One of Ireland’s largest phar- macy groups, LloydsPhar- macy was faced with the prospect of increasing its store numbers from its existing 74, while simultaneously launch- ing an Express Prescription Service, an online store and a new loyalty programme. The challenge lay in ensur- ing that the group could man- age these developments without restricting the ambi- tious growth plans for the company. Additionally, the growth continues to take place against the backdrop of a changing healthcare land- scape,with more exacting cus- tomer expectations and regulatory demands placing added pressures on the com- pany. To meet these challenges head-on, in 2009 LloydsPhar- macy started the process of implementing a new ERP so- lution. It did this in conjunc- tion with its sister companies in Ireland (LloydsPharmacy is part of the Celesio group of companies, a leading interna- tional trading company and provider of logistics and ser- vices in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector), elect- ing to provide a single ERP so- lution for its more than 1,000 end users over its vast network of pharmacies across the country. In addition to replacing ex- isting legacy solutions and in- tegrating with external partners, the solution also had to harmonise data across the units and streamline report- ing; and to compound mat- ters, the project needed to be delivered simultaneously to all companies across Ireland, so that controls and synergies could be maximised. Obviously such a major roll-out required a sophisti- cated, scalable and robust ERP solution; and having es- tablished a high level team and studied the market for the most appropriate implemen- tation partner, the decision was made to choose Avnet Cli- ent Solutions due to its experi- ence, its professionalism and its ability to deliver a solution which met all of LloydsPhar- macy’s needs. Working with Avnet Client Solutions, the decision was made to implement SAP In- dustry Solution Retail (ECC 6.0) in a package which in- cluded Business Warehouse (BW), Point of Sale Data Management (POS DM) and Merchandise Inventory Man- agement (MIM). ‘‘The successful adoption of the SAP processes and func- tionality at LloydsPharmacy was testament to the buy-in from senior management and key process owners within the business from early in the pro- ject. These representatives be- came key users, trainers and the go-to people within the or- ganisation,’’said Denis O’Leary, SAP Business Devel- opment Manager at Avnet Client Solutions. The decision to opt for the SAP ERP system was made easier by the fact that Celesio group had a close relationship with SAP in Germany; Celes- io already had SAP IS-Retail in place in other countries within Europe. However, a lo- calised solution had to be im- plemented for Ireland, while POS DM and MIM were ap- plicable specifically to Lloyd- sPharmacy. Once the decision had been taken to go with Avnet and SAP, the solution was rolled out to all pharmacies across the country on a ‘big bang’im- plementation, with each phar- macy going live with procurement and inventory management functionality. The benefits of the system be- came obvious from the end of day one, and now each store orders through the system using SAP’s MIM functional- ity, while also recording inven- tory counts through the SAP system. Additionally, sales in- formation is collated using SAP POS DM and integrated with SAP BW. ‘‘One of the major benefits is in reporting: the access to the information is consider- ably enhanced which allows us to make decisions quicker and more accurately,’’ said Michael Keating, finance di- rector of LloydsPharmacy. ‘‘The retail pharmacy market is continually changing and having access to this informa- tion provides us with a compe- titive advantage over our competitors.’’ The SAP solution also pro- vides LloydsPharmacy with significant efficiency savings, allowing colleagues more time with customers to provide ad- vice and assistance. This is crucial for a company which prides itself on customer ser- vice. For example, the defibril- lators which are in every LloydsPharmacy, have al- ready saved three lives. ‘‘SAP has delivered the re- quired objectives such as im- proved control around purchasing’’ said Keating. ‘‘It has also improved the quality of our financial reporting and volume of information for sales analytics via the inter- face (POSDM) from our EPOS system to ERP. But most importantly, it has em- powered our pharmacists to spend more personal time with our customers, providing expert advice and assistance, all core values of the Lloyd- sPharmacy experience.’’ For further information on Avnet Client Solutions and its products and services, contact Denis O’Leary Tel: +353 1 620 4879 email: [email protected]; www.ts.avnet.com/clientsolu- tions/sap Commercial profile: SAP ERP system brings enhanced information and benefits to large pharmacy chain LloydsPharmacy and SAP a life-saving combination