A complex CAPEX approval workflow trapped in an aging Lotus Notes database — modernized, cloud-deployed, and expanded in under two months.
Fenner Dunlop, a global manufacturer owned by Michelin Tire, depended on a sophisticated CAPEX approval form to manage capital expenditure requests across the organization. The problem: that form lived inside an aging Lotus Notes database — a platform approaching end-of-life and increasingly difficult to support, extend, or access from modern environments.
The organization needed to modernize quickly. They needed a partner who understood both where they were coming from and where they needed to go — someone fluent in the legacy architecture and capable of rebuilding it on a modern, cloud-native platform without losing any of the complexity or approval logic baked into the original system.
They found McKula specifically because of that combination: deep Lotus Notes expertise alongside current Power Platform capabilities. It wasn't a common pairing, and for this engagement, it was exactly the right one.
McKula's team analyzed the Lotus Notes CAPEX form in detail — mapping out every field, approval rule, workflow branch, and edge case. The goal was a full understanding of the logic before a single line of new code was written, ensuring nothing was lost in the transition.
The CAPEX approval workflow was reconstructed in Microsoft Power Platform — preserving the full approval logic of the original while modernizing the interface, improving the user experience, and architecting the solution for cloud deployment from day one.
The new solution was deployed into cloud architecture, immediately enabling capabilities the old system could never support — including external access for corporate leadership at the Michelin parent company level. What started as a migration became an expansion of what the business could do.
The engagement was completed in under two months — a timeline that reflected McKula's ability to move quickly when the situation demands it. The new Power Platform solution not only replicated everything the Lotus Notes database had done, it opened doors that were previously closed.
Corporate leadership at the Michelin parent level — previously excluded from the system entirely — gained external access to review and approve capital expenditures in real time. The client's needs were met and surpassed in a single delivery.