21 February 2024
OCP Portugal: Centralises information with BI and increases competitiveness in the sector
OCP Portugal: Centralises information with BI and increases competitiveness in the sector
OCP markets and distributes pharmaceutical products throughout the national territory. With six distribution centres, it has more than 1900 customers, corresponding to around 2500 daily deliveries. After the 2008 financial crisis and legislative changes that occurred in the last decade and a half in the status of the drug, the pharmaceutical sector found a need to reinvent itself. The information has become an even more valuable asset for quick and accurate decision-making. The OCP Portugal has implemented processes that guarantee the collection, analytics and distribution of treated information within the organisation. To make the company more disruptive, efficient and competitive, OCP chose BI4ALL to implement a Data Analytics solution and, therefore, have this added accessible and accurate resource.
In the past, accessing information was slow, centralised and generated many inefficiencies. As such, the solution developed has become crucial for more agile decision-making and faster, more accurate and easier access to information.
“No wonder that the final solution is a success since it is aligned with the needs and expectations created and, mainly, it is an indispensable tool for the daily management of the business, providing the fast and reliable obtaining of management reports and indicators”, recognises António Sá, Information Systems Director.
The Company
The OCP Portugal is an organisation that commercialises and distributes pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, perfumery, dietetics, natural medicine, medical devices, pharmacy accessories and related raw materials.
With headquarters and administration located in the city of Maia, the OCP Portugal results from the integration of ten companies in the pharmaceutical distribution sector, combining national experience with the international knowledge of the group of which it has been part since 1991, McKesson Europe, is fully managed by a Portuguese team.
As a link between the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacies, it distributes 21,000 product references, thus playing a crucial role in guaranteeing access to medicines and healthcare.
The Challenge
In addition to the growing need for reporting and analytics for internal consumption and sending it to the McKesson group, the transformation from the traditional model to new business models, which occurred after the 2008 financial crisis and legislative changes, forced to store, process and obtain insights from the several data, including management indicators, what did not happen before.
Consequently, there was a need to have the information available and previously processed in a single data repository and streamline access to data in a simple, dynamic and flexible way through Data Analytics tools.
Thus, in the solution implementation, the IT, Sales, Customer Service, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Finance and Controlling departments were involved as key users in each area from the first minute. Users’ commitment to the final solution’s development was constant throughout the project, making the solution successful and essential for management, as it is aligned with the created needs and expectations.
Before the Data Analytics solution, when it was necessary to develop reports and listings, they were ordered from the IT department on a case-by-case and ad-hoc basis, making the business dependent on their availability to extract information from their backend systems. It was, therefore, a lengthy process, unreliable and generating many inefficiencies.
António Sá states that the main challenge was “implementing a decision support system with reliable, true and updated information that would allow the business total autonomy in consultation, extraction and handling, reducing or even eliminating the dependence on the IT team”.
More efficient, agile and reliable decision-making
The OCP Portugal was equipped with a tool that assists its decision-makers in making strategic, management and operational decisions. The solution responds to the requirements of the different organisational levels, providing the teams with reporting mechanisms and indicators that are indispensable to the current commercial relationship with their partners.
As the pharmaceutical sector is demanding and competitive, António Sá says that knowledge in data analytics and how to architect a Business Intelligence system that brings competitive advantages to the organisation are the strengths of this type of partnership. “The experience we had in implementing the Data Analytics project with the help of BI4ALL was very positive, so I recommend its services to other organisations. The knowledge they bring from the world of Data Analytics allowed OCP Portugal to evolve in information management models and grow in the business’s technological knowledge”.
Technological solutions have enabled several teams in the field to implement operating models consistent with the information needs of their customers and partners, providing gains in competitiveness and autonomy that have not existed to date. With the implemented solution, measuring multiple processes in the organisation was also possible, increasing productivity gains and reducing inefficiencies resulting from some operational tasks.
Advantages for the whole organisation
The benefits obtained by the implemented Data Analytics solution were several and brought an increase in competitiveness, efficiency and profitability for the whole company.
There was also a need to provide the customer with reliable, updated online information. “If until a while ago this was a competitive advantage, today the client’s access to classified, treated and grouped information exciting in our internal systems and relevant to the client’s business is a commodity without which the partnership would no longer materialise, certainly, likewise.
This logic given to the end customer is equally reflected in the employees of OCP Portugal. These are the first consumers of the information generated by the developed solution. Without this tool, the involvement and commitment of our customers and, as a consequence, the company’s financial results would be affected”, declares António Sá.
For this reason, the balance is positive: “BI4ALL, as aware of the best management practices of this type of project, of the technology to be applied, aligned with strong management of expectations and projects on the side of OCP Portugal, contributed to the final result of the equation to be positive and encouraging, with applicability in future projects”.
The Future
Regarding the future, the Information Systems Director said they intend to continue reinforcing the existing solution and evolving to other areas of the organisation. Furthermore, artificial intelligence and machine learning are currently evaluated on detailed organisational topics.
Therefore, BI4ALL has a crucial role in defining and clarifying the analytics roadmap in the organisation since the company knows OCP, the people, the systems and everything they want to achieve with better information management. “BI4ALL’s role is critical insofar as it manages to bridge the gap between business and technology, providing us with the construction of solutions that enhance the value creation for OCP Portugal”, mentions António Sá, who believes that working with an organisation specialised in Data Analytics like BI4ALL, allowed understanding the needs, challenges and problems, to develop a solution adapted to the organisation.
Testimonials
"Working with BI4ALL decision-makers, technicians and specialists, was very easy, motivating and, mainly, intellectually enriching, both for the IT team at OCP Portugal and for the project's key users. In a nutshell, they made it possible to achieve the proposed objectives, with reduced worry, always keeping users' expectations inline."
António Sá
Information Systems Director
"The experience we had in implementing the Data Analytics project with the help of BI4ALL was very positive, so I recommend its services to other organizations. The knowledge they bring from the world of Data Analytics has allowed OCP Portugal to evolve in information management models and to grow in technological knowledge of the business itself."
António Sá
Information Systems Director
