Customer Story

Abbott

By automating order management, Abbott Scandinavia created efficient & adaptable processes.

Industry
Manufacturing
Solution
Customer Service
  • Gained
    visibility via integrated dashboards and straightforward report creation
  • Ensured
    compliance
  • Sped up
    order processing times
  • Reduced
    costs and freed up resources
  • Enabled
    order entry team to focus on higher-value tasks
  • Improved
    collaboration and workplace satisfaction
  • Enhanced
    customer relationships

Abbott is a leader in diabetes care and its vision is to have a world where every person with diabetes is free to live life to the fullest.

CHALLENGES: Making Life Easier with Order Management Automation

The launch of the FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring system in Sweden in 2014 was extremely successful and since then the demand has increased steadily year after year. With about 3,000 orders per month arriving in PDF format and having to be manually entered, Abbott recognised that an automated solution was indispensable. “We realised that the manual processing of sales orders was not scalable and therefore we looked for ways to automate it. We considered an SaaS platform to rapidly implement a solution and to avoid hardware and software investments,“ said Joseph Lama, E-Commerce Manager at Abbott Scandinavia. They also wanted the solution to have XML format reception capabilities in order to enable seamless mapping to the ERP.

 

Challenges:

- Streamlining & speeding up the order management process

- Machine learning capabilities to reduce errors & improve accuracy

- Having a flexible interface to accommodate a variety of incoming file formats

- Reducing costs & freeing up resources

SOLUTION: Speed & Flexibility

Abbott wanted to move quickly to automate their order process in order to accommodate their two main customers, the Skåne and Stockholm regional health departments, and avoid a lengthy transition process. Flexibility of the interface was also key, because despite the fact that the majority of incoming orders were in XML format, Abbott wanted to expand reception capabilities in the future. Another requirement was that the new solution permit the integration of specific XML output, since the order data is passed to Stromberg, a third-party logistics system.

Machine learning capabilities were a desired feature as well, as these would ultimately result in faster order processing, eliminate errors and increase the data quality and accuracy over time as well as ensure compliance with invoice archival regulations.

Luckily, Abbott didn’t need to look very far for a solution, as other branches of the company were already using Esker solutions.

It has been two years now since deploying the Esker solution and we can say it has exceeded our expectations. We achieved cost reductions and freed up resources to focus on higher-value tasks.
Joseph Lama E-Commerce Manager | Abbott Scandinavia

RESULTS: Freeing Up Order Management Staff

The Esker solution checked off all of the requirements for automated order management.

The visibility gained from the solution’s integrated dashboards and straightforward report creation increased the visibility of the sales order handling process and sped up the order processing times while ensuring compliance.

Reducing costs and freeing up resources not only enabled the order entry team to focus on higher-value tasks, but the improved collaboration brought with it a higher degree of workplace satisfaction and reduced employee turnover. This, in turn, also resulted in better customer relationships due to a continuous dialogue regarding data quality.

By providing “super admins” with additional abilities, such as customising the solution to the business needs and creating workflow processes, the operation of the cloud-based solution could be shifted away from the IT department. The users of the solutions are the ones running it, thereby creating incredibly consistent results. This element was especially valuable when it became necessary to shift to remote work: “Nobody was prepared for the major change in 2020. We had been working with the Esker solution since before the pandemic, although this year has been the real test to truly experience how this platform could help us. For us, Esker has played a huge part in facilitating our work remotely” said Sabina Pedersen, Order Entry Team member.

When working remotely it is key that one can work independently, with the same efficiency and without any difference in the quality of service provided to the customer. We feel that Esker has helped us in doing so.
Sabina Pedersen Order Entry Team Member | Abbott Scandinavia

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