Roadmap for the digital future

Data management and storage must not be an end in itself. Rather, the challenge is to gain important insights from data and integrate them into existing processes and decision-making.

Raises the question, "What do I need to do to make sense of the available data in the future?"

Or: "How to successfully lift the gold of the 21st century?" Big Data is no longer a dream of the future, but has arrived in practice with S/4 Hana Enterprise Management.

The vision: village pharmacy of the future

Together with our customer, the mail-order pharmacy Sanicare, we at Arvato Systems have already taken important steps toward a digital future. The objective was to develop a process and IT concept suitable for Sanicare.

In line with the guiding principle of the "village pharmacy of the future", the task was to design a solution that would enable a 360-degree view of the customer. The model for the development of a solution is the traditional stationary pharmacist, who has a close relationship with the customer.

In contrast to a pure mail-order pharmacy, the local pharmacist knows the customer's complaints and is in a personal exchange with him. The prerequisite for achieving the vision of the "village pharmacy of the future" is the processing and analysis of large volumes of data and the synchronization of existing processes.

The solution: data treasure map

But how do you make the step from vision to concrete action?

As part of a so-called business assessment, a process-based analysis method, each individual company process is examined with regard to twelve defined criteria as well as the respective system touch points.

From a selection of more than 400 standard processes, the first step was to jointly preselect the processes that were the focus for Sanicare. These processes were then analyzed together in workshops.

First and foremost, the assessment served to uncover the main strengths and weaknesses as well as the potential at Sanicare. The results of the assessment were then compared with the existing IT architecture. The fields of action uncovered in the process form the roadmap for subsequent analyses of the existing IT solutions.

For example, a greenfield approach with a Hana installation and Business Suite S/4 is a possible scenario. Another scenario is the optimization of the existing IT architecture.

The result: Lifting a treasure trove of data

In the way described, Sanicare was able to define essential fields of action for a future IT system landscape in a short time. The insights gained from the business assessment and the status quo assessment enable Sanicare to develop a roadmap for implementing the vision of a village pharmacy of the future.

Or in other words, the "data treasure map has been drawn, now it's time to successfully mine the data treasure."