September 27, 2011
LifeNet Health "Goes Live" with EzLifeSciences, a Qualified SAP® Business All-in-One Partner Solution From Answerthink
- Answerthink Continues Succession of SAP Solutions Deployments
MIAMI, September 27, 2011 - Answerthink, a division of The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) and a premier developer, provider, and supporter of SAP® solutions, today announced the successful go-live implementation of EzLifeSciences™, a qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solution for the life sciences industry, at LifeNet Health.
LifeNet Health, a non-profit global leader in regenerative medicine, is the world's largest provider of bio-implants and organs for transplantation, with a mission of saving lives and restoring health. They help thousands of patients each year. LifeNet is a trusted provider of transplant solutions ranging from organs procurement to new innovations in bio-implant technologies and cellular therapies. LifeNet Health always honors the donors and the healthcare professionals that allow the healing process. As a leader in engineering and processing tissue, LifeNet Health distributes more than 400,000 orthopedic, neurosurgical cardiovascular, skin and sports medicine, and dental bio-implants across the globe every year.
In order to lay a solid foundation for business growth and continuous improvement, LifeNet Health decided to replace its existing legacy system with a flexible and integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. LifeNet Health selected to implement the SAP ERP Release 6.0 application and contracted with Answerthink to lead and co-manage the implementation. The SAP implementation project focused on LifeNet Health's core business functions of finance, sales, procurement, planning, production, quality, logistics and warehouse management. In an effort to meet the scope and level of design during this implementation timeline, LifeNet Health selected Answerthink to leverage its qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solution, EzLifeSciences, along with its expertise in the life sciences industry. LifeNet Health went live with a validated solution, on-time and on-budget.
"This project required many business areas to come together to achieve a common goal," stated Gordon Berkstresser, CFO, LifeNet Health. "The resulting teamwork and collaboration became an added benefit. Answerthink proved to be exactly the right partner for this project to succeed."
EzLifeSciences is an industry-specific offering from Answerthink based on best practices from SAP and customized for growing companies in pharmaceutical manufacturing industries. It is part of Answerthink's family of preconfigured solutions that are designed specifically to help life sciences companies achieve goals such as streamlined product development, manufacture reporting automation, regulatory compliance, and supporting critical business processes.
"The integrated nature of the system has brought users closer together to make faster decisions," said Raymond Pinto, director, Business Applications, LifeNet Health. "Master data is completely owned and managed by the business. We could not have done the implementation without a strong partner - Answerthink."
According to John McGrath, principal, SAP Solutions Group, Answerthink, "SAP will provide LifeNet Health the needed platform to maximize their operations. With the use of this new SAP solution, LifeNet Health began processing business activities on day one of the deployment. By the end of week all areas, including the start of production, were online, processing at high levels. The closed-loop solution with complete tracking of every individual item throughout the process is exactly what was required at LifeNet Health. Our EzLifeSciences solution is proving superior value to LifeNet Health, a growing, innovative customer. Many small and midsize companies are coming to the conclusion that they can take on world-class software from SAP if a preconfigured, industry-based approach is used."
Answerthink is a strategic business and technology consulting firm that enables companies to achieve world-class business performance. Qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solutions are industry-specific software, implementation, and training solutions developed by SAP partners using SAP applications.
About Answerthink
Answerthink is an SAP gold channel partner that develops and offers qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solutions - industry-specific software, implementation and training packaged solutions. By leveraging the best practices database of The Hackett Group, Answerthink helps clients improve performance and maximize returns on investments in SAP software. Answerthink is a division of The Hackett Group and has offices in the United States, Europe and India.
About The Hackett Group, Inc.
The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global strategic advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, benchmarking, and transformation consulting services including strategy and operations, working capital management, and globalization advice.
Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more than 5,000 benchmarking engagements, executives use The Hackett Group's empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement initiatives to enable world-class performance. Through its REL group, The Hackett Group offers working capital solutions focused on delivering significant cash flow improvements. Through its Archstone Consulting group, The Hackett Group offers Strategy & Operations consulting services in the Consumer and Industrial Products, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and Financial Services industry sectors. Through its Hackett Technology Solutions group, The Hackett Group offers business application consulting services that help maximize returns on IT investments. The Hackett Group has completed over 5,000 benchmark studies with 2,700 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 73% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 50% of the FTSE 100.
More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at (770) 225-7300; by e-mail at info@thehackettgroup.com.
