Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Finds Partner in Software Migration
CASE STUDIES
4 min read
4 min read
An initiative focused on reducing costs and improving inter-business unit efficiency led the leading pharmaceutical manufacturer to look at its business intelligence tools. Led by its Global Business Intelligence (GBI) unit, it identified a migration from IBM® Cognos to SAP BusinessObjects as being a key element of the project.
Less than a year away from carrying out the migration, the company found itself facing an IBM contract renewal. With the GBI team unable to immediately deploy SAP BusinessObjects, it faced the prospect of having to renew the contract and upgrade the systems to a supported version of Cognos just to keep it running for the handful of months it would be using it.
With the annual software maintenance fee reaching $1.4 million for the Cognos estate, the GBI team began to search for an alternative to the vendor’s software support model.
A mainstay in the Fortune 100, the pharmaceutical manufacturer operates more than 60 plants globally and is sold in over 120 countries. It has a vast IBM digital estate and is considered a leader in its field.
Pharmaceutical
Large
USA
IBM Cognos
The pharmaceutical manufacturer had a history of sourcing third-party support for its applications and so it believed a similar solution would be feasible for Cognos.
Working alongside the Business Technology Procurement team, the GBI team engaged Origina for software support. Origina would be able to provide the support for just $672,000 – a huge reduction in annual costs – as well as a reliable Service Level Agreement (SLA) and technical expertise and assistance during the migration.
The size of the company meant there were multiple divisions that would have to sign off on the switch to Origina, and not everyone was excited by it. However, the teams successfully argued in favor of Origina given the credible business case: expertise in implementing an IT roadmap, the opportunity to maintain stable systems and over $700,000 in savings.
The transition went smoothly, with the size of the estate and the number of stakeholders in the project not having an impact.
Just months away from leaving its Cognos estate behind in favor of a migration to SAP BusinessObjects, the pharmaceutical manufacturer was able to avoid getting locked into a lengthy contract that would cost the business more than it’s worth.
The savings it gained were expected to cover the entire cost of completing the global migration from Cognos to BusinessObjects. Further funds would contribute to future initiatives as well.
“Origina’s service would save $728,000, so it was nearly impossible to make a case against choosing third-party support.”
Origina’s support team assisted the pharmaceutical manufacturer in maintaining the estate’s stability until the migration was complete. The technology procurement team was also happy with the move away from IBM.
“Origina does what it says it’ll do. There are no surprises with Origina, which makes us very happy.”
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