25 Complex Projects, One System: How ENSOL 360's Head of Project Operations Maintains Financial Control Across Global Markets

For Andrej Glavina, Head of Project Operations at ENSOL 360, that was the reality every Thursday morning when the team sat down to review the full project portfolio.

The problem with shared spreadsheets at scale

Before the Microsoft 365 implementation, project finances lived in Excel. Each project had its own file, its own structure, its own logic. And because the files were shared, anyone could open them and change the numbers with no audit trail and no way to know if what you were looking at was accurate.

For a project operations team managing multi-phase, multi-country projects with custom procurement and international shipping, this wasn't just inconvenient. It was a fundamental control problem.

"If you had a project balance in Excel, anyone could log in and change the numbers. In this system, that's simply not possible."  

Andrej Glavina, Head of Project Operations, ENSOL 360 d.o.o.

Planning was equally fragile. Cost forecasts were based on estimates. If material costs rose above what had been quoted to the client, the team often found out too late to act.

What changed: real-time financial control across every project

With Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain and Project Operations in place, the financial picture is live — not reconstructed at month end.

Every project has a real-time cost forecast running against the original budget. If actual material costs rise above what was sold, the system surfaces the gap immediately giving the project manager time to renegotiate with the client or address the discrepancy before it becomes a margin problem.

Project data is protected by role-based access controls. No one changes figures without a trace. The audit trail that was missing in Excel is now built into the platform by default.

From Thursday preparation to Thursday review

The weekly project review covering all 25+ active projects across all phases used to require significant preparation time. Someone had to gather data from multiple sources, compile it into a presentable format, and hope nothing had changed by the time the meeting started.

Today, the review runs from a live Power BI dashboard fed directly by Dynamics 365. The preparation is gone. The meeting is the analysis.

The handover problem solved

One of the most fragile moments in any project-driven business is the handover from sales to delivery. At ENSOL 360, this used to mean a manual briefing: the sales team gathering all project details timeline, financials, contract terms, client requirements and transferring them to the project manager by hand.

Now, when a deal is marked as won in CRM, the data moves automatically into Project Operations and Finance & Operations. The execution team starts with complete, accurate information from day one.

The same logic applies at the other end of the project. The close phase is only completed once all inbound and outbound invoices are settled and all payments received enforced by the system, not tracked in a spreadsheet.

What 25 simultaneous projects actually looks like

Each project moves through defined phases: design and engineering, procurement and manufacturing, international shipping  typically via container and sea freight on-site installation, and final close. At each transition, the system reflects the updated status.

Most of ENSOL 360's materials are custom-made per project, which means procurement isn't a standard catalogue process. The system supports direct ordering to suppliers, tracks planned delivery dates, and maintains minimal stock levels ensuring the right materials arrive at the right time, for the right project.

"A successful ERP implementation requires a true partnership the integrator needs to understand your processes, your people, and your strategy. And just as importantly, they need to be able to tell you what you need, even before you know it yourself." 

Andrej Glavina, Head of Project Operations, ENSOL 360 d.o.o.

What comes next

Meeting notes and project logs currently still captured in Excel will soon move fully into the system, making project documentation complete and searchable in one place.

The team is also working towards a client-facing project card within Project Operations: a dedicated view showing only the information relevant to the client, with no confidential internal data. Clients will be able to check project status independently, without needing to contact the project manager.