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By using Qlik Sense and Board, operational and strategic decisions can be made in a data-driven, agile and targeted way. Simulations enable a quick reaction to market trends.

Jessica Muthweiler, Head of Business Intelligence, URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH

By using Qlik Sense and Board, operational and strategic decisions can be made in a data-driven, agile and targeted way. Simulations enable a quick reaction to market trends.

Jessica Muthweiler, Head of Business Intelligence, URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH
Case Study

Company-wide analytics: URSAPHARM relies on Qlik Sense

Agility as a success factor

Being able to operate successfully at all times, even in a rapidly changing environment, is a priority for the medium-sized pharmaceutical manufacturer URSAPHARM. Since its foundation in 1974, URSAPHARM has developed into an internationally operating group of companies with headquarters in Saarbrücken and over 700 employees worldwide. For many years, URSAPHARM has been one of the market leaders in the field of ophthalmology in Germany and other European countries. URSAPHARM’s ophthalmological products are complemented by products for general medical indications, such as allergy treatment, nasal health, enzyme therapy, and the supply of trace elements. With subsidiaries in France, Benelux, Austria, Poland and other countries, as well as cooperation agreements with distribution partners in over 80 countries, URSAPHARM has established itself as a global player over the past decades. URSAPHARM secures its market position not only through numerous innovative products but also through its self-perception as an agile medium-sized company that can quickly adapt to an ever-changing environment, especially to changing customer needs.

Agile thanks to information transparency

“This agility requires being able to make immediate operational decisions in all departments. The basis
for this is a solid database,” says Jessica Muthweiler, Head of Business Intelligence, URSAPHARM.
Arzneimittel GmbH. “For these requirements, we need a central BI software that can transparently organize and connect all relevant information from various departments and data sources.”

Overview

Customer
URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH

Branch
Pharmacy

Region
Saarbrücken, Germany

Function
Management, Production, Purchasing, Sales
Marketing, materials management, financial accounting

Business Value Drivers
360° customer management, integrated financial planning,
Production monitoring, set-up time optimization

Challenges

  • Replacing the Excel-based analysis of SAP data
  • Linking and processing data from different systems for various
    analysis requirements along the supply chain solution implementation of Qlik Sense as the central data
    analytics platform; implementation of the reporting solution Qlik NPrinting for automated report generation and distribution to different report recipients; implementation of BOARD as the planning frontend.

Outcomes

  • Central management of data from SAP and other systems, as well as external market data (sales data)
  • Insight gain for operational and strategic decisions through flexible linking and analysis of data from various source systems.

The success

Chatbot within production

The success

Company-wide reporting and planning system

URSAPHARM decided to use the Qlik Sense active intelligence platform. The decision was primarily driven by the easy implementation, straightforward usage, and flexible capabilities for analysis and report generation. In this context, a Data Warehouse ensures that all users access the same data source, following the concept of a Single Point of Truth. Within this Data Warehouse, SAP data and data from other systems are processed. In addition, external data flows into the data warehouse. The software is used company-wide. Applications are available for various departments, including production, materials management, and
sales. Management also benefits significantly from the improved information transparency, which enables faster, data-driven decisions.

“The aim was to integrate a system that met the requirements of the management, the business and department heads as well as the various departments,” says Jessica Muthweiler. “To ensure this, the various applications were designed with the relevant project teams. Based on this information, the transfer of the required data into the data warehouse was realized in cooperation with our IT service provider Transform8, and various applications were developed.”

Transform8 has been accompanying URSAPHARM in digital transformation projects for several years now and supports the company with wide technological know-how, comprehensive project experience and pioneering spirit, which results in innovative, customer-oriented solutions.

“Transform8 always stands out by not only mapping the status quo into a solution, but by thinking ahead and developing and implementing technological ideas that fit exactly with our business and our very ambitious BI strategy – from the technological data integration issue to the actual application,” reports Jessica Muthweiler.

Use of the chatbot

“Exactly from such a good strategic perspective on future developments and associated opportunities to steer the company even better, a Qlik-based chatbot for production, for example, was created,” says Jessica Muthweiler. The chatbot created by Transform8 sends selected information
from the production area directly via Microsoft Teams to defined recipients. Instead of starting Qlik
first and having to actively call up information, the employee, for example, receives information about the status of production directly on his
smartphone in order to be able to efficiently initiate further steps.

“Via the chatbot, the employees on the production lines are informed a lot better and more directly and can react faster,
which optimizes the entire production process,” explains Sabine Rott, Assistant Business Manager Technology /
Project Engineer.

Besides the chatbot, a classic Qlik application is also available for production.

360° customer view

Also for sales and marketing, Transform8 has used developmental foresight to provide more insight into
URSAPHARM: With the help of a comprehensive Qlik Sense application, customers can be
viewed. For this purpose, actual values from the various company divisions as well as external market data
are linked and made available in various applications, especially for sales and marketing in the form of sales and turnover reports as well as potential analysis in various levels of detail. URSAPHARM can, for example, match the sales of Hylo products with sales figures of competitors and the
population structure or regional purchasing power and visualise them graphically via maps to
gain insights for further marketing and sales strategies. “Qlik Sense helps us to better manage sales with informed decisions based on consistent data,” says Christian Krensel, Head of Marketing & Sales at URSAPHARM Arzneimittel.

Automated reporting

URSAPHARM uses the reporting solution Qlik NPrinting for automated report creation and distribution to different report recipients. This allows for the automated and customized generation of reports, which are then distributed according to defined schedules.

Planning with Qlik data

Qlik is also used in the planning context: the entire corporate planning is carried out using BOARD as a
planning tool. For the consistent provision of actual data in the planning process, Qlik is used as a reliable
data provision and receives its planning data in return from Board. Qlik is therefore indispensable for a daily updated plan/target/actual comparison at URSAPHARM.

Future

Due to the success and high acceptance, Jessica Muthweiler and her team are planning further process optimisation projects with Qlik Sense. The focus is on projects along the supply chain in order to optimise business processes in the best possible way.

The combination of Qlik and Board puts us in an excellent position to easily master current and future analytics and planning tasks. Thanks to our approach at URSAPHARM to always act as a team, we were able to build software that is used in all areas, has a high level of acceptance, and is used intensively. Qlik Sense serves as a decision-making tool for both operational and strategic decisions.

Jessica Muthweiler, Head of Business Intelligence, URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH

The combination of Qlik and Board puts us in an excellent position to easily master current and future analytics and planning tasks. Thanks to our approach at URSAPHARM to always act as a team, we were able to build software that is used in all areas, has a high level of acceptance, and is used intensively. Qlik Sense serves as a decision-making tool for both operational and strategic decisions.

Jessica Muthweiler, Head of Business Intelligence, URSAPHARM Arzneimittel GmbH

About Transform8

Transform8 GmbH is a specialized consultancy and solution provider for digital transformation in the BI environment. With technical and professional expertise as well as many years of experience, Transform8 supports its customers in making the modern working world simpler, more flexible and more transparent. The experts at Transform8 achieve this by providing holistic support to their clients as sparring partners from concept to implementation.

About Qlik

Qlik® has a vision: a data literate world where everyone can use data and analytics to make decisions
and solve complex problems. The Qlik Active Intelligence platform provides cloud-based, real-time end-to-end data integration and analysis. This closes the gaps between data, evidence and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, companies are able to make informed decisions, increase revenue and profitability, and improve customer relationships. Qlik operates in over 100 countries for more than 50,000 customers worldwide.
More information at qlik.com

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