Introduction

PLIVA Croatia d.o.o., based in Zagreb, is the pride of the Croatian

pharmaceutical industry. When its business model changed, PLIVA chose the
SAP ERP solution to integrate sales and marketing processes, improve
business intelligence, and increase sales force effectiveness. Key Challenge
was to increase visibility of customer information and improve sales force
effectiveness to successfully drive organizational transformation into a
market-driven company.
PLIVA continues to expand its operations with recent acquisitions of
pharmaceutical and R&D companies in the Czech Republic, France, Germany,
United Kingdom and USA. With increasing efforts concentrating on the global
pharmaceuticals market, PLIVA has divested its cosmetics, food and
agrochemicals production units as standalone companies.
Project Objective

Integrate sales and marketing processes and systems to derive a 360-degree

view of customer, product, employee, and competitor information.

Analysis
With 85 years of experience and more than 380 patents, PLIVA Croatia d.o.o.,
based in Zagreb, is the pride of the Croatian pharmaceutical industry. But the
companys business model is changing from discovery and development of
niche pharmaceutical products to production and distribution of generics.
Parent company PLIVA d.d. picked the mySAP Customer Relationship
Management (mySAP CRM) solution to increase the effectiveness of its sales
force 1,000 strong, operating in more than 30 countries in serving this
new sector.
As part of its change in business focus, PLIVA revamped its organizational
structure around four product portfolios and reorganized the sales force with
responsibilities across multiple product lines. PLIVA also increased the
number of sales reps and promoted products. But the companys best-ofbreed customer relationship management (CRM) system couldnt keep pace.
Pliva needed to standardise their business processes to help enhance their
productivity and flexibility and maximise the efficiency of the business
processes across the entire enterprise. They also wanted to implement new
business and growth strategies to grow their business worldwide. Updating
and integrating their business processes with an enterprise system would
enable Pliva to take on more business and grow in new directions. Pliva
found that implementing SAP will help them standardize their business and

prepare for acquiring other companies, thus enabling them to expand their
business.

Increase productivity
Improve business process efficiency
Increase revenues
scale for growth and economic recovery

prepare for mergers and acquisitions

PLIVA decided to solve this problem using the experience of other companies
from all over the world. The management team was well aware that there
was no point in trying to find their own solution: It was better to purchase a
packaged business solution from an internationally renowned and
experienced software vendor.
PLIVA wanted user-friendly software that would integrate all areas and levels
of their business, and research on the world's software market indicated that
the most suitable solution would be SAP R/3. SAP R/3 would improve the
efficiency of their business by giving them the functionality to enter the
information only once and have it available everywhere (Vuksic & Spremic,
2005). This gives PLIVA:

A unique database
More efficient management
The ability to make business decisions in real-time
An integrated solution that connects all business areas.

Once the decision to implement SAP R/3 had been made, PLIVA appointed a
team to manage the SAPLI project (short for SAP and PLIVA). The team
included experts from PLIVA, Intelligroup Inc. USA, SAP AG and SAP Hrvatska.
The process of preparations and employees training and education lasted 4
months in 2 shifts, which included 700 employees (average training period of
7 days per employee). The transfer of operations to the new system (in the
second phase of implementation) lasted 12 days, as the problem of shifting
from the old coded system (taking over old data) needed to be resolved.
During the transfer to the new system, operations were halted for 10 days,
while inventory and a detailed financial harmonization were conducted. In
addition to resistance to change particularly emphasized with warehouse
employees), the most significant problems in the system implementation
were in the weak experience and quality of consultants who bid in the public
tender, the lack of time and the specificity of the pharmaceutical industry
(strictly regulated quality of raw materials, the obligation of non-stop
production).

An interesting organizational solution used in PLIVA are the validation teams,

which are separated from the project teams, having the task of control the
teams work, measuring harmonization with business plans and goals and
coordinating the cross-functionality of teams.

Answer1)
Success Reasons:

The implementation of the SAP solution took place in individual phases,

with 2 modules in the area of cost center, accounting and profit center
accounting implemented in 1997.
A reorganization project which was reorganization of business
operations aimed at determining the key sector of failure operations.
The two independent projects were harmonized at the level of storing
committee.
During the transfer to new system, operations were halted for 10 days,
while inventory and a detailed financial harmonization were conducted.
Harmonization was regularly measured with the business plans and
goals and coordinating cross functionality of team.
A validation team was also used for the purpose of validating the
information system.