Pharmaceutical ERP implementation at Record breaking time.

First of all; before I start with this blog, I wish to thank the Employees of Sparsh Bio-Tech Pvt Ltd for making this really happen. Nalini Gadyale (Senior Consultant, eresource), I can never thank you enough for the uncanny support and commitment, without you, this would have never happened !. My special thanks to Devendra Chandel (Product Manager) eresource for his intelligence in architecting the Pharmaceutical ERP.


Sparsh Bio Tech Manufacturing Facility
I had always known that Implementing ERP for Pharmaceutical Company is a great challenge. Challenge not from the manufacturing process perspective, but from the regulatory and compliance perspective. Pharmaceutical Industry demands regulatory of compliance in each document. For example, the documentation and regulatory requirement for Product manufactured by the company (Ethical/Generic Product) is different from the Third Party manufacturing and Loan Licensing Manufacturing is different from the Generic manufacuturing and Third Party manufacturing. Simply put, the drug rule for different type of manufacturing type is different. Given that, Pharmaceutical ERP should be capable of handling all regulatory, statutory compliances easily and effectively.

I and my collegue Prasanna boarded the train for Jamnagar on 9th April 2011 for the Gap Assessment of ERP project for Sparsh Bio Tech. Sparsh Bio Tech is in the manufacturing of Tablets, Capsules and Powder drugs.

While I was at Borivali Station waiting for the Train to arrive, I called up Devendra and asked him if I could try Guerilla Implementation rather than following the standard Implementation process. Generally, Standard Implementation process takes about 4 to 6 months for the project to go-live. Guerilla Implementation is unconventional way, which means start the Implementation with what you have in store to offer and in the process, clear roadblock or bugs. Devendra confirmed that we can try this approach as everything that is required for Pharmaceutical company and drug rule is readily available in eresource ERP.

I had made my mind by now that I am going to try this, no matter what.

We arrived at Jamnagar on the 10th noon. I was eager about the Idea of GO-LIVE strategy, thus, did not spend much time in the hotel to freshen-up and straight marched at the customer’s Office.

It appeared that the team of Sparsh was eagerly waiting to receive the consultants (myself and Prassana) so that they could initiate the ERP Gap Assessment. Gap assessment is the first step towards the implementation of ERP. In the Gap assessment we understand the Gap between the ERP process and the process practiced by the customer. The Customer had their mind-set that the implementation would take about 6 months. I was received by Mr. Sushant Maru, Director of Sparsh and Mr. Jitendra Shah, Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Sunil Bhai, Administrative and IT officer. The core team members were then invited in the Conference to discuss the ERP kick-off meeting.

I demonstrated eresource Pharmaceutical ERP demo to all the staff and Department heads. From the expression of the team members, it appeared that they all liked the features and functions of eresource ERP. Taking the benefit of their expression, I proposed Sushant to allow me to initiate the Implementation and Go-live process with immediate effect, instead of the Standard Implementation approach (starting with gap assessment, design document creation, design sign off, User acceptance test, training, Implementation and then go-live).

I thank Sushant for the trust that he illustrated on me and allowing me to kick-start the ERP implementation from the DAY 1.

We started the implementation/Go-Live process from the day one. The staff of Sparsh were very co-operative, mainly Mr. Jitendra, Sunil Bhai, Ms. Dhara, Rounak, Mr. Mayekar, Deepak, Dilip and others.

I would be lying to you if I tell you that the implementation/ Go-Live process was smooth. There were indeed lot of obstacles, barrier, Bugs and other issues. But it was only because of Nalini and her team I was able to clear all those obstacles and roadblock and proceed with Implementation.

Team of Sparsh worked non-stop, including on holidays ,stayed late in the evening, worked extra hours to capture the back log entries. Finally, on the tenth day, we were LIVE on eresource ERP.

I think, this was just a beginning of new revolution in the ERP space.

For more information kindly visit: http://sudheernair.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/pharmaceutical-erp-implementation-at-record-breaking-time/