Save in one place, and field sales pays for it.
In pharma and life sciences, savings at one point in the software chain surface at the other end: a field sales rep in a pharmacy, unable to enter an order. We analyse those chains end to end and build ourselves, alongside your ERP consultancy.
End to end, not one leg of the journey
The most expensive mistake in ERP projects is the locally correct decision to save money. We assess the process across everyone involved – from internal sales through the portal to the pharmacy.
Optimizer and project lead
We do not turn up as competition to your ERP consultancy; we work with it. What is usually missing is not SAP knowledge but somebody steering between the business, IT and the consultancy – and writing code when that is what it takes.
Excel is the map
When people keep their own spreadsheets despite an enterprise ERP, the system is missing a function – it is not a discipline problem. We look for those spreadsheets first.
Who this is for
- Pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers
- Wholesalers and sales operations selling into pharmacies
- Laboratories and contract research
- Quality assurance and production-adjacent functions in life sciences
Typical trigger
- An SAP-based process that was left in standard configuration and that the people at the end of the chain cannot operate – plus the spreadsheets that have grown up alongside it.
What we do
- End-to-end process analysis
- Optimization and project management together with your ERP consultancy
- Replacing isolated Excel solutions
- Apps and web applications for field sales
- The lab and QA – including writing the code
The ordering portal that stayed standard – and the field rep with an iPad.
Anonymised, because we do not name clients who have not approved it. The case stands for a pattern we meet again and again in large organizations.
A pharmaceutical company runs ordering portals for pharmacies. They were set up with the SAP toolkit – and deliberately left in standard configuration. From an IT and budget point of view that is a defensible decision: no customizing, no adaptation costs, no maintenance burden with every upgrade. Taken in isolation, it is even the right one.
What happens at the other end of the chain
In parallel, the field sales team was re-equipped – with an iPad. No more laptop, and for good reasons: lighter, ready to go faster, less conspicuous in a conversation at the pharmacy counter. Except that this field rep is supposed to enter pharmacy orders on that device. And the portal he has to use for it was designed for a desktop workstation in internal sales.
That leads to situations you would not believe until you are standing next to them: in the ordering portal, the rep cannot search by customer number – even though that very customer number is held in the SAP online shop. So he helps himself the way people in large organizations have helped themselves for thirty years: with an Excel spreadsheet. An employee of a major group, equipped with a modern ERP and a modern device, keeps his customer data in a spreadsheet of his own, because the system will not let him find it.
Why it happened
Not because of poor IT. Because the systems were implemented without anyone running a live test on site with the field sales team. Nobody drove to a pharmacy with an iPad and tried to enter an order in the middle of a sales conversation. In an acceptance test at a desk this never shows up – there, everything works. The fault does not sit in the system; it sits in the gap between two sub-projects that each delivered cleanly in their own right.
Money was to be saved in one place, and nobody thought the process through end to end. That is the shortest possible description of by far the most expensive failure pattern in enterprise IT projects – and it is never ill will, always a locally sensible decision taken without a view of the whole chain.
What we do in situations like this
We come in and analyse the process across everyone involved: internal sales, the portal, the field rep, the pharmacy. We work holistically as process optimizer and project lead – explicitly together with the existing ERP consultancy, not against it. They know the system; what is missing in constellations like this is rarely SAP knowledge, but somebody who stands between the business, IT and the consultancy, judges the process from the point of view of the people at the end of the chain, and forces decisions.
And we get our own hands dirty. If a lean application belongs in front of the portal – an interface that finds the right pharmacy on an iPad in two seconds and hands the order over to the existing system – then we build it. That dual role is the real difference: we can assess the process and close the gap, instead of writing a recommendation that then has to go out to tender all over again.
Sector
Pharma – manufacturer selling into pharmacies
Starting point
Ordering portals built with the SAP toolkit and left in standard configuration; field sales equipped with an iPad only
Concrete symptom
No search by customer number in the portal – although it is held in the SAP online shop; Excel as the workaround
Root cause
No live tests on site with the field sales team; two sub-projects that each delivered cleanly on their own
Our role
End-to-end process analysis, optimization and project management together with the existing ERP consultancy – including building it ourselves
In one sentence
Money was saved in one place. The process as a whole paid for it.
What we run into regularly in pharma and life sciences.
