Driving change - Ferring Pharmaceuticals SA is a dynamic company with around 5,500 employees in more than 50 countries. Following the implementation of a state-of-the-art global core system and preparations for an upcoming S4/HANA implementation, the decision was made to harmonise the travel and expense process as well.
Industry
Chemicals / Pharmaceuticals / Medicine
Employees
5'500
Client since
2017
Region
German-speaking Switzerland
French-speaking Switzerland
National
International
Services
Software
Initial situation
The international pharmaceutical company not only had the successful introduction of a global core system in mind, but also the upcoming implementation of S4/HANA and the harmonisation of the travel and expense management process.
With around 5,500 employees spread across more than 50 countries, we found various current situations: Some countries had a detached standard solution in place for recording expenses, others entered their expenses in an Excel spreadsheet and the pioneers had digitised and automated the entire Travel & Expenses management process.
Solution
Ferring Pharmaceuticals SA opted for SAP Concur to harmonise the travel and expense process and to cover legal requirements and unforeseen special cases. SAP Concur is not only the ideal solution for the globally active company due to its various modules such as Expense, Travel and Request, but also thanks to its flexibility in the booking process.
Project
In order to facilitate future centralised support in Switzerland, the aim was to configure the system as identically as possible for all countries and only accept deviations in the case of legal requirements. The first step in making this possible was to create a global template. This not only reflected Ferring Pharmaceuticals SA's global travel and expense policy, but also followed the SAP Concur best practice approach. As Ferring Pharmaceuticals SA did not have a standardised financial system in use during the project, an accounting template per company and financial system had to be created in addition to the global template for the configuration.
When creating these templates, the readiness for S4/HANA was ensured in order to enable a successful changeover with minimal effort. Despite special cases and deviations from the templates, this approach not only enabled an efficient introduction, but also promised simplification in future support after the smooth GO LIVE. At the end of the project, we can look back on stimulating workshops, challenging requirements and a not only satisfied but also happy Customer.