The Customer
Headquartered in New York, Combe is a consumer pharmaceuticals company with operations around the world.
The Challenge
Combe selected an ERP system to consolidate its global operations and first implemented in Australia. This implementation followed a fairly typical ‘waterfall’ approach, which took 18 months and did not fulfill expectations. Combe wanted a partner that would help to deliver a more effective deployment for their UK operation.
The Solution
Combe UK has very few employees with complex processes because it operates a ‘virtual business’, with manufacturing, distribution and selling outsourced to third parties. A traditional deployment would therefore place huge pressure on the staff, so the company opted for the CBO Rapid Deployment methodology.
Combe had complex financial requirements, including the consolidation of its German business with the UK and then upwards to Combe International. Multiple ledgers were required across multiple currencies and legislations, with a completely different ledger for the corporate consolidation requirement. With budgeting a key concern, it was recognised that Combe would need to make extensive use of advanced features to achieve the robustness it required.
Our Rapid Deployment approach has some key fundamentals:
- Model end-to-end business processes to achieve value enhancement
- Replace core business systems in the first phase as rapidly as possible
- Reap the benefits of process and system improvement
- Expand the use of the system funded by the initial benefit realisation
By working in this way, Combe’s seven members of staff achieved a cutover to the new ERP system in five months, covering all aspects of their core processes.
Phase two of the overall project involved the full integration of the ERP system with a 3PL distribution company, as well as the corporate implementation of a budgeting and financial planning system. Phase two also included several reporting and process improvement steps.
