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Pharmaceutical Specialist Engelhard Relies on Contract Management Software
The need for digital contract management that enables clear, transparent, and audit-compliant contract management prompted the internationally successful pharmaceutical company Engelhard Pharmaceuticals to implement a modern contract management solution across its organization.
Today, valantic’s SAP-integrated contract management software has completely replaced paper-based contract record management and supports more than 450 employees at the company’s German headquarters with digital record management, automated deadline management, and comprehensive workflows.
Challenge
Contract management that ensures adherence to deadlines, centralized and audit-compliant data management, and an overview of all contracts and records.
Consulting approach
SAP-integrated contract mangement software.
Customer benefits
Overview of all contracts, appointments and deadlines; digital contract management, and comprehensive workflows powered by the SAP-integrated contract management solution.
Dr. Markus Schäfermeyer
Director Information Technology at Engelhard Arzneimittel
”The implementation of the solutions has significantly accelerated our processes and delivered the transparency we had been looking for.“
About Engelhard Arzneimittel
Engelhard Arzneimittel GmbH & Co. KG, based in Niederdorfelden just outside Frankfurt am Main, is one of the leading manufacturers of branded OTC (over-the-counter) medicines. Its core expertise includes respiratory therapeutics and self-medication products for skin conditions. Well-established brands such as Prospan® and isla® are highly effective, well tolerated, and suitable for the entire family—from infants to older patients. Over more than 140 years, what began as a pharmacy in 1872 has evolved into an international company with more than 450 employees in Germany and partners in over 100 countries worldwide.
Central, Digital, and Fully Transparent Contract Management
With more than 450 employees, Engelhard Arzneimittel is a leading manufacturer of OTC medicines, manufacturing well-known brands such as Prospan® and isla®. As a modern organization, it needed to continuously adapt internal processes and structures to the demands of digital transformation. “We were looking for a centralized, digital solution for managing contracts across the company while enabling departments to manage their contracts independently,” says Michael Brauers, IT Business Partner at Engelhard Arzneimittel.
To find a suitable solution that meets these and other requirements, Engelhard Arzneimittel first developed a detailed requirements catalog. The company’s key requirements included the central management of contract documents in digital records, granting all employees authorization-based access at any time, as well as legally compliant and audit-proof archiving of all documents. A key concern for the employees was staying abreast of contract deadlines and obligations, ensuring timely renegotiations of contracts to avoid additional costs by adhering to termination periods. In addition, the company required a user-friendly software design with a web interface that could be seamlessly integrated into its existing SAP landscape.
Cross-Functional Contract Management
At Engelhard Arzneimittel, contract management has been a cross-functional topic from the very beginning. “With the contract management software, a system is now in place that is fully integrated into the existing SAP eenvironment, supporting various SAP modules in the individual departments and interacting with them,” says Brauers.
The contract management system processes contract-relevant data from the respective SAP modules, including master data (e.g., customer or supplier data), authorizations, terms, and retention obligations. All relevant information can be displayed directly in the contract management system and synchronized with the corresponding SAP modules.
Given the sensitive nature of contract data, Engelhard Arzneimittel placed strong emphasis on role-based access control and finely tuned authorization concepts. All entries and changes to a process are logged in an audit-compliant manner.
Full Control of Appointments and Deadlines
To improve operational efficiency and planning reliability, Engelhard required automated management of appointments and deadlines. According to project stakeholders, this represents one of the key value drivers of the system. Since contracts typically also entail financial obligations, it is all the more important to keep track of all relevant conditions, including the agreed services and considerations as well as appointments and deadlines that define the timeline for the contractual obligations. That is why the contract management system includes detailed features to remind users of due dates and payment obligations. It also allows invoicing and payment plans to be stored and checked against invoices. Functions that would require extensive custom development in a document mangement system are included in the standard scope of the valantic solution.
Today, responsible stakeholders receive timely email notifications when contract or retention periods expire or termination periods are approaching. “The implementation of the solution has noticeably accelerated processes and created the transparency we had hoped for,” summarizes Dr. Markus Schäfermeyer, Director Information Technology.
From Kickoff to Productive Use of the Contract Management Software
After Engelhard compiled the initial requirements catalog, expert teams from valantic and the pharmaceutical manufacturer came together to determine the company’s contract management requirements in detail. This included developing an authorization concept, classifying the company-specific contract types, and estimating the number of contracts in the individual departments. The solution went live in just under six months—a very fast implementation considering the size and complexity of the project. “We always received competent support, and inquiries were processed quickly. Overall, valantic distinguished itself through a high level of implementation expertise,” recalls Dr. Markus Schäfermeyer.
Simplified Management
As with any changes to established processes, some workflows had to be adjusted during and after the implementation of the contract management system. Internal change management at Engelhard helped implement the revised process flows. “Initially, some employees were skeptical because of the additional effort required to enter contracts, but we quickly recognized how much the new system streamlines contract management and monitoring,” says Alexander Schumann, who is responsible for contract management in the legal department at Engelhard Arzneimittel.
While many contracts were previously only available in paper form and it was difficult to keep track of deadlines, users now save a significant amount of time. A consistent folder structure improves transparency and makes it easier to monitor and adhere to appointments and deadlines. This also applies to archiving periods and GDPR requirement. In the system, everything can be defined for each individual contract. This allows the legal department to manage more than 1,000 contracts.
Optimized Contract-Related Processes
Driven by the desire for efficient organizational processes, Engelhard opted for modern software. Instead of using paper-based records and decentralized Excel spreadsheets, the more than 450 employees at the company’s German headquarters now manage all contracts digitally. “We now have a complete overview of the company’s contractual landscape and can reliably meet all contractual deadlines,” says Marc Braun, Head of Legal at Engelhard.It was possible to terminate or update contracts with ongoing payment obligations that were no longer required. Cumbersome searches for contracts in extensive paper records and long search and waiting times, are a thing of the past.
Encouraged by the successful implementation and by how positively employees responded to the new contract management system, Engelhard plans to introduce automated document generation in the future. This would enable the independent and time-efficient generation of contracts, standard correspondence, and template-based emails.
