Transforming the pharmaceutical industry with SAP S/4HANA public cloud

Digital transformation is being adopted as a strategic move for industries across sectors and the pharmaceutical / life sciences industry is no different. Fast-growing pharma manufacturing and distribution companies can achieve a competitive edge in the market when they dedicate resources and budget towards digital transformation. Realizing the benefits of cloud ERP technology depends on the company’s strategy; however, once a digital foundation is established, the power of advanced cloud technologies such as SAP S/4HANA can help pharma companies become data-driven, and achieve efficiency, innovation and scalability in business.

Benefits of intelligent automation

With dynamic changes seen in the pharma industry in the areas of research, drug and medical device development, sourcing, patient care and regulation, relying on legacy software can be counter-productive and may even lead to non-compliance issues. To keep pace with the changes, it becomes imperative for pharma companies to embrace pharma 4.0, using technologies such as AI, IoT, blockchain and so on to connect systems with patient requirements.

Pharma companies can take advantage of intelligent automation to achieve efficiency across all business functions – from keeping up with regulatory changes, improving production planning and processes in manufacturing of drugs and other (OTC) products or devices, improving supply chain and inventory management, logistics as well as delivery. Drug manufacturing and medical device companies can efficiently plan production and delivery of life-saving drugs and medical devices across the globe with the help of intelligent automation. Pharma companies can make use of predictive analytics to predict future trends in the market.

Challenges in the pharma industry

Volatile demand and supply: The pandemic caused a huge jolt to the pharma global supply chain – both towards suppliers and towards providers, hospitals, patients as well as wholesalers, disrupting the ability to forecast inventory and managing the supply.

Siloed legacy systems: Disconnected processes hinder operational productivity and collaboration, and ultimately hampers growth. This is why growth-oriented life sciences companies are looking to operate in a unified cloud environment that allows for integration of systems and data into a single source of truth.

Lack of visibility into business processes: Planning, procurement and distribution is increasingly complex in today’s global environment and with different regulations across countries, pharma companies find it difficult to navigate processes, especially in the absence of tracking and ability to predict and mitigate risks. The lack of visibility across all business processes makes it difficult for pharma companies to work efficiently and keep costs and risk under control.

Lack of visibility into data: Real-time data enables pharma companies to make timely and informed decisions, which is possible to obtain with cloud analytics. Seamless transfer of data across various operations and accurate reporting capabilities elevate pharma companies to maximize the benefits of technology-driven business transformation.

In addition to the above, in the absence of digitalization, pharma companies tend to face unique challenges in the areas of budgeting and finance, supplier management, inventory and logistics management, warehouse issues, spend management, regulatory compliance, data security, reporting and so on, and are not able to synchronise and cull data across these functions to make the most in terms of productivity, scalability and innovation.

The future of the pharma industry is in the cloud

The pharma / life sciences industry has undergone huge changes in the last couple of years. Patients today have more choices than ever before and the changes in patient demand have caused pharma / life sciences companies to question their business models and created the need to evolve with more patient-centric processes across research and development, production and delivery.

In the face of such changes, traditional back-office functions fail to deliver. Therefore, growth-focused, mid-size pharma companies have felt an increasing need to turn to technology, especially the cloud for traceability and visibility across all operations and increase collaboration across the ecosystem. Operational visibility is a must for pharma companies to maintain GMP (good manufacturing practices) compliance. Pharma / life sciences companies that leverage cloud technologies to improve productivity, innovate rapidly, and create new business models are poised to be leaders in their markets.

SAP ERP for pharmaceutical industry

As an organization, you may want to know how you can benefit from SAP ERP systems for pharma industry. World over, companies across industries are using SAP’s cloud ERP to efficiently conduct business operations, innovate and scale, and pharma industry is no different to this phenomenon. In fact, ninety five percent of the most innovative life sciences companies in the world run SAP solutions making SAP for pharmaceuticals a lucrative lever for growth.

SAP S/4HANA for pharma industry

Digital transformation is key to innovation whether it is pharma research and engineering, drug or medical device manufacturing, pharma distribution or any other related life sciences industry. In a digital era, pharma companies have realized the need to transform their business operations to deliver better patient care, customer satisfaction, control costs and stay competitive and better prepared for the future with new value-driven business models.

How can you leverage SAP S/4HANA for pharma companies? The answer starts with evaluating your business landscape and assessing how SAP S/4HANA public cloud can transform your company and improve profitability. With SAP S/4HANA public cloud, pharma companies like you can run with proven pharma industry best practices by applying pre-configured processes, build breakthroughs in business by reinventing business models, go live quickly, with confidence, and optimise business processes to achieve limitless growth.

With SAP S/4HANA public cloud, you can be rest assured of the benefits you see in terms of visibility and efficiency across all operations in your business, reduced costs, better planning and production management, better supply chain management, quality control, reduced risk, reporting insights for quick decision making, and improved opportunities for customer satisfaction. Most importantly, as an organisation you have the advantage of security, compliance and scalability.

At Exalogic Consulting, we have deep, collective industry experience in leading SAP pharma-based digital transformation. As your trusted SAP partner, we can collaborate with you to establish a cloud strategy for your pharma company and implement an SAP cloud ERP landscape perfectly suited to your business requirements. We can help you adopt cloud with speed, predictability and innovation. If you wish to know more, get in touch with us here.