B.Braun offices in several countries work with Microsoft Dynamics NAV

About the company

B.Braun is one of the leading providers of pharmaceutical and medical products, and specialized services in the healthcare sector. The company has offices in over 50 countries with more than 38 000 employees. The Bulgarian representative of B.Braun is a leader on the local healthcare market. Along the years the management realized that the software they were using could not meet the increasing company needs. They started to look for a new way to optimize the business processes within the organization. B.Braun Bulgaria has been working successfully with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, implemented and supported by Intelligent Systems. Consequently, due to the rich experience in the branch, Intelligent Systems has realized implementation projects in the B.Braun offices in Romania and Croatia as well.

The situation in Bulgaria

B.Braun Bulgaria was established four years ago in Sofia. Today, B.Braun Bulgaria is one of the leaders in the healthcare sector on the Bulgarian market. The company provides a wide range of high-quality medical products for anesthesia, intensive medicine, cardiology, extra corporeal blood treatment and surgery, as well as services for hospitals, general practitioners, and the homecare sector. Today B.Braun Bulgaria has more than 30 employees.

During the years the company has been developing very dynamically. The number of customers and distributors has increased, the range of products and services has extended, and business processes have become much more specific. The management realized that they need better warehouse organization and improved tracking of the expiration periods for all items. In 2006, they decided to implement a single integrated management system to ensure automated and synchronized processes, effective planning, control over all activities, and easy and fast reporting tools.

Solution

In the end of 2006, B.Braun Bulgaria invested in the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics NAV (known so far as NAVISION). The basic functionalities of Microsoft Dynamics NAV manage and control all company activities. The B.Braun management chose the Microsoft Gold Certified partner – Intelligent Systems – for its partner in the project.

For a short period of time were implemented the ERP modules Finance management, Sales, Purchasing, Warehouse and Service. Intelligent Systems’s team developed additional functionalities for warehouse management though mobile devices, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Benefits

After implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV, B.Braun Bulgaria now has:

• Standardized and efficient business processes
• Optimization of the purchases and inventory operations
• Easy tracking of items by lot and serial numbers
• Detail tracking of expiration periods and guarantee periods of medical products
• Optimized work of the warehouse employees
• Flexible pool data
• Easy documentation exchange among Microsoft Dynamics NAV and other software systems
• Improved communication among all departments
• Standard and specific reports and analysis

The situation in Romania

The B.Braun offices in Romania are also successful. In 2009, a new logistic center is built in order to meet the increasing needs on the regional market. One of the reasons for implementing an integrated business management system in the company was the need to control the complicated processes related to sales and purchases management in the new logistic center.

After a several meetings with representatives of local and foreign Microsoft Dynamics partners, the Romanian companies chose Intelligent Systems due to the recommendation of their colleagues from the Bulgarian office.

Solution

In May 2009, B.Braun Medical and S.C. B.Braun Avitum started a Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation project.

The implementation began with an upgrade to a newer version of the system and user training. Then, an implementation of warehouse management functionality was delivered. After the companies defined the necessary warehouse structure and the optimal processing of documents, a modification of the basic Microsoft Dynamics NAV functionality was also made.

Intelligent Systems developed new functionalities which improve the item organization in the warehouse, administrate the routings in one destination, and tracking of the customer orders from their registering to their expedition. An additional functionality for grouping customer orders in different vehicles and selecting relevant driver is also developed. The pick-up and put-away operations are optimized and require minimal effort from the warehouse workers.

After the warehouse module implementation, began integration of the mobile functionality of the system. Intelligent Systems developed several functionalities to manage the following processes:

• Receiving and picking of items, grouping them in warehouse pick requests
• Transfer among warehouse bins
• Optimization of the routing according to the used machines
• Follow-up control after the item grouping by customer orders and before their shipping
• Registration of returned invoices with the signature of the customer
• Checking of the physical inventory in the warehouse

After Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation in the Romanian companies, Intelligent Systems deployed an extra functionality for the dialysis centers administration in S.C. Avitum. The functionality supports a patient card with a full history of the medical procedures and specific medical parameters. The card also stores data for the used pharmaceutical and medical products during any procedure. Intelligent Systems developed also a specific functionality which fill in protocols related to the specific procedures and automatically pick up the medical products from the warehouse. The basic functionality for inventory planning according to the requirements to the dialysis centers was modified as well.

Benefits

Along with the benefits in the sales, purchasing and financial management, in the offices of B.Braun Romania there are some specific improvements and benefits – developing and administrating one of the biggest logistic centers in Eastern Europe, optimizing the inventory, and integration with mobile devices. Due to the developed modifications, the companies now have an effective resource planning, appropriate monitoring tools, and specific reports. After the Microsoft Dynamics implementation, the whole work process is much more organized and effective, and some of the company’s major costs are reduced too.

The situation in Croatia

In 2009, the Croatian office of the B.Braun company – B.Braun Adria – were also researching the opportunities for implementation of ERP system and choosing an appropriate partner for the project. Having an excellent feedback from the Bulgarian and Romanian offices, the company arranged a meeting with Intelligent Systems. In October 2009, Intelligent Systems started implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV in B.Braun Adria.

“Based on our experience from the projects in Bulgaria and Romania and our expertise in the branch, we developed a global solution, which can be used in future implementations in other countries with localization features according to the local legacy requirements. Our main purpose for developing this solution is the faster and more effective implementation process but at the same time it saves time and costs for the customer. The global solution meets the requirements of the headquarters considering the reporting analysis.”

Elena Laleva, Managing Director, Intelligent Systems

Solution

Following the proven implementation methodology, used in the Bulgarian and Romanian offices, the first thing to be done in B.Braun Croatia was the analysis of the local requirements and the user training. After that, Intelligent Systems transferred data from the previous software system into Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The system implementation in B.Braun Adria was done through the developed global solution.

For two months the modules: Financial management, Sales, Purchasing, Warehouse, and Service have been implemented. Among the additional functionalities, deployed by Intelligent Systems, is a modification of the VAT functionality.

Benefits

The benefits from Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation are mainly related to the reports’ optimization, tracking the salespersons’ productivity; specific reports to the headquarters, and insight overview and control over all business processes.