Have an Eye on Important Projects
In pharmaceutical companies, project business comprises much more than the mere development of medicaments. In order to make reliable decisions, management requires a transparent project portfolio. In the Dr. Willmar Schwabe corporate group, a new software generates a more clear overview of the numerous simultaneous business projects. The persons responsible have an eye on the status of each project and can focus more easily on those projects that are really important.
The Dr. Willmar Schwabe corporate group employs 1600 employees at three sites in Karlsruhe and its surroundings and produces herbal and homeopathic medicinal products. Schwabe plans an average of 300 simultaneously running projects for a period of about 12 months.
Using PLANTA since 2019
Problem Prior to Implementation of the New Software
Prior to the implementation of the new software, the company’s projects could only be outlined rudimentarily in the form of a SharePoint-list. The number of simultaneously running projects and the parallel loading of employees was not transparent. Information on project status, project period, and date of completion of each individual project were not easily accessible either.
Project approvals only existed in an informal manner. Status reports could only be accessed sporadically in the respective project document folders in PowerPoint. The previous tool landscape did not provide transparency and made decision making substantially harder. In order to be well prepared for future challenges, it was necessary to get better software assistance for the entire project portfolio.
Definition of Objectives
All company projects are to be readily accessible. The core roles (purchasers, project manager, project core team, steering board) should be able to monitor all relevant project information, like project core data, milestones, project phase, resources, at any time. They should also be able to read status reports directly in the project portfolio. During the quest for a suitable new software, no own solution was taken into consideration. Instead, three products which are currently on the market were tested. In December, Schwalbe decided in favor of PLANTA. The PLANTA project, PLANTA portfolio, PLANTA customizer, PLANTA link components were implemented. The existing rudimentary SharePoint-solution was replaced. The technical concept for the new software solution was drawn up by Schwabe themselves. It was turned into a technical solution with the help of a PLANTA consultant.
Rapid Software Implementation
The software was implemented expeditiously. Only 5 months passed from the definition of the problem up to the decision for PLANTA, and another 2.5 months passed until operation went live in March 2019.
150–200 employees were involved in the implementation phase. The competence team for implementation consisted of two employees from PMO and one employee from organization development. Feedback loops were carried out with 10 users.
The new software system is used in almost the entire corporate group: in the areas of finance, HR, quality, IT, purchasing, production, supply chain, infrastructure & technology. In planning, 50 project managers and 25 portfolio managers access the PLANTA software. Main milestones allow 300 stakeholders to see the current status of their project at one glance. A resource planning with a quite pragmatic approach is applied, which is primarily focused on the number of simultaneously running project proposals.
Adjustments Made to PLANTA Standard
To map company specific processes adequately, some adjustments have been made to the Standard system. Schwabe carried out half of the adjustments themselves, while the other half was carried out by PLANTA: Own project rolls and other project types have been defined, views have been changed and the calculation of the project phases has been solved by means of milestone fulfillment. A user data interface for reading a CSV file from SAP ERP has been created.
