• Cenfarte, Centro Farmacéutico del Norte, has entrusted DocPath‘s Business Suite Pro solution for its electronic invoicing and automating its invoice generation and distribution processes
• According to the company’s own calculations, in one year, it will do away with issuing 120.000 sheets of paper. This will suppose a considerable cost reduction for the company
Atlanta, June 16, 2010 – Cenfarte, Centro Farmacéutico del Norte, distributor of specialized pharmaceutical and health products with offices in the northern regions of Spain: Asturias, Palencia, Vizcaya and Cantabria, has entrusted DocPath for automating its invoice generation and distribution processes.
Founded in 1942 by a group of pharmacists, Cenfarte has had its own Systems department since 1984, the year in which it computerized all the processes of the company. Thanks to this technology commitment, this organization has consolidated its position in the pharmaceutical sector and has become a synonym of modernity.
The company has taken on many technology projects since then. Warehouse automation, electronic management of orders and real-time stock transmission have been some of the most important. However, there were some aspects related to logistic processes that until very recently had not been tackled.
Objective: a paperless office
Cenfarte was generating about 5.000 paper invoices a month. Every one of the invoices had to be printed and sent by messenger to the pharmaceutical customers, a process which implied great cost and an excessive amount of paper consumption.
On acquiring DocPath Business Suite Pro, Daniel de la Peña, Cenfarte’s Systems Manager, said: “Management is very committed to the environment and believed it was necessary to implement some type of solution that would support generating and emailing electronic invoices. This is the only way we could automate the process and meet one of the most important objectives of the company: doing away with printing and implementing a genuine paperless office environment.”
As a first step, the organization considered different electronic invoicing options. Finally, it chose DocPath Business Suite Pro, as de la Peña explained: “We chose this solution because it was more complete than the rest of the products of this type in the market. Being based on standards, it was easy to integrate with our applications and best of all, not only did it allow us to generate and distribute electronic invoices, it also offered us the possibility of designing and putting on the Internet any kind of document, which will open a way for us in the future to expand our ecological policy regarding the elimination of paper.”
Ecological solutions that generate savings
The implementation process began in January, 2010 and only two months later, the solution was already operating at full capacity. In order to communicate the news of this new service to its customers, Cenfarte organized an awareness campaign where it explained the benefits of the new form of invoicing. “In a little over two months, we’ve gotten 10 percent of our customers to accept receiving their invoices by email, and by the end of the year we hope that one out of every two will follow this procedure,” indicated de la Peña.
Although it is still early to make a detailed assessment, Cenfarte has already begun to obtain the first returns on its investment, as de la Peña explained: “Customers that are receiving their invoices by email are perceiving greater immediacy in our service. Before, an invoice could take a couple of days to reach its destination. Now, in a matter of seconds, customers can have them on their computers, which supposes an authentic innovation in the pharmaceutical sector.”
Pharmacies are not the only beneficiaries of this system. In only two months, the company has been able to save 3.000 euros on paper and ink, savings that will increase as the rest of its customers accept the new system. According to the company’s own calculations, in one year, it will do away with issuing 120.000 sheets of paper.
Invoices were the first documents that Cenfarte wanted to be able to email its customers. However, they won’t be the last. “We process a serious volume of information, not only invoices, but also bank statements, quarterly reports, etc. Our intention is to stop printing all this documentation and to be able to email it. With DocPath Business Suite Pro, we’re prepared to do it,” concluded de la Peña.