The following is a summary of the information published by
Information Technology. (March, 2006, pages 26-28)
Laboratorios Richet has operated in the field of generic
drugs in Argentina for 42 years and currently has three business units: State
Biddings, Pharmacies and Drug Wholesalers Market and Sales to Health Facilities
and Hospitals. The company has a turnover of $36 million (Argentinian pesos),
employs 170 people, and 20% of its income comes from the domestic market.
In 2004 Richet decided to invest in the systems that
manage the business. The laboratory operated with BPCS from the SCA provider
since 1998. According to Cristian Alonso (Financial Manager), it was necessary
to hasten the change of systems, and an intense search was performed. "We
studied several alternatives, but GACI appeared as the most suitable: it was
installed in several companies of the industry and was as comprehensive as BPCS
in manufacturing, administration and dispatch, but with a more innovative
technology and at competitive prices."
At the time of making the decision, recalls Administration
Manager Alejandro Tassano, "we went the opposite way, visiting GACI users before
contacting the supplier, which gave us the peace of mind of choosing what we
thought to be best and not what was being sold to us".
"Implementation started in March 2004 and on July 1st we
were able to process the year with all the new modules, except the Production
module that was ready in November that year", says Tassano.
Among other difficulties, there were certain practices
that the people of Richet acknowledge as very personal. Alonso says "we have
highly consolidated work schemes and we had to adapt them to GACI so as not to
adapt the company to the system". Invoicing has many stages, which, according to
Tassano, resulted in a very heavy process with the old system. "For example, an
invoicing batch in BPCS took between one hour and one hour and a half, something
we now complete in five minutes."
In addition to the $130,000 that the company invested in
licenses, the project required $40,000 for
customization in order to comply with the business intelligence developed along
the years. According to Alonso the project "paid off right away". Partly because
current maintenance cost is one third of that of BPCS and partly because there
are savings from improved performance: employees used to work until the
following morning at 6 a.m. on closing days, while now the work is done in the
usual work schedule.
http://www.gaci.com.ar