Oracle’s JDE empowers the process and brings significant efficiency to drive business transformation for medical order management activities.
Meet one of the foremost players in the medical technology sector, operating across 75+ countries and catering to over 130 million patients annually. Despite its extensive reach, the client found it challenging to keep tabs on its orders. With an expanding business, the struggle increased due to limited process visibility and the absence of automation. Recognizing the urgency to enhance productivity, transparency, and business outcomes, the company embarked on a journey fueled by process mining. Their goal was to revolutionize their operations and achieve optimization. This is where Birlasoft's innovative solution, powered by Oracle JD Edwards, emerged as a game-changer to tackle their unique hurdles.
The primary hurdle was the lack of clear insight into vital aspects of the Surgery OTC (Order-to-Cash) process. Key components such as Order Fulfillment, Process Automation, and dependency on manual procedures posed challenges. The need to empower users, enhance Process Visibility, and integrate information seamlessly within existing processes became evident. Initial discussions revealed that reliance on manual tasks could potentially clog the Order-to-Cash flow.
The Challenge
1. Lack of Process Visibility
The client faced a substantial business challenge: a lack of visibility into their Order Management process in JDE (JD Edwards). The absence of seamless integration between throughput time and JDE posed a significant hurdle. The lack of accurate and complete data caused difficulties in benchmarking their performance against industry standards. This inconsistency led to bottlenecks, delays, and errors within the order flow, ultimately affecting the surgery process and operational effectiveness.
2. Lack of Automation
The absence of streamlined automation for crucial tasks affected users' productivity, particularly in situations demanding the application of intelligent insights. A pivotal automation gap existed due to a lack of order fulfillment and action flows concerning Surgery ID management and the orchestration of diverse order creation stages. This deficiency in automation was a notable obstacle that needed to be addressed.
3. Poor Data Collection and Integration Methods
The client faced a significant problem due to incorrect master data, causing disruptions in order handling and affecting efficient workflow. This resulted in deviations from the intended streamlined process, consequently contributing to labor productivity concerns. There was a pressing need to establish robust process models to connect data from PowerApps and other sources. These models would serve a dual purpose – aiding in the training of users, improving productivity, and integrating information to get proper insights into the status of orders and issues.
What the Client said about us
"Three months ago, we were not even sure when we would go live in Chile; such was the pushback from the business. Today, I see business users smiling and beaming, albeit under their masks, but to know they are smiling under a mask tells you the vibe in Chile now. It's a far cry from the conversations from last year with the same users. What a difference persistence, collaboration and the passing of time makes. I know we still have some ways to go to clear Hypercare and ensure as little noise as possible, but.. thank you!"
- Client IT Director for Global Service Delivery
The Solution
1. Building a partnership for operational excellence
Birlasoft and Oracle JDE worked together to transform our client's way of working, bringing about real and practical improvements. Using process mining, Birlasoft made our client's work smoother by uniting their ERP systems. This made things more organized and helped them move to better systems with important performance measures. These improvements also paved the way for more growth in the future.
The client discovered ways to make things automatic using process mining. By comparing how different parts of the company worked, the client could figure out how to do things better. They found better ways to use their ERP systems and solve problems. Birlasoft also helped them see how things would work in different situations. Working closely with Oracle, they ensured the client's way of working fit their needs. With these changes, the company improved at doing things, making decisions, and preparing for the future.
Birlasoft's approach to entering the market revolved around harnessing the capabilities of our dedicated internal team within the Process Mining Center of Excellence (CoE). The team had primarily focused on enabling internal processes, ensuring that every aspect of the supply chain could reap the advantages offered by process mining. Birlasoft implemented a comprehensive solution for the medical giant by following a structured four-phase approach through their LATAM implementation. This approach was designed to pinpoint process enhancement and improvement opportunities, ultimately realizing significant long-term value.
2. Process Optimization
The implementation involved leveraging Birlasoft solution to analyze data from a singular system, revealing process inefficiencies and gaining a direct appreciation for the value of Process Mining. Subsequently, the team developed adaptable plug-and-play data models. By harnessing the capabilities of Process Mining technology, we crafted readily available data models tailored to Oracle JD Edwards processes, such as Order-to-Cash (OTC) and Purchase-to-Pay (P2P). The data analysis acted as an X-ray, spotlighting bottlenecks hindering process automation within the Variant Explorer. These insights served as a foundation for further in-depth analysis and refinement involving essential data connections to the database. This step facilitated a smooth shift to a production environment, allowing for real-world testing and optimization.
Birlasoft successfully reduced cycle times, minimized manual rework, and effectively tackled labor productivity concerns. As a result, we achieved a remarkable 40% enhancement in our Order Fulfillment Rate (On-Time In-Full). The implementation model is flexible and optimized, intelligently allocating resources, and helped reduce order cycle time by 75%, improving the working capital management. The solution also facilitated process conformance checks and introduced automation to tasks, improving operational efficiency.
3. Leveraging Automation
The solution implementation leveraged intelligent automation through process mining applications, including creating an automated email system for order communication. This enhanced the integration of automation on impact analysis, with dashboards projecting ideal scenarios. Birlasoft made technical adjustments to improve throughput time and expedite ship-confirmed activities, addressing bottlenecks and streamlining workflows. Low Surgery order fulfillment rates were tackled through process-driven cycle time reduction and improved process conformance, positively impacting the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) index. Notable progress was achieved in timely order processing by optimizing dispatch-to-return order cycles. The solution intricately weaves data-driven intelligent automation and process optimization through these technical integrations to refine order handling, enhance throughput, and elevate cost optimization.
