{"id":8235035,"date":"2018-03-01T18:14:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/study-cases\/alliance-healthcare-digital-transformation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T17:15:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:15:53","slug":"alliance-healthcare-digital-transformation","status":"publish","type":"study_case","link":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/the-case-method\/case-studies\/alliance-healthcare-digital-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Alliance Healthcare \u2013 Digital transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>The Centennial Project will be the greatest challenge in the company\u2019s history. And it will determine the future of all of us. It will be our trial by fire as an Organisation.<\/em>\u201d Tiago Galv\u00e3o Pereira, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Alliance Healthcare Strategic and Operational Plan 2019<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On February 4, 2019, the monthly steering meeting of the Centennial Programme took place, with the participation of the Executive Committee and the Alliance Healthcare information systems team, members of a consultancy firm, and SAP Portugal. The meeting was held at Alliance Healthcare\u2019s premises in Alverca and included, as one of the agenda items, discussion of the deployment scenarios for the new IT system. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Tiago Galv\u00e3o Pereira, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Alliance Healthcare, made his way to the meeting room and looked out of the window towards the warehouse dispatch area, he reflected on recent comments from members of his Executive Committee team: \u201c<em>If we change the IT system in all warehouses simultaneously and we have problems at go-live, we risk losing customers and sales, with irreversible impacts<\/em>\u2026\u201d, \u201c<em>A phased strategy will require extending the project timeline with significant cost increases, which may jeopardise compliance with the budget we set ourselves<\/em>\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The meeting in question was decisive for the future. It was necessary to analyse all scenarios and their respective impacts carefully, both immediate and long-term. At stake was the simultaneous implementation of the system in all the company\u2019s warehouses\u2014a big bang\u2014which left many apprehensive given the risk to the business, or a smoother implementation, phased by warehouse, which would, however, entail higher costs and take longer.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tiago Galv\u00e3o Pereira, who holds a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, co-founded two pharmaceutical distribution companies, completed an Executive Training Programme in Supply Chain and the 15th Executive MBA at AESE Business School. Having previously worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, he is currently a member of the Board of the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF) and an Executive Director of one of the companies in the ANF Group holding, Alliance Healthcare. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tiago was facing one of the greatest challenges since taking up the position of Executive Director of Alliance Healthcare in June 2015, and it was essential to make the right decision. Alliance Healthcare had an obsolete IT system, custom-developed in 2004, which<br\/>no longer met management needs, particularly in a market as competitive as pharmaceutical distribution. Changing the IT system had already been considered previously, in 2013 and 2015; however, only in 2016 was an internal audit\/analysis process carried out in order to assess the need for a systems change.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within Alliance Healthcare\u2019s Executive Committee, the decision was taken to change its information systems, and it was now necessary to define the deployment strategy to be implemented.<br\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Centennial Project will be the greatest challenge in the company\u2019s history. And it will determine the future of all of us. It will be our trial by fire as an Organisation.\u201d Tiago Galv\u00e3o Pereira, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Alliance Healthcare Strategic and Operational Plan 2019 On February 4, 2019, the monthly steering meeting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8235036,"template":"","study_case_category":[556],"class_list":["post-8235035","study_case","type-study_case","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/study_case\/8235035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/study_case"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/study_case"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8235036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8235035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"study_case_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/study_case_category?post=8235035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}