The Italian pharmaceutical industry is crowded with rivals, highly regulated and subject to constant change. Customers demand and require outstanding service. Products must be delivered on time, and excuses are totally unacceptable. In this tough market, Itriafarma is finding a competitive edge with IBS Pharma software.
Itriafarma can fulfil orders in 2.5 hours using IBS pharmaceutical distribution software according Francesco Lembo, President of Itriafarma.
Growth and cooperation
Based in a small town near Taranto, Southern Italy, Itriafarma is a cooperative with 175 members. As its name implies, it is a cooperative of pharmacists and was established in 1978, with only 18 members and 2 employees. The prime objective was to harness individual members purchasing power in order to lower product cost.
Today Itriafarma employs 47 people and had a recent turnover of over EUR 100m.
Keeping the edge
Product information must always be on-hand and easily accessible, as must special offers and general price information. Although Itriafarma is an exception, most Italian payments occur well beyond three months. Absolute 100 percent availability and keen pricing are the rule, not the exception. This is the market place in which Itriafarma must excel.
Itriafarma has 16,000 available stock items, encompassing all items legally required for pharmacies and a number of para-pharmaceutical products. Each day the company processes 600 to 800 order lines from a customer base of 222 pharmacies. Itrifarma’s policy is to maintain a competitive edge by updating its business software every five to seven years. This is just one of the reasons why Itriafarma has always felt that it is a step ahead of its competitors.
The previous system was written in an obsolete programming language. It was not open and was incapable of accepting state-of-the-art applications like CRM and business intelligence. Moreover, it became the standard for all companies in the Italian pharmaceutical industry and no longer offered Itriafarma a competitive edge. In short, while Itriafarma was continually expanding, the previous system could not keep pace.
The timing was right for Itrifarma to purchase a more sophisticated and flexible solution that would help the company regain a competitive edge.
Speed with quality
Itrifarma looked at a number of systems before choosing IBS Pharma. The software is IBS’ integrated supply chain solution designed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry. One of the primary reasons resulted from a visit to Switzerland, where Itriafarma saw IBS software in action and realised IBS Pharma’s tremendous potential.
The IBS solution provides Itriafarma 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.
Itrifarma is particularly impressed with IBS Pharma’s order processing functionality. If all items in the order are in stock, the order is hand-filled by employees who add each item to a yellow basket moving through the warehouse area on a motorised track. Each item is swiped with a bar code reader. The filled basket then goes to a separate area, where the order is wrapped and labelled and sent to one of 13 docks to be loaded on delivery trucks. The trucks make their rounds twice a day, serving an area that stretches from Bari to Brindisi.
Itriafarma plans to implement IBS NetStore In the future. This will provide real-time access to Itriafarma’s warehouse inventory, letting online pharmacies order products, special offers and bulk discounts.
Rapid reaction and benefits
IBS Pharma lets Itriafarma manage its entire procedure from the order to the supplier to the client, giving the company a complete view of its business.
Itrifarma’s order response time is now considerably faster and much more efficient – 2.5 hours maximum. Customers are very impressed with the quick response times, especially if an item is not in stock. If this happens, the pharmacy is notified electronically and Itriafarma requisitions the item from one of its suppliers. When a special request arrives, a truck delivers it immediately. This fast response leads to a healthy combination of increased customer satisfaction, increased customer profit and long-term customer loyalty and repeat orders for Itriafarma products.
Sales analysis is no longer a time-consuming process. Itriafarma can now choose any number of products and see how sales are affected by a promotion. This allows management to react more rapidly to market demands, resulting in greater sales volumes and therefore increased profitability.
To support an expanding organisation, Itriafarma now has immediate access to all of the relevant information. IBS has filled the IT prescription to Itriafarma’s satisfaction and helped the company accomplish its main objective: a competitive edge in the Italian pharmaceutical industry.
Name: Itriafarma Region: Martina Franca in Southern Italy Operation: Retail Products: Pharmaceuticals Employees: 47 Revenue: EUR 100.5 million Website: Itriafarma
Issues
Need to regain a competitive edge
Need for fast order processing and quick delivery
Need for state-of-the-art applications such as CRM and business intelligence
Outdated software incapable of handling growth
Sales analysis too time-consuming
Need to provide online access for the pharmacies.
Solution
Integrated IT solution for pharmaceutical distribution
