Case Study:
Roadmap for Streamlining 7 ERP Solutions
Problem:
A diverse pharmaceutical company — with a variety of homegrown and acquired businesses — was looking to streamline their ERP solutions from seven systems (four of which were separate SAP instances) into a single global template. This presented a number of challenges:
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Financial reporting was managed outside of any one ERP through a corporate reporting layer.
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There wasn’t a common tool for making business process improvements or meeting regulatory compliance.
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A lack of common data definitions, which meant data differences had to be managed into a reporting layer that integrated across ERPs.
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The landscape didn’t act as an enabler for enterprise-wide improvements or common functions like shared services.
The company recognized that there were tactical cost savings to be made in addressing this multi-tiered landscape, as well as strategic benefits. However, they also recognized their own historical lack of governance around ERP decisions, and the need to hire outside expertise to guide them in the process.
Solution:
Endeavor was brought on to help the company design a clear roadmap, focusing on creating high value synergies and foundational changes as quickly as possible. Endeavor began the project by performing a detailed review of the company’s current ERP environments, and developed a long-term ERP architecture (projected out 4-5 years) that would provide a realistic roadmap. This plan would allow the company to achieve their targets in both the very short term as well. The result was a very detailed analysis for all sites, systems, functions, gaps, and streamlining opportunities, as well as a plan to capitalize on them.
Benefit:
The client was pleased to see Endeavor do something that many other companies fail to: create an actionable plan and architecture with detailed, practical steps towards realizing quantifiable business benefits. This was by no means boilerplate or pie-in-the-sky, but rather the laying out of concrete benefits through interviews, workshops, and system and data analysis that allowed Endeavor to deliver a client-specific blueprint for success. This blueprint allowed the client to justify and finance large subsequent projects — several of which also leveraged Endeavor’s capabilities.