BCD Consulting Group Writes Rx for uniPHARM Web Portal

Published: March 14, 2006

by Robert Gast

Even after years of loyalty, patients who patronize big chain-store pharmacies often feel like strangers. Workers at mammoth drug chains see patient ID numbers rather than faces, while those at independent drug stores know their clients by name. Many doctors favor independent pharmacies over chain stores because the continuity of patient care is often better. Thanks to a customized iSeries system developed by Business Computer Design's consulting group, uniPHARM Wholesale Drugs is able to provide small-town service with big chain efficiencies.

uniPHARM Wholesale Drugs, in British Columbia, Canada, has made it possible for small drug stores to compete with powerful chains and still offer personalized, one-on-one service. uniPHARM's membership includes over one third of all pharmacies in the British Columbia province of Canada--members and customers that are now using an iSeries-Web based B2B shopping cart application to restock pharmaceuticals and sundries.

Though mind-boggling to anyone familiar with software development, only a draft specification of this application existed two months before the system went live. uniPHARM's Web-based order entry system is built with WebSmart, an iSeries-Web application development tool from Business Computer Design. Remarkably, the BCD Consulting Group took the application, called Web Orders, from concept to production in under six weeks.

Last year uniPHARM implemented a new IBM iSeries-based ERP system after carefully reviewing products from 14 different vendors. The antecedent to this new, highly automated Web order entry environment was a 16-bit Delphi-based Electronic Order Book (EOB) package that required each pharmacy to install and configure client software on PC hardware. Members who used the system didn't have the benefit of knowing what the availability of an item was because the inventory files on the in-store PC client were batch updated only once a week. To add more uncertainty to the order process, their orders weren't validated and substitution recommendations or restriction rules couldn't be made because the EOB didn't support these features.

In retooling the order entry process, most co-op members saw a customer facing order entry portal that accessed the ERP system's data files as the most logical approach. To accomplish this, several options were considered, and at first, the order entry module offered by their ERP vendor seemed like the best candidate. After carefully matching its features with a long list of requirements that uniPHARM members and management assembled, they realized that extensive customization would be necessary if this solution was ever going to meet their requirements.

In another instance, IBM's Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) was scrutinized. HATS makes 5250 applications available as HTML through a conversion of data streams. Although HATS Limited Edition tools are free, users pay for the runtime license. Steve McEneany, President of Steelnet Solutions, the business process management and systems implementation company hired to carry out uniPHARM's ERP makeover, says "HATS is really just a screen scraper. It would have worked if all we wanted to do was make legacy apps available to member pharmacies, but we wanted to give them an easy to use portal."

Pressed to come up with an alternative, McEneany, keyed in the words 'iSeries Portal' into Google. "BCD was one name that kept popping up on several pages of links, so I followed one of them and was impressed by the quality of the content of the site and the testimonials available," he says.

One week later, uniPHARM discussed its requirements with two members of BCD's Consulting Group. In just a day and a half, BCD Consulting Services produced a proof of concept Web-based order entry system that accessed uniPHARM's inventory files on its iSeries system. "WebSmart blew us away," McEneany says. "The speed at which things could be done was unbelievable."

In just three days McEneany created detailed business requirements and technical specifications for 28 Web pages so BCD developers could begin coding what was now called Web Orders. "We made a commitment to the board that we'd be live in early July and it was already May," McNeany says.

In just 43 days, Web Orders had been designed, developed, modified, documented, tested, deployed, and users had been trained. McEneany says another large billion-dollar distributor that he worked with took three years to do the same thing. "It's very, very rare to come across a product like WebSmart that is so perfect for our needs--not only the suitability of the product itself but also the people behind it… the support."

Value Added Services

BCD's Consulting Group consists of skilled managers, analysts, and programmers. Nearly 100 percent of their custom development work is coded at a technical development center on Vancouver Island in British Colombia, Canada. BCD's Consulting Group has developed numerous applications for a long list of clients that include Testors, Wenger, Formica, and Tyco Healthcare, to name a few. According to Kevin Cronin, senior development manager, a VPN connection links developers to the client's site so all development is done on the client's machine. "Customers save money on airfare, lodging, meals, desks, telephones, and lots of other non essential expenses," he says.

Cronin says in the five years that he has managed BCD's consulting effort, he has observed iSeries shops tend to be staffed by fewer technicians. "One of our customers is a $500 million a year consumer products company and it has only two IT people. It's a bit of a tall order to ask these people to find the time to take on a new development project that may take hundreds of hours when they have the IT needs of an entire company to worry about." Since the BCD Consulting Group uses WebSmart for rapid Web deployment, Cronin adds that most of his development projects run between one and two hundred hours. "uniPHARM took about 140 hours," he says.

Web Orders consists of 29 Web-based functions that allow uniPHARM members and authorized customers with an ID and password to browse through a catalog and review product descriptions and images. About 20,000 SKU's can be searched by item number, UPC code, vendor name, or description. A comprehensive search facility is also available. Users can drill down to view product details, and, Web Orders will automatically suggest alternative products of similar type, or if an ordered item is not in stock.

BCD's iSeries spool file automation solution, Catapult, is integrated into the system so pricing tickets and shelf labels, which are available in the instant after an order is picked, can be immediately transmitted as universal PDFs for easy printing on a self-service basis. Catapult is designed to monitor iSeries output queues, grab reports and optionally split them for distribution by e-mail, fax, or print. It also converts reports to PDF, rich text format, and HTML with options to compress, encrypt, add forms overlays, and archive. Invoices, statements, order confirmation, and order status documents can also be obtained.

With Web Orders, uniPHARM's busy IT staff doesn't have to get involved in managing user administration. Each member or customer pharmacy designates an administrator to grant user IDs and passwords to validate system users for their stores. Site administrators can also define how they want their site to work by setting global site options. For instance, by enabling the "Store Cart" site option, orders from all users in the store are automatically consolidated into a single store order.

Ordered items are picked, packed, and shipped the same day. If needed, uniPHARM customers can create a product return claim in Web Orders the day after receiving their merchandise, which saves them from having to call customer service.

uniPHARM's IT team now maintains Web Orders. One of its senior programmer analysts with 30 years of RPG experience recently spent one week in WebSmart and Catapult training at the BCD's technical development center. "It was always our intention to be self-reliant," according to Jim McGrath, uniPHARM's IT Manager.

Today, uniPHARM's members use Web Orders daily to place hundreds of orders. Over 90 percent of the co-op's members have switched over from the EOB. The remaining 10 percent are expected to make the transition before year's end.

"Of all the projects we've done at uniPHARM in the past three years including document management, banking, Lotus Notes, and warehouse RF, the one that has had the greatest impact on our members and customers is Web Orders," McGrath says. "It looks good, it's intuitive, and it's very reliable. It has literally taken over."

Robert Gast is the managing partner of Chicago-area based Evant Group, a marketing communications company, and can be reached at bobgast@evantgroup.com.