LINET spol. s r.o. is a leading European manufacturer of hospital and nursing beds. The company’s portfolio includes solutions for intensive care, products for routine inpatient care and special beds for nursing homes or long-term care facilities. Since its foundation in 1990, LINET has been based in Želevčice, where it also operates its plant, with a second production facility in Slany. In the 2019/2020 fiscal year, LINET produced and delivered over 60,000 beds to clients. The vast majority of production is for export, to more than 100 countries worldwide. Since 2011, LINET spol. s r.o. has been part of the multinational holding LINET Group SE, which today also includes BORCAD Medical. LINET Group has 20 branches worldwide and employs around 1,800 people.
As a manufacturing group, LINET Group operates a rather complex IT and application infrastructure consisting of ERP systems, Data Warehouse solutions, CAD applications, MES systems, CRM and many other solutions to support specific processes.
In 2016, LINET spol. s r.o., which operates production plants in Želevčice and Slane, was faced with a situation where it needed to make a major decision regarding its ERP system, which was used by more than 400 people. The original ERP solution had reached the limit of its capacity, so it was decided to replace it with a new system. One of the main objectives of the whole project was to carry out the implementation without having to stop production.
In the first phase of the tender, both on-premise and cloud alternatives were considered, with the on-premise deployment concept ultimately winning out. Then, 7 systems were selected, the main requirement was an already functioning deployment in the Czech environment. The selection was gradually narrowed down to three final ERP solutions represented by their implementation partners.
Zdeněk Špelina from AppliCon IT was invited as a consultant for the entire ERP system replacement project. For ERP system deployment projects, AppliCon IT uses its own MAPIC methodology, which generally focuses on three areas: ERP system implementation, process analysis and process optimization of selected processes. The stages of cooperation with the customer on the project include project preparation (including determination of the team, objectives, schedule, process map, etc.), system selection (RFI, RFQ), contracting model (including implementation, license, maintenance and purchase agreement) and actual implementation.
Zdeněk Špelina has been involved in the project at LINET since the preparation of the project documentation and the announcement of the tender for the three finalists, where he ensured the most efficient and transparent project assignment. Already during the tender process, contractual negotiations were also held with all parties on the basis of a contract designed by Applicon IT, which was the same for all participants. The results of the contractual negotiations were one of the selection criteria.
The winner of the tender was Consulting4U with SAP system. The implementation phase started in September 2017 and the new system was launched for the start of the fiscal year in April 2019. Zdeněk Špelina was a member of the steering committee during this phase, where he helped with his experience from other implementation projects to ensure a smooth deployment of the system.
Also thanks to qualified advice and preparation, the whole project was carried out in a constructive atmosphere and on the basis of partnership. Zdeněk Špelina’s first major contribution was the drafting of the tender documentation, which was concise and guiding for all participants in the tender – without unnecessary detailed requirements, which are often counterproductive. This significantly reduced the time and costs of both the implementation team and key users.
The immediate conclusion of the pre-negotiated contract with the winning supplier was also a significant time-saver. As the proposed contract was the same for all bidders, LINET avoided the arduous negotiation of three different contract proposals from three different suppliers. Finally, Zdeněk Špelina’s third major contribution was during implementation, where, among other things, he contributed to a more efficient outcome of the entire project by setting measurable implementation goals.
“If we had decided to go ahead with the project without the help of Applicon IT, the ERP replacement project would certainly have been significantly prolonged and would have meant higher costs and burden for the implementation team. Zdeněk Špelina provided us with valuable advice from the stage of drafting the tender documentation to the system commissioning and, thanks to his many years of experience, enabled us to avoid some of the unpleasant pitfalls of implementation projects.”
Pavel Stehlík, Production Information Systems Manager, LINET spol. s r.o.
