SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

Trulife: Healthcare Products Manufacturer Reaps Healthy Benefits with SAP® Business One

Partner

SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

Executive overview

Company

Vision

Why SAP

Solution

Benefits

CompanyTrulife Group Limited

IndustryHealthcare

Products and ServicesOrthopedics, prosthetics, breastcare, and pressurecare

Web Sitewww.trulife.com

SAP® Solutions SAP® Business One application

Partner Intelligent Information Systems

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When healthcare products manufacturer Trulife Group Limited expanded its company through several acquisitions, it found silos of operational isolation supported by dedicated software systems throughout its new organization. Trulife management called on Intelligent Information Systems and the SAPÈ Business One application to rationalize the IT landscape, with remarkable success.

Executive overview

Company

Vision

Why SAP

Solution

Benefits

3

SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

Trulife Group Limited is a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of healthcare products spanning breastcare, orthopedics, prosthetics, and pressure-care. Established in Detroit in 1958, the Trulife group has been under Irish ownership since 1980 and was acquired by its current CEO, Noel J. Murphy, in 1987. Trulife has acquired four additional businesses since 2004, which have widened its range substantially and taken it into new areas of healthcare provision. With headquarters in Dublin, it operates wholly owned manufacturing, R & D, and marketing sub-sidiaries in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. The company currently employs over 600 people. It has enjoyed five years of steady growth; its revenues in 2010 were US$80 million.

Trulife has now established a worldwide presence, with thousands of product lines and brand names that are recognized across the globe, and a reputa-tion for both product and service excellence. A major supplier to the national health systems of the United Kingdom and Ireland and distributing internationally through a network of 300 organizations in over 80 countries, Trulife is a thriving, innovative business that helps people live more fulfilled lives.

Life-enhancing products, steady growth

“Our employees are mindful that to our customers this isn’t just another product, it’s something that’s life enhancing. We’re fully committed to delivering the very best service to our customers.” Martin Ryan, Sales Director, Ireland, Trulife Group Limited

Executive overview

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Why SAP

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SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

Ultimately, what determines the success of a busi-ness like Trulife’s is the customer experience. It’s not enough just to have innovative and high-quality products; Trulife also has to deliver great customer service. In Trulife’s case the customer experience encompasses patients, clinicians, and distributors.

After Trulife acquired companies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it quickly became apparent that if the company was to maintain and improve the all-important customer experience, there would have to be considerable improvement in its com-mercial and operational performance. At that time, the newly acquired companies were using siloed systems, with different solutions for finance, manu-facturing, ordering, inventory, and warehousing. Communication both internally and with external partners was inconsistent at best.

In addition, there was no means of tracking orders as they moved through the process. And while it is criti-cal for an operations department to get accurate and timely information in order to plan production from supply chain to delivery, that information was lacking across company operating groups.

IT integration would go a long way toward improving these situations. Trulife embarked on a search for the appropriate software solution to meet its needs. Ultimately, the company managers selected the SAP Business One application and called on Intelligent Information Systems (IIS) to assist them with the implementation.

An end to the silo syndrome

“It’s really important to ensure the system is right for you. IIS helped us adapt SAP Business One to our needs.” James Collier, Financial Controller, UK, Trulife Group Limited

Executive overview

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Vision

Why SAP

Solution

Benefits

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SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

Run an entire business on SAP Business One SAP Business One includes all the processes needed to run Trulife’s entire business. Unlike niche solutions, it provides complete business manage-ment functions covering financials, sales, custom-ers, inventory, and operations. And because it is designed specifically for small businesses, it can be installed quickly; IIS deployed the first phase of SAP Business One in Trulife Ireland in three months and in Trulife UK in eight weeks.

Management finds the software straightforward to maintain and use. “SAP Business One strikes the right balance for a company like ours,” says James Collier, financial controller for Trulife UK. “It turns raw data into usable information that puts me firmly in control and enables me to be more proactive.” Collier notes that even though Trulife is a very customer-focused company, it’s also fiercely commercial; the company doesn’t just provide monthly accounts but also daily summaries to keep management com-pletely current with important developments as they happen.

SAP Business One includes all the processes needed to run Trulife’s entire business. Unlike niche solutions, it provides complete business manage-ment functions covering financials, sales, custom-ers, inventory, and operations. And because it is designed specifically for small businesses, it can be installed quickly; IIS deployed the first phase of SAP Business One in Trulife Ireland in three months and in Trulife UK in eight weeks.

Management finds the software straightforward to maintain and use. “SAP Business One strikes the right balance for a company like ours,” says James Collier, financial controller for Trulife UK. “It turns raw data into usable information that puts me firmly in control and enables me to be more proactive.” Collier notes that even though Trulife is a very customer-focused company, it’s also fiercely commercial; the company doesn’t just provide monthly accounts but also daily summaries to keep management com-pletely current with important developments as they happen.

Executive overview

Company

Vision

Why SAP

Solution

Benefits

6

SAP Customer Success Story | Healthcare | Trulife

“In Ireland, SAP Business One has enabled us to combine business operations so that we can run a manufacturing operation, an export distributor business, and a domestic customer base on one uni-fied package,” says Olive Gunning, group operations director at Trulife. “This gives us the ability to inte-grate our entire customer ordering process and have clear visibility on inventory management, combined with purchase planning.”

In the United Kingdom, Trulife deals to some extent in one-off custom products. This makes track-and-trace functionality critical, not only to the company but also to its customers. “Customers can now see exactly where in the process their order is, and this allows healthcare professionals to plan patient appointments more accurately,” says Gunning. “This not only helps them optimize their time but also means patients aren’t being inconvenienced.”

Integrated ordering process with clear visibility into inventory

Executive overview

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Why SAP

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A reputation for product and service excellenceSAP Business One has delivered greater operational efficiency, with an attendant reduction in time to delivery. The result for Trulife is enhanced customer satisfaction and a faster order-to-delivery cycle.

“We’re now able to do far more in-depth analysis than before we started working with IIS,” says Cormac Dowling, financial controller for Trulife in Ireland. “Nothing stands still, not our business and not what we’re doing with SAP Business One. IIS is helping us to evolve how we use it. In fact, one of the great strengths of the system is its flexibility and how easy it is to build on over time.”

Dowling adds, “In my previous company it could take me half an hour to drill down into some of this data. The ease of use and speed are incredibly impor-tant to a business like Trulife. With SAP Business One we’ve reduced the time taken to produce the accounts from six days down to two and a half.”

“IIS has helped us take the business to the next level,” says Collier. “Using SAP Business One and IIS has empowered us to improve the level of service we can offer, and as a result we’re seeing new busi-ness due to our reputation for product and service excellence.”

“In our business it is crucial to quickly deliver the reports staff require to help them make better business decisions. That’s the biggest benefit we’ve gotten from implementing SAP Business One.” Cormac Dowling, Financial Controller, Ireland, Trulife Group Limited