Bioveta is a manufacturer of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, immunopreparations and pharmaceutical products. The company is a successful Czech manufacturer employing over 600 people and exporting its products to more than 80 countries worldwide. The company, which operates in a highly regulated and competitive environment, needed a software platform to cope with increasing order volumes, production growth and more demanding production planning.
Bioveta was in a situation where the original system was ending its support and thus the mandatory updating of the regulations was terminated. It was therefore decided to select a new information system. The company mapped the market for ERP systems to find out as many strengths and weaknesses of each solution as possible and was able to make a good choice. The selection process lasted six months and a number of offers were processed, from which 5 relevant systems were selected. Presentations were made of the platforms in the area of support for the processes under consideration (sales, inventory, accounting, purchasing and, most importantly, production planning). The presentations were then evaluated and the final two vendors who provided in-depth presentations and case studies competed and a winner was subsequently selected.
As all systems in the tender fulfilled the statutory functions, the company’s management needed an independent advisory voice to help objectively assess the systems under consideration in terms of references in similar production and implementation experience.
Bioveta has therefore established cooperation with the consulting company AppliCon IT. Its main objective was to obtain objective feedback and impartial verification of the information provided by the suppliers. Based on the recommended criteria, Minerva’s QAD application was finally selected as the ERP system focusing on enterprise-wide logistics processes including resource planning, inventory optimization and related processes. Cooperation with Applicon IT then continued in the implementation phase, which culminated in the successful commissioning of the system.
For ERP system deployment projects, AppliCon IT uses its proprietary MAPIC methodology, which generally focuses on three areas: ERP system implementation, process analysis, and process optimization of selected processes. The stages of collaboration with a customer on a project include project preparation (including defining the team, goals, schedule, process map, etc.), system selection (RFI, RFQ), contracting model (including implementation, licensing, maintenance, and purchase agreements), and actual implementation.
The actual implementation project contains the following four blueprints:
The key role of AppliCon IT was to assist with the presentations, preparing the topic areas for selection and creating an optimal brief determining which activities were necessary and which were merely supportive. In particular, working with an independent consultant led to greater honesty from the vendors, more objective information, and a more straightforward project. An even more important advisory role occurred in the contracting model, when contractual issues were already being addressed, costs were being quantified and concerns raised, and of course during implementation. The presence of a consultant guaranteed a high level of respect from the contractor for the contract being implemented, a well-executed preparatory phase and better control over the entire project.
In this way, the customer insured against the biggest nightmare of companies implementing new ERP solutions, which is a poorly executed implementation. In the end, the project was a success due to a combination of three main factors: good staff involvement, the selection of a quality system and the methodical guidance of AppliCon IT. In addition to the main goal of a smooth ERP system change, a number of sub-goals were also achieved, such as better planning, more efficient CRM processes, etc.
“There is a significant difference when a company implements a system once every 7 years and when an expert carries out four implementation projects per year. By cooperating with Zdeněk Špelina from AppliCon IT, we gained the assurance of good preparation for the whole project and its consistent implementation according to modern procedures. Good methodological guidance also helped us to speed up the implementation and ensure that the system worked exactly as we wanted.”
Ing. Petr Vinklárek, Director of Financial Management Section, Bioveta.