Birlasoft established a connection to the medical giants JDE E1 source systems. They transformed the data into event logs and enabled real-time connections, ensuring a seamless flow of information. The solution visualized the clients' processes, shedding light on their intricacies. This allowed for a deeper understanding of the root causes behind various challenges. The data-driven insights helped prioritize areas for improvement based on their potential impact. Birlasoft identified opportunities for productivity gains within the processes and recommended actions to optimize outcomes and streamline operations. Additionally, the solution pinpointed areas where Client could achieve substantial cost savings by reducing manual efforts and rework.
4. Streamlining Financial Performance
The primary objective was to enhance revenue by quantifying order cancellations and reducing inefficiencies within the Surgery process. The Surgery process was meticulously mapped, covering different stages from order creation to billing and closure. Birlasoft analyzed this process map to identify gaps and inefficiencies in scenarios such as dispatch and return orders with missing billing counterparts. This included data on order statuses, billing orders, cancellations, and revenue impacts. By identifying patterns and trends, the solution accurately estimated the revenue client could gain through order retention. The process mining approach hugely benefitted the client in discovering around $12 Million of hidden cash stuck in order processes. The approach ensured total cost-effectiveness and immediate ROI, maintaining a low Total Cost of Ownership. The solution handled cash flow management by seamlessly resolving AR billed and unbilled related issues. The implemented solution included a monitoring mechanism that tracked key metrics. Continuous benchmarking ensured that the medical giant could gauge their progress over time.
What the Client said about us
"It has not been an easy road all the way through the LATAM implementation, but this team from Birlasoft has been a great partner and a major part of the success that we now experience in Brazil, Mexico, and the rest of LATAM and no doubt the same success will be brought to bear for Chile. As I read the daily reports, see the pictures, and hear the positive sentiments from the business, cutover running to plan, and highly engaged business users, I am super proud of what this group has achieved. I look at the number of CNC and performance issues we have had since going live in Brazil in August until now… it has been ZERO. This is a testament to the work done by Birlasoft and their CNC team in collaboration with folks from my CoE. Simply outstanding. Thank you all!"
- Client IT Director for Global Service Delivery
The Impact
The comprehensive dashboards and reports helped stakeholders understand the AR process, order cancellations, revenue gains, and process efficiency improvements. The specialized Order-to-Cash dashboards are meticulously tailored to cater to the Surgery and Non-Surgery categories. A remarkable level of adaptability was integrated into these dashboards, allowing them to evolve seamlessly in response to changing scenarios and assumptions. Conformance checkers can be leveraged to review violations and root causes to avoid productivity issues.
By strategically implementing targeted automation, it systematically reduced cycle times, minimized instances of manual rework, and tackled labor productivity challenges head-on. The automation not only streamlined the order processing workflow but also significantly lowered the risk of errors, ensuring that surgery orders adhere to compliance standards throughout the entire lifecycle. As a SaaS offering with globally distributed data servers, data compliance and security are prioritized. This strengthened operational efficiency and instilled confidence in compliance, safeguarding the client's reputation and regulatory obligations.
Birlasoft meticulously optimized Order Turnaround Time and significantly reduced Order Cycle Time; the solution revolutionized working capital management, elevating the efficiency of Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). This transformation significantly improved operational efficiency while driving tangible and quantifiable enhancements throughout the operational spectrum.
In addition, here are some of the key benefits realized:
- Enhanced Labor Productivity: By implementing process automation, the medical giant experienced an impressive 30% increase in labor productivity, as evidenced by higher Sales orders per FTE and reduced Cost Per Sales Order (SO).
- Streamlined Risk and Compliance: Through targeted automation, we successfully mitigated challenges within Surgery orders, leading to minimized cycle times, manual rework, and labor productivity issues. This comprehensive approach bolstered risk management and compliance adherence.
- Efficient Order Cycle Time: Significantly reduced the cycle time for Surgery orders from 6 to just 1 day. This improvement boosted operational efficiency and greatly enhanced overall customer satisfaction.
- Cost Savings and Improved Spend: We successfully improved Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and customer satisfaction by addressing extended cycle times for Non-Surgery orders. This reduction in cycle time translated to reduced costs and optimized spending.
- Optimized Cash Flow: Our solution effectively tackled potential AR Unbilled and AR Billed issues, improving free AR cash flow management. This optimization positively impacted the clients’ financial health.
- Elevated Customer Satisfaction: The clients’ Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) index experienced positive outcomes by resolving cycle time and process conformance challenges. This holistic approach led to greater customer contentment and loyalty.
What the Client said about us
"A special shout out to the Birlasoft team that drove the Surgery Management process and alignment with the business across LATAM, which was a key factor to go live in Chile. Again, patience and perseverance were the key success factor. No one gave up, and when it got tough, this team responded with patience and innovation. Thank you also to all of you who have traveled to be onsite in the previous weeks and are planning to be onsite during Hypercare. Your presence onsite is making a world of difference and something that was not always possible during the height of the pandemic."
- Client IT Director for Global Service Delivery
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