Sydney. Australia — Sphere Healthcare, a leading Australian pharmaceutical contract manufacturer has chosen SAP through Gold Channel Partner Extend Technologies, as its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system moving into 2009.
Sphere Healthcare conducted a competitive ERP bid between three high profile solutions, from tier one and tier two IT vendors, with the final decision being SAP’s Pharmaceuticals Best Practices solution.
According to Michael Power, Company Secretary, Sphere Healthcare, “we were looking for a system that would bring about organisational change, not just carry out transactional duties.”
“We chose SAP for a number of reasons, the main ones being solution fit and scalability to grow our business and with our business. We aim to increase exports this year and we must control costs effectively to remain competitive,” said Mr Power.
“SAP paired us up with Gold Channel Partner, Extend Technologies during our investigation phase due to their experience with Pharmaceutical companies such as Device Technologies and iNova,” said Mr Power.
“Extend Technologies had a lot to do with our decision, while the SAP software is world class and has more than 30 years committed industry knowledge, it was Extend’s customer credibility, attitude and approach to the project that pushed SAP as our first choice,” said Gary Smith, CFO, Sphere Healthcare.
Sphere is a large-scale Australian contract manufacturer of complementary healthcare products and the largest soft gel manufacturer in Australia. Manufacturing over 4,000 products they provide local and international clients with a wide range of market-ready products including contemporary vitamin, mineral, other nutraceutical ingredients and herbal formulations.
Sphere Healthcare will be replacing a 6 year old in-house built legacy application with SAP Pharmaceuticals. Using the SAP Best Practices, pre-configured, template solution, the implementation is estimated to take 6 months, with Go-live set for May 2009. Sphere is projecting significant improvements in operating cost and delivery capability as a result of the implementation.
The SAP ERP solution will ensure compliance with TGA cGMP Guidelines, 21CFR Part 11 and other relevant Australian Government regulations.
In addition Sphere Healthcare expects the following benefits from their new ERP; streamlining of R&D administration, effective regulatory compliance and risk reduction, improved operational excellence, enhanced market responsiveness and informed go-to-market strategies.
