Making medicine easier to handle at GalexisCustomer Story Getting medicine where it is needed has just gotten one step easier for Swiss pharmaceutical distributor, Galexis, with help from IBS software. Company background
As the distribution wing of Switzerland's leading pharmaceutical group, Galenica, Galexis has a long history in the pharmaceutical industry.
The company keeps local healthcare providers stocked with over 65,000 products ranging from medicines and surgical supplies, to cosmetics and daily hygiene products from 1,000 different suppliers. Over 8,000 hospitals, pharmacies, drug stores and doctors rely on Galexis' daily deliveries. The market leader employs 1,200 people and had a turnover of EUR 1,082.6m in 2002.
Business issues
Many Swiss healthcare institutions rely on Galexis for delivery of medical supplies. It is not uncommon for a single client to make up to six orders on any given day. As the vital link in the Swiss pharmaceutical supply chain, Galexis must process and ship all orders from clients 24/7. The company is pressed to typically process 200,000 order lines per day, and sometimes as much as an incredible 70,000 per hour. It is essential to eliminate order-processing errors as much as possible, in order to fulfil the stringent demands of quality and reliability of service.
Faced with pressure from Switzerland's increasingly cost-conscious medical professionals, Galexis had to seek a comprehensive solution that would see their business operations being cost-efficient and customer friendly. Operating in a market where profit margins are shrinking and international competitors are establishing a greater foothold, only companies that are willing to adapt to new approaches and provide new services to demonstrate their willingness to stay close to their customers, will survive.
Galexis felt that its outdated, in-house distribution software fell short in accommodating to the rapid changes to its business, and in achieving cost efficiency and customer service excellence. An internal re-organisation of the entire Galenica Group - due to recent acquisitions - gave Galexis the perfect opportunity to upgrade its IT systems.
Solution and capabilities
Galexis undertook an extensive evaluation process to determine the ideal software solution for logistics and pharmaceutical distribution. The primary selection criteria were functionality, scalability, multi-company handling and multi-language handling.
The system also had to be able to process a minimum of 50,000 order lines an hour. The list of relevant systems was reduced from 200 to 10. The conclusion of the intense nine-week evaluation saw Galexis choose IBS' business software as the basis of its new distribution software solution.
Galexis worked closely with IBS to build an Internet and EDI-based ordering system that allows customers to place their orders and make enquiries on-line rather than over the telephone, vastly increasing efficiency and convenience. The on-line ordering solution proactively delivers information regarding prices, product availability, product details, promotions and order status, making the service that Galexis provides more personalised.
The IBS solution provides complete support for fast order entry with phonetically, fuzzy and approximated item searching, customer call plans, optimised picking and interfaces to automatic pickers, high transaction volumes, fast customer deliveries, traceability, security and product availability.
Implementation
The customisation and implementation of IBS software at Galexis was completed in a mere 18 months. The IBS project team took great care to adapt the software to meet Galexis' unique business needs.
The implementation itself was divided into four main phases by functional area to minimise risks during the software transition. A functional error at any stage would have meant a loss in turnover that equated to several million Euros per day.
Benefits and value
Since the successful implementation of IBS software at Galexis, the company has seen a decrease in lead and distribution times. Manual reception via reception notes has been replaced with the use of scanners, as supported by the new software solution. In fact, the company has been able to cut down reception time by an impressive 30 percent, by feeding the data into the system directly with an EAN code. This has led to significant improvements in delivery reliability and frequency. In some warehouses, the rate of errors has been reduced to less than one tenth of one percent thanks to the new technology.
IBS' business software allows Galexis' customers to browse, order and purchase all their pharmaceutical supplies on-line. During peek-hours the system handles 70,000 order lines per hour ensuring that all products are delivered to the customer within a maximum of three hours. This in turn enables clients to save money on inventory capital by maintaining lower stock levels - something that the cost-conscious Swiss healthcare industry has appreciated.
Galexis has benefited from IBS’ ability to handle multiple languages. In a multilingual nation such as Switzerland, customers can place their orders in German, French or Italian, while Galexis receives them in German.
IBS software acts as one seamless software solution for all of Galexis' logistics processes. It has replaced six antiquated IT systems and resulted in significant IT cost reductions for the company. Galexis has been able to provide better customer and supplier services by harnessing the many benefits of the system's intelligent functionality. The system's scalability also effortlessly meets the demands of the company's evolving business models.
By consolidating eleven distribution centres into just three, Galexis has also been able to realise considerable savings in costs. Concurrently, inventory levels have dropped a massive ten percent, translating to impressive savings in excess of EUR 8.1m.
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