Not technology gaps – there are few of those. Rather breaks between systems, roles and sites, where Excel settles in as the filler.
Standard at the top, Excel at the bottom
The ERP stays standard because customizing is expensive. The gap that creates is filled by each department itself – with a spreadsheet nobody knows about that nevertheless becomes business-critical.
Devices chosen without the process
Field sales gets tablets, the lab gets terminals, production gets handhelds. Whether the applications on them can actually be operated in the real workflow is checked by nobody before rollout.
Acceptance testing at a desk
Testing happens where everything works: in the test system, in the office, with tidy sample data. Not in the pharmacy, not at goods-in, not in the lab wearing gloves.
Double entry as the normal state
Values are read off a device, noted on a sheet and transferred into the system later. Every transfer is a source of error – and in regulated areas, one you have to justify.
Reporting nobody can produce
The data exists, but spread across ERP, LIMS, spreadsheets and folders. Anyone wanting to answer a question across sites or batches assembles the answer by hand.
No owner for the whole chain
Every sub-project has someone accountable. The process from beginning to end has nobody – and that is exactly where the problems appear that none of the participants caused.
What we build for pharma and life sciences.
Concrete use cases. The first card describes the project pattern set out above – the rest show what grows on the same foundation.
“As a field rep I want to find the right pharmacy on my iPad in seconds.”
A lean interface in front of the existing ordering portal: search by customer number, name and location, enter the order, hand it over to SAP. The core system stays standard – usability sits in front of it.
Read the project example“As a field rep I do not want to keep my own customer list in Excel.”
When people maintain their own spreadsheets, the system is missing a function – the person is not lacking discipline. We put exactly that function where it is needed, and the spreadsheet disappears of its own accord.
Excel modernization“As a QA officer I want to record inspection results directly instead of typing them up.”
Capture at the point of work, with mandatory fields, plausibility checks and a traceable history – instead of filling in a sheet and transferring it later.
Manufacturing & Industry“As a lab manager I want to analyse results without copying spreadsheets together.”
A reporting front end over the data sources you already have – LIMS, ERP, measurement systems – that answers the questions people actually ask.
“As supply chain I want to trace batches across sites.”
A front end that brings the existing data together and shows traceability in one view, instead of reconstructing it from three systems.
“As a project lead I want somebody to own the whole chain.”
We take on the steering between the business, IT and the ERP consultancy – with a brief to judge the process end to end rather than sign off sub-projects.
ERP project managementHow we work alongside your ERP consultancy.
The most common worry in constellations like this is that another supplier will fray responsibility even further. That is why our role is cut clearly before we start.
- We do not replace the ERP consultancy – Whoever has looked after your SAP or your Business Central for years knows it better than we will after eight weeks. We do not attack that role – we work with it and supply what it structurally lacks: the view from outside the system.
- We represent the business, not the system – Our assessment starts with the people who carry out the process every day – in the field, in the lab, at goods-in. If it cannot be operated there, it counts as a defect, even if everything was green in the test system.
- We test where the work happens – A live test, for us, means the real device, at the real place, with a real task. Enter an order in the pharmacy, fill in a record in the lab. Two hours of that reveal more than a fortnight of acceptance testing.
- We deliver decisions, not just reports – An analysis paper that then has to go out to tender helps nobody. We say what needs doing, prioritize by impact and effort – and implement the part we can implement.
- We write the code ourselves – Where a lean application belongs in front of the core system, we build it. That shortens the route from insight to effect considerably and stops a good analysis disappearing into a backlog.
- We say what should not be built – Some requirements vanish as soon as the process is cleaned up. We flag those cases actively – even when they shrink our own scope of work.
Typical constellation
Corporate IT + external ERP consultancy + the business – and nobody accountable for the process as a whole
Our role
Process optimization, project management and delivery from one source – see IT project management
Systems
SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – integration through the existing interfaces, no rebuild of the core
Devices
iPads and tablets in the field, handhelds and terminals in production and the lab – mobile apps and web applications
What we take on in pharma projects.
Process, steering and delivery – the area we have worked in for years. Where a standard product covers your case, we say so rather than building custom what you can buy.
- End-to-end process analysis – Across roles, systems and sites – from the internal sales desk through the portal to the pharmacy or the lab.
