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/

How BPR plays critical role in ERP implementation

Processes, organization, structure and information technologies are the key components of BPR, which automates business processes across the enterprise and provides an organization with a well-designed and well-managed information system. While implementing ERP, the organizations have two options to consider.

Either the organization must reengineer business processes before implementing ERP or directly implement ERP and avoid reengineering.

In the first option of reengineering business processes, before implementing ERP, the organization needs to analyze current processes, identify non-value adding activities and redesign the process to create value for the customer, and then develop in-house applications or modify an ERP system package to suit the organizations requirements. In this case, employees will develop a good sense of process orientation and ownership.

This would also be a customized solution keeping with line of the organization's structure, culture, existing IT resources, employee needs and disruption to routine work during the change programmer likely to be the least. It could have a high probability of implementation. The drawback of this option is that the reengineered process may not be the best in the class, as the organization may not have access to world-class release and best practices. Moreover, this may be the only chance to radically improve in the near future and most attention should be paid while choosing the right ERP. Also, developing an in-house application or implementing a modified ERP is not advisable.

The second option of implementing ERP package is to adopt ERP with minimum deviation from the standard settings. All the processes in a company should conform to the ERP model and the organization has to change its current work practices and switch over to what the ERP system offers. This approach of implementation offers a world-class efficient and effective process with built-in measures and controls, and is likely to be quickly installed.

But if the employees do not have good understanding of their internal customer needs or current processes, or if these processes are not well defined and documented, then it is quite possible that while selecting the standard process from the ERP package, employees may not be able to perceive the difficulties likely to be encountered during the implementation stage. Employees would lack process ownership and orientation. Other than technical issues, issues like organization structure, culture, lack of involvement of people etc. can lead to major implementation difficulties, and full benefits of standard ERP package may not be achieved. It may lead to a situation where the organization may have to again reengineer its processes. This could be a very costly mistake.

There is also a third option of reengineering business process during implementation of ERP. But it does not considered to be a practical option and is likely to cause maximum disruption to existing work. It should not be forgotten that during BPR and ERP initiatives, routine work is still to be carried out and customers need to be served

For more information kindly visit: http://www.eresourceerp.com/How-BPR-plays-critical-role-in-ERP-implementation.html
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