Merial improves organisational health with adoption of Microsoft Great Plains

Merial is the world leader in animal health, producing a wide range of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to keep livestock and pets healthy and productive. They have 17 research centres and many additional world-wide sales and distribution locations. Almost all of their locations were using different financial or ERP systems, including seven in Asia-Pacific alone, creating a substantial MIS workload and causing difficulties in consolidating group data. Merial decided that they should select a single ERP solution that could be used in all of their global sites. They selected Microsoft Business Solutions—Great Plains because of its scalability, fast implementation, cost-effectiveness and unsurpassed reporting capabilities.

Merial is the world leader in animal health, producing a wide range of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to keep livestock and pets healthy and productive. An innovation-driven leader, Merial has one of the highest R&D investments in the animal health industry with 17 research centres around the world.

Founded in August 1997 through the merger of the animal health businesses of Merck and Co., Inc. and Aventis S.A., Merial has operations in US, France, Latin America and Asia. The company employs approximately 6,000 people, operates in more than 150 countries and had sales of more than US$1.6 billion in 2001.

Merial and its shareholder companies have operated in Asia Pacific for more than 20 years. Merial Asia, is the regional headquarters in Singapore, and is responsible for IS operations in Greater China, the rest of Asia, and Australasia. Before Merial came into being, its predecessors in different countries used a variety of IT systems. When Merial was formed in 1997, its management decided that a common ERP platform would increase business efficiency. Microsoft Business Solutions—Great Plains was chosen to provide that platform.

Wanted: A common ERP platform
Diversity in culture, language, business practices and other areas are desirable in a multinational corporation. But definitely not in Information Technology. “In Asia Pacific alone, for the finance function, Japan was using a homegrown AS/400- based system, Korea was riding piggyback on one of the parents’ PC-based IT system, China was using a PC-based international package, Taiwan was using a PCbased local package, the Philippines had an AS400-based international package, Singapore used a PC-based international package, and Australia and New Zealand were running an expensive international package on the AS/400,” recalls James Sua, Senior IS Director, Asia Pacific.

“It didn’t make sense to carry on that way. It was expensive to operate so many diverse systems, consolidation of information was cumbersome, and we couldn’t borrow IT systems forever. We are run as an independent entity, separate from our shareholders, with our management team and our own financial structure.



So we decided that, in order to unify our business and information structure, a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system was essential.”

The Australia and New Zealand offices took the initiative to look for a suitable ERP solution and evaluated some internationally known packages operating on both the mid range computers and NT based servers. After careful consideration, Microsoft Business Solutions—Great Plains financial management solution emerged at the top of the list.

“In the end we decided on the Wintel (i.e. Microsoft-Intel) strategy. The technologies have proven to be robust, highly functional and reliable. In addition, standardising on Microsoft means using Intel-based servers, not the more expensive larger systems that the other solutions would require. Microsoft Great Plains also takes less time than the other systems to implement, and time was a luxury we did not have,” said Sua.

Implementation of Microsoft Great Plains began soon after, starting with Australia and New Zealand. Canada and the United Kingdom were next, followed by the countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and South Africa.

Microsoft Great Plains brings better business visibility
The use of Microsoft Business Solutions—Great Plains as a common platform across 22 of its trading entities has brought Merial a multitude of benefits. “We now have better visibility of the business: who our customers are, why they buy from us, when they buy, payment history, back orders, etc. When you have good visibility of your business, everything falls into place. It is now easier to integrate and report information from various countries for the purpose of consolidation, and the linkages to our global supply chain are seamless,” said Sua.

Not only that, but the adoption of Microsoft Great Plains as a common platform across the world has substantially reduced Merial’s IT management costs, including effortlessly upgrading Microsoft Great Plains several times over the past few years. Other benefits that Merial is deriving from its use of Microsoft Great Plains include the streamlined processes that Microsoft Great Plains has facilitated across Merial’s country operations, leading to higher efficiencies. Consolidation of data for financial roll-ups is easy and reports are available immediately now that every subsidiary uses common applications and formats.

Finally, subsequent Application integration is easy. For example, Merial plans to expand e-Commerce functionality from the existing five countries to eight within the next year and also to add other enterprise applications (manufacturing, distribution, business intelligence) to several of its Asia Pacific sites. With Microsoft Business Solutions—Great Plains, Merial expects the integration to be seamless.

Customer Profile
Merial is the world leader in animal health, producing a wide range of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to keep livestock and pets healthy and productive. They have 17 research centres and many additional world-wide sales and distribution locations.

Business Situation
Almost all of their locations were using different financial or ERP systems, including seven in Asia-Pacific alone, creating a substantial MIS workload and causing difficulties in consolidating group data.

Solution
Microsoft® Business Solutions—Great Plains®

• Sales Order Processing
• General Ledger
• Fixed Assets
• Receivables Management
• Payables Management
• Bank Reconciliation
• Bill of Materials
• Sales Order Processing
• Invoicing
• Inventory Management
• Integration with other enterprise applications

Benefits

• Business processes streamlined
• Now have a clear view of business
• Easy reporting and consolidation
• Strong linkage with global supply chain
• Quick implementation
• Cost-effectiveness
• Powerful reporting capabilities

Software and Services:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000

“We have a great partnership with Microsoft Business Solutions on a global level, and with its partner Eclipse Computing on a regional level. Together, we’ve journeyed from one country to another, shared our plans and ensured that they’re in sync. You can’t ask for better technology partners.”

“Microsoft Great Plains gives us a better visibility of the business: who our customers are, why they buy from us, when they buy, payment history, back orders, etc. When you have good visibility of your business, everything falls into place.”

James Sua, Senior IS Director, Asia Pacific, Merial Asia