Mediplus optimizes the pharmaceutical distribution by using Charisma ERP
By implementing Charisma we could extend the business management on computable items, which allows us to more easily track the nature and type of the expenditures. Moreover, the BI in Charisma provides the required flexibility for generating ad-hoc reports, as well as analysis upon data with drill-down capabilities
The company
Mediplus is member of A&D Pharma Holdings group, the largest pharmaceutical group in Romania, and the Romanian leader in the distribution of pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical products. A&D Pharma group - a Dutch holding company - closed 2008 with a turnover of EUR 501.5 millions, having, next to Mediplus, other business lines, such as: A&D Pharma Marketing & Sales and SensiBlu (the largest drug store network in Romania). In 2006, A&D Pharma Holdings has become a public company, its stocks being traded on the London Stock Exchange under "ADPH" symbol.
The situation
Managing a large amount of data, specific to the distribution business, Mediplus has realized that it can't accurately track the financials-accounting and controlling operations without a powerful ERP system. And because a big company has big needs, it was essential for the ERP system to be able to also integrate the remaining applications used by the company (for the drug store management, for the pharmaceutical product distribution operations, SFA, WMS, BI, etc.)
Mediplus especially wanted that the acquired solution to include a complex reporting engine, yet configurable enough to enable any user category to easily generate the reports.
Following a detail internal analysis regarding the processes that had to be covered by the new solution, and considering the business amplitude and complexity, there have been determined several conditions that the vendor had to take upon itself. The short time assigned to the project was one of the main constraints.
The solution
Among all the vendors evaluated by Mediplus, TotalSoft was meeting all the required criteria: short implementation time (which was also the critical requirement) and it could natively integrate the applications used by Mediplus, because it was providing them.
A big plus offered by Charisma Enterprise solution was the reporting system based on business intelligence know-how. This could support the decisional process, providing comparative information and statistics based on the data stored and processed by the system.
Charisma provided a not to be neglected performance, working with a large amount of data - hundreds of megabytes.
"Charisma was the natural follow-up that was ensuring the integration and consolidation of Mediplus information system – as well as the financials system on A&D Pharma group level", Bogdan Dumitrescu, IT&C Manager, A&D Pharma.
The results
First of all, Charisma has provided quality benefits regarding data accuracy, the time assigned to a situation preparation, the generation of figures and statement reporting method. It had also enabled data analysis from various points of view, which can make a difference on the market. "Today, we are provided in due time with reports that allow us to increase the business efficiency with an accurate data analysis, and therefore it offers us a better view upon the business."
The achievement has been as greater as the short time dedicated to the project has overlapped the financial audit and the fiscal year closing period. Practically, the decision to implement Charisma has been made at the end of 2008, and since January 2009 the work has been performed in parallel with the old system, in order to be able to check the accuracy of stocks, balance and reports.
Between TotalSoft and Mediplus there is also an e-Commerce solution development partnership, including Web services and online orders processing.
"Considering the complexity of Mediplus business, who would have had 'this crazy courage to implement a financials and controlling system within only 2 months? We relied on TotalSoft and on what it was promising to do, and it looks like we we're not wrong. On the other hand, if you look at the performance - cost ratio, Charisma has a great position, and I think that it is a product that is worth all the money in this economic crisis period". Bogdan Dumitrescu, IT&C Manager, A&D Pharma.
Case study revised in 2009.