Bioveta

The need for change

When the supplier of the Czech information system used by Bioveta in 2012 announced that it was ending all ongoing system support, Bioveta rightly recognised the threat this posed. It also however recognised that this represented an opportunity to invest in the latest generation of fully-integrated business management systems. In its tendering process, Bioveta therefore placed emphasis on the requirements for a comprehensive, company-wide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, that would equally cover all the business processes needed by a manufacturing company within the pharmaceutical industry, especially in the areas of materials trace- ability and batch control.

It was also essential that the system meet the stringent industry validation criteria. Suppliers would be rated according to successful references in the field, overall expertise, as well as their response to specification requirements submitted by various individual business departments within Bioveta. Out of a tender process that attracted a range of IT companies with local and global ERP systems, it was Minerva with the QAD ERP system that received both the highest supplier and system rating. Not only did the QAD ERP system meet Bioveta‘s requirements in every aspect, Minerva also demonstrated the greatest industry implemen- tation experience in terms of successful projects, long-term stability and all importantly, support.

A successful implementation

Implementation of the QAD ERP system began in 2014 with the aim of improving business process management across all areas of the business at its current level. It also had to be done in such a way that the solution would be flexible enough to facilitate any of the com- pany’s future development plans. In addition to the many technical challenges to be overcome, success would also be dependent on getting positive acceptance by all personnel involved with the system. With 150 users working across Management, Production, Sales, Materials, Technical and Finance, CEO Libor Bittner, CSc was tasked with leading the internal education campaign about the changes in working procedures that would be required. Armed with the slogan that he created, “QAD is our friend”, Bittner concentrated on devel- oping an understanding of QAD ERP as “an efficient assistant” which in turn helped make the system for user friendly.

Ing. Petr Vinklárek, Bioveta’s CFO confirms the success of this ap- proach and the implementation as a whole, „Deployment of QAD ERP has led to improved and streamlined business activities, particu- larly in the area of management and production planning.” He con- tinues, “We have also felt stronger in the area of sales as the sales department did not work with the integrated system before.

A successful validation

Having been successfully deployed, the system now needed to be validated according to the American GAMP standard, one of the most stringent in the industry. This entailed validating not only the system itself but also the set process procedures as well as ways for ensuring continuous levels of production.

Successfully completed in 2015 as the final part of the whole project, Vinklárek acknowledges the importance of the collab- oration with Minerva, „Minerva has always had a constructive and expert approach throughout the implementation including any particularly difficult areas. I appreciate Minerva‘s pro- fessionalism and management of the project with the entire implementation team showing a proactively oriented approach, which is not a matter of course these days.”

Solution description

Introduced early in 2014, the QAD ERP implementation involved a few technical challenges. In addition to creating an online link to the LIMS laboratory system, the batch management and product scheduling capabilities had to be fine-tuned to meet the requirements of products requiring the growth process of living or- ganisms. Material flow is managed by automatic data collection using barcodes to ensure quick and flawless movement of ma- terial and products within the company as well as shipping. The sales department uses the QAD ERP CRM module to organise the work of the sales representatives while the Minerva supplied B2B portal acts as a complement to Bioveta’s sales channels. Decision making at a management level is supported by a tailor-made, decision dashboard.

Commenting on the QAD ERP solution, Ing. Jiří Reich, Head of IT at Bioveta, remarks, „ I would like to highlight the variability of the user interface and the convenient browsing.” He adds, “From a technical point of view, I have to admit that we do not need to care about the servers. Everything is running just fine, the data- base and the operating system are very stable.“

Future plans

Looking forward, Reich adds, „We are aware that there are fur- ther areas we can develop the system to maximise its potential. I personally see future development plans which include expand- ing the use of the CRM module to include foreign affiliates in the form of domains, and we are also very interested in the SIMATIC Preactor planning and scheduling APS that Minerva implements.”