One of West Africa’s largest medicines producers chose SAP S/4HANA to change its operations and develop a strong and integrated system enabling real-time decision-making, with all eyes on the pharmaceutical sector to give support and drive medicines innovation amidst a worldwide epidemic.
Meeta Shah, Finance and Supply Chain Director of Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited, states, “We embarked on a process of digital transformation of our finance, sourcing and procurement, manufacturing, sales, supply chain, and asset management operations.” “We were able to successfully transform our business in just 26 weeks using the SAP Activate methodology and the technical support of our implementation partner.”
Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited (Swipha) is a well-known pharmaceutical firm that was established in 1976 with the objective of developing and marketing high-quality drugs for Nigeria and West Africa. Servier, a French pharmaceutical business, bought Swipha in 2017 to expand its product offerings to Nigerians. The company is based in Lagos, Nigeria, and employs 320 employees.
Shah and her team collaborated with Serve Consulting on a large-scale digital transformation project known as ‘LEAPSWIPHA,’ which stands for ‘Lead by Improving Efficiency, Accountability, and Productivity at Swipha.’
“With the successful go-live of our first 36 consumers in October 2020, our project began in May 2020 and ended in October 2020. The requirement for real-time information for improved decision-making, as well as the need to save time by avoiding duplication of efforts and activities across numerous business processes, were central to our goals.”
Swipha selected SAP’s flagship S/4HANA platform to automate and integrate all finance, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain, and asset management modules and processes, resulting in increased accountability and efficiency. “We strengthened our overall controls by properly defining and restricting roles, including procedures and approvals, as well as increasing confidence in our data through quality data gathering and delivery.”
For businesses hoping to reap the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digitization of essential business activities is a primary concern. In a poll conducted in 2019, 93 percent of pharmaceutical producers responded that digitization is a top goal.
With the invaluable assistance of quality assurance project manager Chris Orilogbon, the implementation team followed strict adherence to SAP S/4HANA best practises during the deployment, and a combined effort involving parallel activities across various aspects of the implementation ensured timely and on-budget delivery.
“We appreciated the Swipha management team’s active and consistent involvement, which was guided by a realistic plan and budget,” Shah says. “By emphasising stakeholder participation throughout the process, we could ensure a successful rollout.”
Swipha now has more real-time access to business-critical data since go-live, allowing for better business decision-making. “By capturing data at the source, we were able to avoid duplication of activities throughout our operations, providing us a single version of truth.” Our integrated, efficient system has enhanced our business operations, saving us about 84 percent on man hours across all of our activities.”
Swipha has taken a big stride toward intelligent enterprise capabilities, according to Titilayo Adewumi, SAP’s Regional Sales Director for West Africa. “Successful modern organisations leverage technology to automate procedures and free up valuable internal resources for higher-value work, all while increasing visibility throughout the business’ operations.” Swipha is well positioned to capitalise on its reputation as a premier pharmaceutical company in West Africa, following its highly successful corporate transformation.”
