How ProPharma Distribution is Streamlining, Scaling & Seeing Success with ePedigree

ProPharma Distribution is an independent wholesaler that emphasizes reliable and exemplary service while providing medications to the surgical care industry. Their emphasis on service includes cultivating supply chain partner relationships to ensure competitive distribution services.

Distributing injectables to Emergency Rooms across the U.S. involves complex order processing measures and government-regulated tracking and compliance requirements. To operate, the company relied on QuickBooks and manual product tracking, but their complexity and growth required a new solution. ProPharma President Levi Ellis and IT Director Charles Snyder implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM, and quickly found it was not what they had hoped.

In ProPharma’s video testimonial, Charles has this to say about Microsoft Dynamics: “We refer to it as the Frankenstein model because of all the add-on pieces of software that were needed in order for our business to function. After several years, and after several hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, we had a more-or-less jalopy of software.”

For a company that functions in a fast-paced environment and prides itself on excellent service, this was a major issue. They needed a modern, cloud-based ERP system that could streamline their business management needs and scale with them as they grew. The company turned to Mark Mynatt, the Founder and President of DCAA Solutions, Inc.

DCAA is an Acumatica cloud ERP partner, and Mark knew Acumatica Distribution Management, Acumatica Financial Management, and Acumatica Customer Management were exactly what ProPharma needed to handle their unique needs.

For example, one unique need is adhering to an FDA requirement known as Pedigree tracking. ProPharma must track every unit of drug as it journeys from the manufacturer and supply chain to ProPharma and through to their customers. Their multi-step process included manual typing of 20-digit numbers for multiple medications. Human error was a concern as was the time it would take to catch and correct the errors if they occurred.

When they decided to implement Acumatica, they shaved off hours of labor and reduced the stress of manual processing. “With Acumatica, we can give each product a specific tag number, which allows us to see where it came from, who it went to, and then have all that on file for the FDA,” Levi says.

They also benefitted from:

--A stable, reliable, and connected cloud-based platform

--No downtime (a regular occurrence with their old, disconnected system)

--Customization (including for FDA Pedigree compliance)

--Reduced IT staff, hardware, and licensing costs ($120,000 annual savings)

However, before ProPharma could truly enjoy Acumatica’s distribution software and financial management software benefits, they had to survive the crash of their legacy system.

Modern cloud ERP to the rescue

In ProPharma’s success story, Charles explains how they kept their legacy system running. “The whole system had started to collapse upon itself, but we kept putting Band-Aids on top of Band-Aids.”

Unfortunately, using Band-Aids when major surgery is required never works. As they began to implement Acumatica, a power surge destroyed two of the drives, causing a puncture and corrupted data. The corrupted data spread across all the drives and shut ProPharma down. After months of recovering data and getting their server working, they were back in business and live with Acumatica, but it took immense effort by the ProPharma and DCAA teams.

Their efforts paid off.

“The maintenance of their old environment to their new environment is night and day and it’s essentially because we’re not trying to take five or six different systems and keeping them coordinated,” Mark from DCAA says. “The reason I love Acumatica is because it’s a framework, it’s a single-source solution, it’s one data base, and it’s all connected.”

Charles agrees, “Acumatica has provided a consistent, up-and-running environment with no downtime, which translates into our ability to focus on the business. We now have one environment and one database that we can access from anywhere.”

From disaster to revival with Acumatica cloud ERP

A story that could have ended in disaster has instead turned into a success story. With Acumatica, ProPharma has not only streamlined and automated their business management processes but is almost to the point of making their FDA Pedigree tracking fully digital, thanks to DCAA’s custom-crafted software using Acumatica’s powerful cloud xRP platform.

The company continues to grow, adding one-to-two salespeople a month, and Charles says, “Acumatica has allowed us to do that.”

If you’re facing the same legacy system crisis as ProPharma and would like to avert it, contact our team today to learn about our cloud ERP solution.