UniPharm Wholesale Drugs
uniPHARM Wholesale Drugs is a cooperative organization, wholly owned by its shareholder customers. It is committed to satisfying the merchandizing, marketing and professional requirements of independent pharmacies by providing one-stop shopping for high quality pharmaceuticals and consumer products at the best possible prices. |
About the Project
uniPHARM recently implemented a major internal ERP package with the objective
of improving the organizations ability to service shareholders and customers.
Most of these customers are pharmacies that order pharmaceuticals and consumer
products directly from uniPHARM. Previously, these orders were processed via
an Electronic Order Book (EOB) package. This required each pharmacy to install
and configure this software on a local PC. Orders were transmitted via e-mail
resulting in a variety of problems associated with such an old, unreliable system.
This system did not provide uniPHARM’s clients with real time data, validation,
pricing or order confirmation. It was also unable to provide alternative products
if requested brands were unavailable.
uniPHARM recognized that the best solution would be a browser based application.
This solution would remove dependence on third party proprietary client software
running on each PC. It would also facilitate access to real time data, validation,
pricing and order entry. After investigating several solutions, uniPHARM selected
WebSmart as their tool of choice to build the application. They also contracted
the services of the BCD consulting group to build the application.
The decision to purchase WebSmart and subsequently use the service of BCD
was based in part on an initial prototype application. The group at uniPHARM
were very excited to see just how much was developed in a mere 1½ days
by Stephanie Rabbani, one of the WebSmart developers. uniPHARM’s Information
Technology Department were also very keen to work with the tool themselves.
Making the Decision
After the initial discussions and prototype, the decision on how to proceed
was put to uniPHARM’s board of directors which unanimously agreed that
using WebSmart was the best approach. “The Project Team felt WebSmart provided
more flexibility to meet the existing and potentially changing Internet needs
of our shareholders. In addition, BCD’s ExcelSystems are a customer service
oriented organization that is totally committed to developing web solutions specifically
for iSeries users.” (Stephen Mavety, Director, Finance & Administration
and Project Executive Sponsor)
Before development began, uniPHARM surveyed the majority of its shareholders
to determine business requirements and provided BCD with detailed business and
technical specifications. “The uniPHARM IT Team and Project Office group
did an excellent job of providing us with project specifications”, says
Kevin Cronin, development manager with BCD. “They created a story board
of the general flow using PowerPoint. They also provided a spreadsheet that listed
the corresponding data files and business rules that were to be applied for each
page of the story board. We were able to run with it and start coding immediately!” The
application includes integration with Catapult for sending price and shelving
tickets to the shareholders. They receive these as a PDF file and are able to
print them on their local printers. The application also shows product images,
and automatically suggests alternative products when the requested item is not
in stock.
Current Status
Development of the project began in mid-May, 2005 and went live July 4,
2005. The overall acceptance of the project is evident by the number of orders
that are put through daily. Concerns regarding change, as initially expressed
by the shareholder customers were soon set aside, now virtually all of the customers
now embrace the new system. “Web Orders extends uniPHARM’s internal
business processes by providing shareholder members with the real time capabilities
they defined. The Web Orders system was designed, built and implemented within
three months due to the project management expertise provided by Steelnet Solutions,
a leading provider of Business Process Management and Systems Implementation.
The system has been well received and the overall response has been very positive
as the vast majority of users find the site very intuitive. The immediate acceptance
of Web Orders by our customers will shorten the time frame for the continuance
of our current Electronic Order Book. This project has met the requirements of
a successful implementation with the appropriate knowledge transfer such that
future enhancements can be handled internally”. (Stephen Mavety).
For further information about how this application was developed or for details
on our consulting services, please contact Kevin
Cronin.
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uniPHARM
Wholesale Drugs Ltd.