OREANDA-NEWS. January 29, 2016. Cardinal Health, a global healthcare services company that improves the cost-effectiveness of healthcare, needed to integrate the IT of Cordis, a recently acquired subsidiary.

Each transaction has a significant impact on IT, and the need for a software solution for cost accounting and financial control became apparent. After careful assessment of requirements, Cardinal Health, with support from Accenture, Seidor and L&T Infotech, approached the challenge of bringing 18 country entities live on the SAP Business ByDesign solutions within 80 days. Key to the decision was the central enterprise resource planning (ERP) software running on the SAP Business Suite software. SAP Business ByDesign provided a fast installation, seamless integration with centralized managed services features and rapid integration to other Web services–enabled apps.

“Most importantly, we were looking at the possibility of speeding up the entire integration process,” said George Kuntz, vice president, EIT Shared Services – Cordis Integration & HR IT Systems, Cardinal Health. “Our newly forged system environment will help us deliver global capabilities for our Cordis Healthcare business unit and have a simple solution to best serve our customers.”

Cardinal Health helps pharmacies, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories and physician offices focus on patient care while reducing costs, enhancing efficiency and improving quality. The company was set to buy Cordis, a medical equipment manufacturer headquartered in California, in March 2015. To profit from this acquisition, it was important to deliver an integrated solution. In early May, the joint endeavor started and after only 80 days of project time, the first wave of 18 countries were running on SAP Business ByDesign, ERP cloud software for upper midmarket companies. Currently, Cardinal is looking to include additional international locations – a 50% growth in the number of tenants within the next year running on SAP Business ByDesign.

Cardinal Health was looking for a rapid deployment of productive systems in 46 countries across five continents, which includes a stretch across time zones and flexibility in timing for upgrades and local support. SAP Business ByDesign has been implemented to support finance and controlling, personnel administration, customer relationship management and service management activities and will be used for current and potential mergers and acquisitions. The new, scalable platform delivers technical features that address the needs of Cardinal Health’s business and […] provides a structural basis that facilitates potential steps in the future.

As the lead integrator, Accenture managed the delivery effort, while L&T Infotech added their business process outsourcing expertise and Seidor contributed with localization knowledge for countries like Mexico, Spain and Portugal.

Unlike on-premise ERP software, SAP Business ByDesign can be paid by monthly subscription with the software and data stored and hosted by SAP. SAP also performs all data backups, software updates, security and maintenance.

Dr. Michael Schmitt is senior vice president and general manager for SAP Business ByDesign