience through advanced analytics, automation and digital services
What’s next?
With several factories now live on Dynamics 365, Rotork has laid the foundation for a truly connected enterprise. The next phase extends Dynamics 365 to 26 selling entities and 13 further factories over three years, with Hitachi Solutions continuing as a trusted partner.
Whether you’re standardising operations across multiple sites, replacing legacy ERP systems or improving visibility across your manufacturing business, Hitachi Solutions can help. Get in touch to start the conversation.
David Singh, Head of ERP, Hitachi Solutions
David Singh has over 30 years’ experience helping manufacturers modernise ERP systems and transform operations. He specialises in global rollouts, process standardisation, operational visibility and digital transformation programmes that deliver measurable business outcomes.
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