Alliance Boots, the company created by last week's
merger of pharmacy chains Alliance UniChem and Boots, is
concentrating its IT efforts on master data management rather than
planning a post-merger consolidation of systems.
The retailer, which has 2,600 stores in the UK and a further 400
overseas, is aligning the two sets of master data from Alliance
UniChem and Boots so that the company's procurement function can
generate speedy cost savings.
The master data reconciliation includes the prices of goods
supplied to more than 125,000 pharmacies, hospitals and health
centres. Each outlet can stock any of the more than 10,000 drugs
that UK doctors can prescribe. They also stock up to 60,000
non-prescription products.
The merged company needs a single view of the 15 million people
who use its Advantage card and its 100,000-plus staff in 15
countries.
Alliance Boots' director of IT strategy Adrian Chen said, "We
are lining up product descriptions and supplier codes. The next
step will be to identify a preferred source of master data for the
organisation."
Robert Mack, vice-president at analyst firm Gartner, said, "The
two companies have different numbering schemes. Once they
rationalise the schemes, the executive directors will be able to
see the whole picture and make investment decisions.
"Master data enables senior managers to watch trends, so it is
directly related to buying power."
Alliance Boots is running Boots and Alliance UniChem's two
underlying businesses - Alliance Pharmacies and wholesaler UniChem
- as separate operations. Each of the three operating companies
will continue to have separate IT functions and their own IT
directors.
Alliance UniChem uses Evant Replenishment from supplier
Manhattan Associates as its enterprise management and planning
system, while Boots runs SAP for merchandising, procurement and
property.
Chen said, "Because we have always had standalone units, we have
always had standalone IT departments. It is unlikely that with the
merger we will see a benefit in integrating those departments in
the immediate future."
Mack said, "The most common thing you see when two companies
merge in the same market is the absorption of one set of systems by
another set of systems. If you are running standalone units, you
need to do separate master data and procurement projects. The only
risk is not taking the cost out, but they can always take that out
later."
Alliance Boots has already decided how it will collect financial
data from its separate units so that it can report its half-yearly
results to the City in late November.
Alliance UniChem will use its Codascisys financial management
system to consolidate data from its subsidiary companies. Output
from Codascisys will be sent to Alliance UniChem's Cognos Frango
performance management system.
The financial information from Boots' SAP system will be
consolidated into Frango manually.
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