Product category:
Enterprise Resource Planning software (ERP)
News Release from: Microsoft Dynamics | Subject: Axapta
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 February 2004
Medical distributor chooses Axapta
Medical distributor chooses Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta for flexibility and growth
Actamed is a medical distribution company based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire Many of the company's products can be found in hospital Operating Theatres, Intensive Care and Accident and Emergency Units
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Feb 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
IT services operator takes up Microsoft agency
Microsoft Business Solutions has announced that Steria, a leading European IT services operator, has become an authorised Axapta channel partner in the UK.
IT partner signed up as reseller
Microsoft Business Solutions has announced that it has signed up leading IT solutions supplier, gedas UK, as a partner for its Axapta reseller channel.
Actamed's main customer is the National Health Service, but it also supplies to large private hospital groups.
Its product portfolio includes surgical instruments, surgical implants, haemostatic agents and fluid absorption.
However, the company's biggest success to date is in-patient and fluid warming therapy and temperature management.
Further reading
Leam manufacturing modules developed
eBECS, a leading Microsoft Business Solutions' partner, has developed a complete series of Lean Manufacturing modules designed to complement and enhance the functionality of Microsoft's Axapta.
New interface between Microsoft Axapta and FRx
A new interface between Microsoft Axapta and Microsoft FRx enables
easier reporting options and business intelligence capability, by
creating regular or on-demand reports
Toolkit to speed implementation,reduce costs
Wizard-based configuration and system setup tool will significantly reduce implementation times and total cost of ownership for customers of Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta.
First established in 1990, Actamed currently employs around 50 staff at its Wakefield premises, and has a turnover of just under 10 million pounds.
Because the business has consistently grown by more than 20% each year for a number of years, it had begun to outgrow the functionality and capacity of its business software.
With the additional need to look ahead to increasing trends such as e-commerce, Actamed realised it would need to source a more scaleable, flexible and e-focused software package.
After much research into the most appropriate solutions on the market, Actamed chose Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta, supplied by reseller Sense Enterprise Solutions.
"The more we expanded as a company the more we realised we needed software that was flexible enough to grow as we grew," explained Andrew Bolton, Actamed's Finance Director.
"We also wanted a package that could supply accurate, up-to-date information more easily.
Over half of our employees are involved in sales and we increasingly needed to disperse real-time information into the field." One of the main problems of Actamed's previous software was that it didn't run on a SQL server.
"This meant data across departments wasn't fully integrated," said Bolton.
"We needed one database that could be used by everybody - customers, suppliers and our own employees.
We had a lot of information in different 'pots' that couldn't communicate with each another, and this was becoming very inconvenient in terms of wasted time and lack of overall efficiency." Solution.
The changeover to Microsoft Axapta was a big step forward for Actamed.
"We didn't just move a couple of rungs up the ladder, we scaled several at once - and it took us a while to adjust our mindset to such a powerful piece of software," said Bolton.
He continued: "We made a considerable investment in SQL database hardware as well, but we felt the outlay was important for ongoing growth, and in order for us to keep up with impending market trends.
We also wanted a system that would provide us with continuous benefits for at least five years, which is as far as you dare look in the IT world these days.
With Microsoft Axapta there is also lots of scope to add new modules as and when required, rather than having to look to replace the whole system.
That will be a big plus for us as we add functionality." Simon Buxton of Sense Computers agrees.
"Microsoft Axapta's key benefits are its scope of potential functionality and overall flexibility.
Customers such as Actamed appreciate that the software can either provide whatever functionality they require straight after configuration or after some straightforward customisation.
Typical requests for additional functionality are answered by showing the user where the feature can be found." The implementation of Axapta at Actamed began in March 2001 and was completed early in May the same year.
During implementation Actamed would have liked to put in place a period of parallel running between Microsoft Axapta and its previous system.
However the old infrastructure couldn't run on the new Windows 2000 Server infrastructure.
Also, Actamed didn't have the space or capacity to allow the two systems to run side by side.
"So literally, on a Friday night we shut down the old system and a lot of people worked very hard over Friday, Saturday and Sunday to ensure Axapta worked on our machines when everybody turned up for work on Monday morning," said Bolton.
According to Buxton, the main challenges regarding the Actamed installation were logistical.
"Through its business reporting function, Microsoft Axapta has to ensure the portion of Actamed's sales figures that goes through a third party is fully and seamlessly visible in the sales information provided to the sales force.
This has been accomplished by pointing the built-in reports and the OLAP (online analytical processing) pivot tables to the combined sales data source, which contains direct sales information as well as sales information imported from an Excel template." Conclusion.
One of Microsoft Axapta's many benefits is the sales order entry function.
"For Actamed this is invaluable in matters concerning complex trade agreements, stock auto reservation and visibility of related information (customer information, open purchase orders, other reservations on stock, etc).
It also comfortably meets Actamed's exacting standards regarding sales order delivery by providing a high level of accuracy in terms of picking and despatch," said Buxton.
Bolton cites another key advantage as Microsoft Axapta's e-commerce functionality.
"We like to be proactive, and one of the key issues for us recently has been Tony Blair's directive stipulating that all government bodies should embrace e-commerce by 2005," he explained.
"We realised we needed a software solution that was able to be extremely flexible, up-to-date, and could move forward with e-commerce so we could offer an online ordering service as and when our customers started to move over to this technology.
The problem many government bodies have at the moment is lack of investment in IT equipment.
However a number of online procurement specialists are currently acting as intermediaries between suppliers such as ourselves and end customers such as the NHS.
"A sizeable amount of money would have to be put aside for, say, the NHS to develop the e-commerce side of its business.
However the online procurement specialists allow such customers to link to a number of suppliers and order goods electronically.
It isn't full-blown e-commerce as yet in the sense of our customers logging straight on to our Microsoft Axapta ordering system, but they can easily reach us via some of the intermediary sites.
Our products are included in online catalogues, and orders come to us via email.
Although Microsoft Axapta is fully capable of handling every sales procedure from receiving an order through to picking, packing and despatching the goods - even getting payment through with little clerical effort - it is mainly engaged in order-taking functions at the moment.
We plan to exploit the software's greater potential as more of our customers invest in state-of-the-art IT infrastructures and embrace full-blown e-commerce." Overall, the use of Microsoft Axapta at Actamed has improved and matured over time.
"The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) series, for example, is now being employed not just for contact management but also for quotations and sales figure reporting using OLAP," said Buxton.
"Due to the flexible design of the system it was easy for the OLAP cubes to make use of the combined figures for direct and indirect sales." In Andrew Bolton's view, Axapta is one of the most up-to-date and flexible ERP solutions on the market.
"We have developed a good working relationship with Sense and look forward to continuing to reap the benefits of the power of Microsoft Axapta.".
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