Client: DocMorris
Rethinking pharmacy, daring innovations, seeking dialogue – this success formula has made DocMorris the best-known pharmacy brand in Germany and at the same time the largest mail-order pharmacy in Europe. Since the company’s founding in 2000, the number of customers has been steadily increasing. Meanwhile, over four million people have ordered medications from DocMorris. As a pharmaceutical service provider, DocMorris develops and implements special chronic patient programs in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers. In 2016, the turnover amounted to 331 million euros. About 600 people work towards the success of DocMorris, a subsidiary of the Swiss Zur Rose Group AG based in Heerlen, Netherlands.
Initial Situation and Challenge
At the end of 2015, DocMorris faced the challenge of wanting to launch major growth initiatives during 2016 and beyond. This would have also affected the ordering processes and involved IT systems through increasing sales and product volume. Furthermore, the previously used procedure was highly characterized by manual activities in the purchasing area, and would lead to possible bottlenecks with increasing volume, especially in the area of mass processing of SAP orders.
DocMorris Logistics (Source: DocMorris, Tobias Zeit 2016)
Solution
digatus analyzed the affected processes and work steps, as well as the IT systems used for them. These included both the initial SAP ERP system, which is used by purchasing and connected planning units for capacity and volume planning, as well as connected follow-up systems and applications and the associated activities. Using the results of the analysis as a basis, digatus developed an independent, virtualized software appliance as a prototype, which automated relevant work steps while simultaneously improving transparency of individual processes and optimizing data security. After a two-month agile development operation and continuous improvement and optimization, the appliance was then successfully transferred to productive operation, and obsolete legacy systems and processes were shut down and archived.
“Stable and efficient purchasing processes are the key to ensuring our inventory, and thus the smooth supply of our more than 4 million satisfied customers. With the software appliance developed by digatus, we are now able to process our future order volume more successfully in time and with continuous quality and cost structure!”
Michael Veigel – DocMorris
Customer Benefits
In addition to reducing risks through manual misoperation and simplifying work steps, it is now ensured that all relevant orders are successfully delivered to the respective suppliers in an automated manner. Feedback generated in the process (both manual and automated) is reliably recorded and automatically assigned to the respective purchasing employee for presentation and possible further processing. The time and effort resources gained today can be used in the future to successfully process significantly larger volumes, thus enabling optimization and cost improvements within the organization!
Stephan Bals
He studied Business Administration with a focus on Management at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin. After completing his studies as a graduate in Business Administration, he began his career at Siemens AG in Munich.
Early in his career, he gained experience in various executive positions. Among other roles, he was responsible as managing director for medium-sized IT consulting and service companies, most recently Xiopia GmbH, as well as serving on the board of Allgeier IT Solutions AG. With the founding of digatus it group, he continued his career as a founder and entrepreneur. In early 2015, together with Felix Kirschner, he founded digatus it group AG with the goal of "building" a market-relevant IT service provider in Germany. His main focus within the digatus Group is in the areas of sales, growth management, and M&A. At the interfaces between business and IT, he is a sought-after mediator, sparring partner, and idea generator.
In addition to his role as CEO of digatus it group AG, he is involved entrepreneurially as a co-founder and investor, volunteers in various non-profit initiatives and associations, and serves as an advisory board member, senior advisor, and supervisory board member.
