Sigma Pharmaceuticals Saved £70,000

Pharmaceutical distributor expects to see full return on investment within 12 months

Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc, the leading distributor and wholesaler of pharmaceutical products, has gone live with new document management software, implemented by Solarsoft Business Systems.

Sigma, an existing user of Solarsoft's ERP system, is forecasting that the addition of document management technology into its business will save the company as much as £70,000 with less paper printing being carried out and less time spent by staff having to retrieve information from physical filing systems. The document management software from Solarsoft is expected to achieve a full return on investment within 12 months.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals Plc is a distributor and wholesaler of pharmaceutical products based in Watford. Over the last few years the company has continually expanded, growing on average between 8-10% each year. This meant that the sheer volume of paperwork being printed every day was becoming impossible to control and the organisation recognised it needed a system to help manage the situation effectively.

Bharat Shah, Managing Director at Sigma Pharmaceuticals, comments, "The previous system we had in place involved printing thousands of orders each day, duplicating them and physically storing them. This took up a large amount of time and resources, particularly office space, and we realised that something had to be done. As our existing ERP system provider, we spoke to Solarsoft and they recommended a solution that could scan in all our paperwork and almost halve the office space needed for storage. Now pharmacies receive invoices via fax or email and we keep one copy rather than two for our records."

Shah continues, "By working with Solarsoft, we expect to see total savings of approximately £70,000. We have already saved at least £20,000 in printing costs alone. The system also provides considerable benefits for our customers as they are now in receipt of their invoices prior to delivery so they can see exactly what will be delivered. This enables us to provide a much higher level of service whilst allowing our customers to operate in a much 'greener' environment."

Sigma is also using Solarsoft's Dashboards technology to provide a clear, accurate and up-to-date view of company performance. Dashboards are a vital and cost-effective tool for Sigma, providing the business with clear and up-to-date management information on daily operations.

The software allows the company to summarise its activity and analyse business performance across various points of the year, where previously this had all been done on a manual basis and often provided inaccurate results.Shah concludes, "We have a superb working relationship with Solarsoft and as an existing ERP customer it made sense to extend our relationship with them by rolling out their document management and dashboard products, both of which can have a really positive impact on our business moving forward. We were extremely impressed with the speed and ease of implementation of the new products and this has already resulted in increased productivity and better, faster access to management information. Furthermore, we are very confident that over the coming months we will undoubtedly see further time and cost savings across the business. "