Multinational Pharmaceutical Company

Business of company and Organization structure: This company is in the business of manufacturing and selling pharmaceutical, veterinary and agro chemicals and beverage products across many countries in Europe, Americas and Asia.

Existing information systems and justification for an ERP solution: The company possessed systems that were more than a decade old. Furthermore, these systems lacked some of the basic functionalities required by an international organization. Moreover, most functionalities were limited to country specific requirements.

An ERP system was justified because this company wanted a solution which could be implemented in one country first and subsequently rolled over to many other countries. They also wanted a similar looking and functioning system across countries. The ERP solution was intended to be used to monitor global activities as well as to trace manufacturing work-flows and various quality initiatives across countries.

Company culture and commitment: This company possessed established processes and well documented methods manuals. However the users were not clear about their requirements. They wanted new systems which were easy to use, possessed more functionality and were technologically advanced.

Centralized Vs. Decentralized decision making: Corporate Headquarters wanted centralized decision making configured in the ERP product. However, functional teams scattered across various worldwide locations were involved in the actual selection of the product. The company had fairly well established processes and documentation for this.