Hoyer VMS Group uses Microsoft AI to free up more time for customer relationships

Hoyer VMS Group provides power and motion solutions for the industrial and marine sectors, where each motor can be configured in millions of variants. The company was experiencing a growing order volume, while it was becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new employees with the necessary technical knowledge. This put pressure on the company’s order process and raised a central question: How could they continue to grow without compromising close customer dialogue?

“We sat down and asked ourselves: What can we do? The answer was technology,” says Lasse Due, Vice President of Information Technology, Hoyer VMS Group.

Hoyer VMS Group took the first steps toward more digital order management themselves. 

“We first tried a more traditional OCR solution, but it was simply too rigid. Customers had to submit their orders in specific formats for the system to read them,” says Anne-Mette Tolne Søegaard, Commercial Excellence Director, Hoyer VMS Group. 

Hoyer VMS Group did not want to change its customers’ workflows. Instead, the company began exploring how artificial intelligence could adapt to the way customers already worked.

This marked the beginning of an AI journey in which Hoyer VMS Group, together with Cepheo, began challenging the existing order process. 

A partnership built on shared ideation

Lasse Due already knew Cepheo and knew they had the right competencies to turn the company’s business challenges into a workable solution.

The collaboration began with a series of workshops where employees from both companies challenged the way the order process worked.

“We started by identifying the problems in the solution we already had and defining where we wanted to go. Already halfway through the second meeting, one of Cepheo’s architects presented an idea that we immediately saw potential in,” says Lasse Due.

It was important that the project was not driven by IT alone.

“This is not an IT project. It is a collaboration between IT and the sales organization. We have worked equally hard on it, and that is one of the reasons the project has gone so well,” he says.

This marked the beginning of an AI journey in which the two companies together developed a Microsoft-based solution that automates one of Hoyer VMS Group’s most complex administrative processes. Anne-Mette Tolne Søegaard explains that it was important that customers did not experience greater complexity when placing an order.

“It is important to us that customers can continue to submit their orders exactly as they always have. It is our internal process we have changed. Not the customers’.”

Using Microsoft Copilot Studio and Power Automate, AI now analyzes the content of the order and converts the information into a sales order in Dynamics 365, regardless of how the customer chooses to submit it.

AI gives more time back to customers

For Hoyer VMS Group, the value of AI is not about replacing people, but about freeing up time for what people do best. Previously, the sales organization spent much of the working day checking and registering orders. With the new solution, employees can instead focus on dialogue, advice and stronger customer relationships.

“With the new solution, our sales team gets more time for the tasks that create the most value. We can be closer to our customers, build relationships, and talk to them instead of spending time entering orders,” says Nisha Korff, Team Manager, Hoyer VMS Group.

For Nisha Korff, the benefit is about gaining a better understanding of customers’ needs. “We want to get closer to our customers so we can better understand their needs and offer them the right solutions,” she says.

This expectation is shared by Anne-Mette Tolne Søegaard, who sees AI as a tool that can take over a large part of manual order management, and adds:

"We expect the solution to eventually free up 10 to 20 percent of the sales organization’s time, enabling employees’ experience and expertise to be used where they create the greatest value for customers."

Governance and AI at Hoyer VMS Group

At Hoyer VMS Group, interest in AI existed long before the specific order management solution was developed. The company experimented early with generative AI, established its own LLM, and tested various AI tools.

As AI became a strategic priority, it became clear that the technology also required clear frameworks.

“It is important to have a governance model in place. Employees need to know which technologies they are allowed to use, and the company needs AI policies and guidelines. Otherwise, the IT team risks becoming the bottleneck,” says Lasse Due.

Governance is not about limiting innovation, but about creating a secure foundation where employees can confidently develop and use AI across the organization.

The AI solution learns and develops continuously

The AI solution is designed to learn and develop as it is used. Every time an employee reviews an order and corrects an error, the AI learns from the correction. At the same time, the solution draws on historical customer data, becoming increasingly better at understanding each customer’s ordering patterns and the many product variations.

This means the solution does not just automate order processing; it continuously improves its accuracy and becomes an increasingly valuable support for employees. As the AI learns, Hoyer VMS Group expects even more orders to be processed with minimal manual intervention.

We are only at the beginning of the AI journey

Order management is the first in a new generation of AI solutions at Hoyer VMS Group, but the ambitions go further. The experience from the project has already created new ideas for how artificial intelligence can support other business processes and free up even more time for tasks where employees’ knowledge and relationships make the greatest difference.

“The customer-first mindset is in our DNA. If we can automate our complex processes with AI so we can spend more time with customers, that is a major benefit. That is what we are working toward,” says Lasse Due, concluding: “Microsoft Copilot has become a new colleague. AI is here, and we have only seen the beginning.”