INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHTS
We Know Regulated Industries
Veranova’s Seven CDMO Facilities Across the US and UK Are Brought onto a Single Instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 in Nine Months
The transition to Dynamics 365 was good medicine
Veranova is a worldwide leader in developing and manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with over 1,000 employees in the US, UK, and Asia. In 2022, Johnson Matthey Health was rebranded as Veranova, and ownership was transferred to Altaris Capital Partners, LLC. Within nine months, the seven Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) facilities comprising the newly formed Veranova had to quickly deploy a new, unified ERP system.
Previously, the company was based in the UK. Now, with US-based ownership, they had to adjust from UK to US financial operations and accommodate a mix of make-to-stock and make-to-order production needs across entities with differing regulatory requirements, purchasing flows, storage caps, and related production needs.
After evaluating SAP and Oracle, Veranova selected Microsoft Dynamics 365 and HSO due to:
- D365 offering the most efficient, flexible, and economical path
- HSO’s deep manufacturing industry understanding and experience
- HSO’s global approach and presence, helping Veranova to go from seven separate global pharmaceutical companies to a single entity with shared data, standard practices, and consolidated reporting
- HSO’s ability to harmonize their global processes and workflows with aggregated data and analytics in a central location
“Dynamics 365 is a turning point for the company where we can share and access the same information at all our sites. This helps drive consistent reporting and increased controls around financial information.”
With an aggressive nine-month timeline and a small IT team, a solid strategy and the right support were crucial. Alongside HSO, Veranova established a four-part rollout plan, starting with the core capabilities of Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, followed by production, warehousing, planning, and sales processes.
In the future, they will also introduce project and asset management.
Their legacy systems had seven different data sources with different file types, so HSO suggested bringing all the data into an Azure Data Lake.
Veranova achieved the fastest separation of all companies in the Johnson Matthey portfolio. Going from seven separate successful pharmaceutical companies to a single entity with shared data, standard practices, and consolidated reporting is a major undertaking.
While other phases are still in process, the organization is already experiencing a variety of meaningful benefits such as:
- Harmonized processes and workflows for production, finance, sales, and more
- Standardized naming conventions and data, using one language, for company-wide visibility and access
- Aggregated data in a central location with global access and analytics almost in real-time
- Faster month-end financial closings and reporting
- Centralized supplier management providing cost savings through bulk ordering and distribution between locations
- Improved tracking of safety and compliance making it easier to achieve safety and compliance measures
“We see the positives of what we’ve already done, but the potentials are what I’m excited about. There are many low-hanging-fruit opportunities that will directly impact our bottom line with double digits.”
Eager to learn more about Veranova's shift to Dynamics 365? Read Microsoft's full Veranova Case Study.