How Consilient Health fuels growth with SAP Business One ERP
SAP Business One supporting healthy growth at pharmaceutical distributor
The Client
About
Consilient Health
Established in 2005, Consilient Health is a privately owned pharmaceutical distribution company operating in Ireland, Europe and the Middle East with headquarters in Dublin. It specialises in contraceptive care and endocrinology, centred on the needs of the healthcare professional, patient and prescriber.
Consilient has built strong partnerships with leading manufacturers in Europe, USA, Latin America, and the Middle East, providing services in regulatory affairs, supply chain management, quality, medical affairs, marketing and sales.
Understandig the Problem
The Challenge
Since its beginnings in 2005, Consilient had operated a legacy Sage finance system. Whilst this provided finance, sales and purchasing functionality, it did not support the complex materials requirements planning (MRP), supply chain management and reporting that Consilient needed.
Business-critical functions such as planning and forecasting often involved labour-intensive and error-prone processes, using spreadsheets stored in different locations.
The Solution
Making it Work
Consilient carried out in-depth assessments of the leading ERP solutions and implementation partners, finally selecting SAP Business One with Codestone. “Codestone had a good reputation in the market, and the more we spoke to them, the more comfortable we became with their knowledge and experience, they presented solutions very quickly that met our requirements.” says Godfrey Tucker, Project Manager at Consilient.
SAP Business One also offered potential for future expansion, for instance CRM, a mobile sales app, for when face-to-face selling returns, dashboards and alerts.
Consilient implemented the key finance, stock and customer modules, to replace the existing workflows, while overlaying supply chain management and planning. SAP Business One now provides a single ERP solution, supporting all the key business activities, from finance, purchasing, sales through to more complex materials requirements planning.
All product information, previously held in multiple locations, is consolidated into a single repository ensuring easier compliance with regulatory requirements. This has made reporting easier, with Intrastat declarations, VAT and HMRC returns produced directly from SAP Business One.
A real-time interface was developed for interactions with Consilient’s third-party logistics provider, allowing full visibility of inventory and stock movements. This was a significant component of the solution, enabling a smooth flow of sales orders, deliveries and stock adjustments.
Anticipating Brexit friction, Consilient implemented alternative ordering and delivery routes, which were well supported by SAP Business One.The system went live in January 2021, serving 35 users in the UK, Ireland, Nordic countries and the rest of Europe, of whom 12-15 are ‘heavy’ users, with the remainder accessing SAP to raise and/or approve purchase orders. Confidence in the system is increasing all the time as users discover the possibilities of automation, for example by setting parameters for minimum reorder levels for stock.
“We haven’t come across any business scenarios yet that the solution can’t handle.” highlights Godfrey.
SAP Business One
The powerful and scalable ERP System Designed for Small and Medium Businesses
Discover the Benefits
Elimination of manual processes
Cumbersome and disjointed manual tasks have been replaced using a single repository for data, including customers, products and financial information.
Easier compliance
With all Consilient’s product information held in one place, compliance with quality, traceability and other regulations has been simplified.
Improved control
Financial and management reporting has been significantly improved, giving Consilient’s decision makers better end-to-end control of their business.
Opportunities for business growth
Simplifying expansion to new markets, setting up new warehouse locations in the Middle East will be a ‘copy and paste’ operation.
Our experience of working with Codestone has been a very positive one and we would recommend them to anyone implementing a new ERP system, as well as being responsive to our needs, Codestone’s project team & support staff are also very knowledgeable, which gives us confidence for the future.Senior Financial Accountant Consilient