WE CHOSE TO MOVE TO A DYNAMIC INVENTORY SYSTEM, WHICH COMBINES THE ABILITY TO LOCALISE ALL OUR FIXED ASSETS PRECISELY THROUGHOUT FRANCE WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF CARRYING OUT ROLLING INVENTORIES. JOËL GAILLETON, DIRECTOR OF ACCOUNTING, BOIRON
As the world leader in homeopathic medicines, Boiron relies on a securely established digital culture to drive the company forward. Their 80-strong Information Systems team is committed to providing the back-office departments with the most advanced resources available to meet their priorities. In order to increase the speed and reliability of their inventories and management of their fixed assets, Boiron decided to utilise a 100% digital solution, drawing once again on their long-standing partnership with Sage. Boiron called on DEVEHO Consulting Group to assist them in tackling the triple challenge of large volumes, tight schedules and data conservation. A testimonial prescribed to all efficiency seekers!
For an expanding company such as Boiron, with its growing workforce, evolving production methods and industrial facilities whose functions are constantly being re-evaluated, the long-term integration and monitoring of fixed assets is a full-time mission. The management of fixed assets is carried out by a 2-person team, in charge of managing movements, posting depreciation and tax management.
Already at the forefront in the digitalisation of its management processes, in 2016 Boiron decided to overhaul the management of its fixed assets in order to increase speed and efficiency at every stage.
Joël Gailleton is the Accounts Director at Boiron. “We chose to move to a dynamic inventory system, which combines the ability to localise all our fixed assets precisely throughout France with the possibility of carrying out rolling inventories. In essence, a bar code is fitted onto every fixed asset, which is then recorded in a site register. A bar code reader connected to a tablet optimises the work carried out by our teams, which is nothing compared to all the work involved up to now taking manual readings.”
The second stage in the digitalisation process of fixed asset management was the management solution itself. Recognized for its management functions, the Abel Entreprise software package reached its limits in terms of total dematerialisation.
Stéphane Picq, Purchasing, and Finance Applications Manager with the Information Systems team, guided the project from start to finish. “Within our guidelines of the specifications, we naturally took into account the fact that our Sage ERP is perfectly adapted to our business sector and to the pressures on our departments. Depending on whether our requirements could be met, we favoured the possibility of a migration of our fixed asset management to Sage Business Cloud X3.”
In addition to Sage Business Cloud X3’s ability to manage dematerialised fixed assets, the capacity to preserve the data archive relating to the 55,000 fixed assets stored in the Abel Entreprise database also had to proven. DEVEHO Consulting Group’s knowledge of the departmental pressures specific to the healthcare sector, as well as being specialists in the Sage solution, helped guide Boiron in their choice.
Stéphane Perrayon, Development Manager at Deveho Consulting Group, explains the challenges at stake.
“The first challenge was the simultaneous generation renewal. The migration came at the same time as a complete overhaul of the fixed asset life cycle management processes. The second challenge was, of course, the sheer volume of data. Preserving the fixed asset data sheets, managed for so long under Abel Entreprise, without damaging them wasn’t easy, despite the direct filiations between the software architecture. The third challenge was managing the tight schedule.”
The desired time-saving is achieved at all stages of the fixed asset life cycle, through the implementation of a dynamic inventory and the migration to the new software. The database is automatically updated when inputting a fixed asset, for example during rolling inventories, which in turn increases productivity. Alexandre Cherblanc is one of two operators in charge of managing the fixed assets. “For me, the biggest change is no longer having to manually input the amount and cost accounting for each fixed asset. Now, with just the invoice number, everything is done automatically. In addition, the information is directly transmitted to the database during each inventory.”
