Orchid Pharma: Blooming with Health

NC Raghuram, Orchid Pharma

Chennai-based Orchid is a Rs 713 crore EOU dealing in pharmaceutical bulk
actives that had rapid growth in the 12 years of its existence. The company's
leadership in adopting best practices is undisputed. The percentage of satisfied
users through various IT implementations has gone up from 89.6% in 2003 to 93%
in 2004.

Stats might always not reveal the full story, but here it justifies the
company's leadership by the number friendliness of the organization. To sample
a few:

• SAP applications' uptime increased from 99.61% to 99.65%
• Mailing system uptime improved from 98.59% to 99.95%
• Zero downtime due to virus attacks
• Cost savings of Rs 41.2 lakhs against a target of Rs 41.3 lakhs
• KRAs of IT staff: 38 out of the 40 KRAs were completed

The crowning glory for Orchid has been its mention as a
global reference case for ERP implementation in the pharma sector. Orchid has
successfully integrated its IT strategies to align with business strategies for
achieving its business goals. The SAP implementation in 2002, which was
archieved in a record six months, has provided the foundation for many other
solutions like knowledge management, document management and scientific data
management. Interestingly, Orchid's SAP implementation was categorized as one
of the best in the world by Martin Selchert, Univ of Applied Science, Germany in
his book "Case Study on SAP Best Practices". As per this, Orchid's
usage of functions in SAP is 100%.

In the formulations business, CRM has been implemented and
the business has seen a 284% growth in three years. Knowledge management by way
of document management, laboratory management, and scientific data management
has resulted in structured storage of research data, IP protection, and increase
in organizational learning.

One of its IT innovations has been its use of mobile phone
SMS in eCRM solution for sales force, to obtain quick market feedback and fine
tune sales strategy. This was used in the anti-infective formulations division.
Its applications have also provided support to good manufacturing practices and
compliance to regulatory requirements as well as manage and control costs in
product development. The company also plans to embark on collaborative commerce
post 2007. Several companies including Lupin, Mangalore Chemicals, Lakshmi
Machine Works, BEL have taken guidance from Orchid for their ERP implementation.