The worldwide pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar concern that, owing to the nature of the goods produced, is closely regulated and controlled through legislation. A complex industry, the production of pharmaceutical and chemical products is a global business that faces tough competition from diverse players, high research and development costs, and a requirement for the scrupulous management and control of processes to deliver products that are safe and profitable.
Implementing suitable management control systems in such an environment is therefore a potentially risk-fraught undertaking, as complex systems may require extensive customisation to meet these demands. It is no secret that one of the most significant challenges to the successful implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the requirement for excessive customisation of software to a specific industry, which can potentially result in a cumbersome and inefficient system.
Scala Business Solutions, a software company headquartered in The Netherlands and represented in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands by Scala Africa, has addressed this quandary by developing Scala Pharma, a software suite tailored to the unique requirements of the pharmaceutical industry.
According to Shamik Sinha, CEO of Scala Africa, Scala Pharma is a vertical business application based on the company's Scala 5.1 and iScala ERP software, specifically designed to meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industries.
"Today we have over 500 such sites worldwide that range from few user smaller systems to large multi-user, multi-site complex environments. Our larger Scala Pharma customers include household names such as Merck, Schering, Novartis, Sanofi-Synth'elabo and Syngenta. Some of these companies have South African operations that are controlled on a daily basis by Scala Pharma software," says Sinha.
He explains that Scala Pharma includes essential features and improved functions specific to the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetics industries. "Due to strict legislation and close regulation of these sectors, their need of an industry-specific software solution is greater than in most other industries," explains Sinha. He says Scala Pharma handles functions such as quality control, batch traceability, batch issuing and customer/supplier control.
"The security and audit trail in Scala Pharma has also been enhanced to meet the stringent requirement of this market sector," adds Sinha.
Behind the scenes, says Sinha, Scala Pharma links a complex combination of strategic business processes into an understandable business flow. "This brings efficiency to the manufacturing, materials handling, quality control and logistics functions of the many pharmaceutical companies using the solution," says Sinha.
Some of the functionality provided by the Scala Pharma suite includes industry-specific functionality such as foreign descriptions, unit conversions, structure groups, Intrastat and stock reporting, stock valuation methods, Automatic Batch selection by FEFO (First Expiry Date / First Out), inheritance rules and batch traceability. Built in security measures for the handling of hazardous materials include dangerous goods control, quantity restriction and valid period control, security and access, access rights management, and password protection on tasks and programs.
"Scala Pharma is the direct result of specifications from the Scala Pharmaceutical User Group, which was formed by some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Because it uniquely addresses the requirements of this industry, the Scala Pharma e-business application package is the business software of choice of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in the world," concludes Sinha.
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