- Project management and steering – Between the business side, IT and your existing ERP consultancy. We work alongside your advisers, not against them.
- Development – Apps and web applications for field sales, lab, QA and production – built for the device they are actually used on.
- Integration with SAP and Business Central – Through their interfaces, with no rebuild of the core system – which keeps approvals and upgrades straightforward.
- Replacing grown Excel and Access solutions – First understand what the file was built for, then replace it. The domain knowledge inside it is the real asset.
- Traceable capture – History and change tracking in the application, agreed with your QA function – so the software fits the way you already work.
Common questions from pharma and life sciences.
We already have an SAP consultancy. Why do we need you?
Usually not because of SAP – you have the right people for that. Rather because in large-scale projects there is often nobody accountable for the process from beginning to end. Every sub-project delivers cleanly, and yet somebody ends up standing in a pharmacy with an iPad, unable to work. We fill exactly that gap: analysis across everyone involved, steering between the business, IT and the consultancy – and delivery where a lean application helps faster than an ERP change.
Why not simply customize the SAP portal?
Sometimes that is precisely right, and then we say so. Often it is not: customizing in the core system costs money, ties up maintenance effort with every upgrade and takes time. A lean application in front of it, handing over to the core system through the existing interfaces, is frequently faster, cheaper and easier to change as the process evolves. Which route fits is decided by the process – not by a matter of principle.
What does a “live test on site” actually mean?
We come along. With the real device, to the real pharmacy, into the real lab, to the real goods-in bay – and we solve a real task there. It takes hours and regularly reveals more than weeks of acceptance testing, because the test system lacks exactly the conditions under which the application fails: time pressure, poor reception, gloves, and somebody waiting for you to finish.
Can you work in a regulated environment?
Yes, and in practice that is mostly a question of how we work: documented specifications, traceable changes, history and change tracking in the application, close coordination with your QA function. We build so that your review and release processes can work with the software rather than around it. Which formal evidence your organisation requires for that we clarify before the project starts – so it sits in the quote instead of surfacing late.
Our staff work with their own Excel lists. Is that a discipline problem?
Almost never. A private Excel list is a symptom: the system is missing a function that everyday work needs. In the case described above it was a simple search by customer number – present in the system, not findable for the person in front of it. So we look for those spreadsheets first and ask their users what they solve. It is the fastest map of the gaps in a company you will ever get.
Do you also do serialization and traceability?
We build the applications and reporting around it – capture interfaces, front ends for tracing across sites, interfaces to the systems where the data sits. The regulatory design and the connection to the verification systems provided for that purpose are owned by your own function together with the partners responsible for it. The same rule applies here: we build, we do not validate.
How quickly do we see an effect?
That depends on the scope. A process analysis with live tests and prioritized recommendations is typically available after a few weeks. A lean application in front of an existing portal is built considerably faster than most people expect – above all because we develop with AI assistance and actively keep the scope small. We give concrete timeframes after the first conversation, once we have seen the process.
Do you also work for smaller life science companies?
Yes, and often with the greatest leverage. Where there is no corporate IT apparatus, the Excel solutions are usually even more central to day-to-day business – and a lean web application changes noticeably more. The approach is the same, only the decision paths are shorter.
Where does your chain break?
When staff keep their own spreadsheets although a corporate ERP is running, that is not a discipline problem – it is a map. Show it to us, and we will say which point is worth tackling first.
End to end, not one leg of the journey.
Describe the process briefly and where it gets stuck – which system, which role, which device. You will get a first assessment of whether a customization, a lean application in front of it, or simply a process change is the right answer.
We usually reply within 24 hours.
Remote & on site – working across the DACH region (DE, AT, CH), with international project experience.
Read on.
ERP Project Management (SAP & BC)
Steering between the business, IT and the consultancy – on your side of the table.
Learn moreExcel & VBA Modernization
When a core process depends on a grown file nobody wants to touch any more.
Learn moreManufacturing & Industry
Digital job tickets, inspection records, shift handover – the same patterns in production.
Learn moreAdministration & Back Office
Current-state analysis, a deletion list and process consulting as a cross-industry topic.
Learn moreApp Development
Apps for field sales, the lab and production – iOS, Android and desktop.
Learn moreDigital Product Passport
What is coming regulatory-wise for manufacturing sectors – and what it exempts medicinal products from.
Learn more