Beyond Upgrades
CMS OVERHAULS BIOSCIENCE TRANSPORTATION ADMINISTRATION
The Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE: ABI), an Applera Corporation division serving the life science industry and research community, has demonstrated its position as a technology leader and driving force in the changing dynamics of the life science marketplace.
Case Study Overview
Rapid growth due to changing dynamics, continuous innovation and increasing global operations will challenge the business processes of even the best organizations. During times of growth and expansion, maximizing logistical and supply chain strengths while maintaining efficiencies can be an enterprise-wide challenge impacting all aspects of systems administration throughout an organization.
The Applied Biosystems Group faced such a challenge. The company, with an installed base of approximately 180,000 instrument systems in nearly 100 countries, was unable to effectively keep up with the increased, global demand of its products due to the company’s dependence on sorely dated, uncentralized and disparate transportation management systems. Their reliance of such systems hindered everything from the ability to access accurate and timely data, the shipment of dangerous goods and overall customer service and fulfillment levels.
Enter CMS GlobalSoft. Applied Biosystems exited its obsolete transportation management solution and deployed CMS WorldLink, a browser-based, transportation managment solution designed to centralize and simplify transportation management processes.
We needed a flexible solution that would allow us both the room to grow and the ability to make future changes to business processes as needed. CMS WorldLink allowed us the flexibility we needed to govern our global shipping systems with scalability and ease.
David Windsheimer
Senior Director of Global Logistics, Applied Biosystems
Applied Biosystems Challenges
Outdated shipping systems caused years of inefficiently-related expenditures & opportunity costs
Applied Biosystems had endured years of inefficiency in its shipping management. These inefficiencies resulted in millions of dollars of lost opportunities for the company. Motivated by the promise of enhanced productivity and multi-million dollar cost savings, Applied Biosystems set out to overhaul their company-wide shipping processes from the ground up.
The company’s vast transportation logistics makeover began by addressing numerous business processes and technology needs in an effort to do away with obsolete systems and dated infrastructure. In their extensive effort to accurately define their requirements, Applied Biosystems determined one of the many mission-critical goals of any newly implemented shipping system would require the centralization of consistent, accurate and timely data that could be accessed from any location, 24 x 7.
The need for more standardization
In addition to accessing centralized data with ease, Applied Biosystems also needed to eliminate inconsistencies in its worldwide transportation management processes. Because staff were attempting to access data and important logistical information from disparate systems, processes and shipping management services were fraught with inefficiencies that routinely cost the company thousands of wasted dollars. Standardizing and simplifying both processes and technology became a priority to improve global distribution of Applied Biosystems human health, research technologies and diagnostic products to the international marketplace.
The Perfect Fit
Applied Biosystems selected CMS GlobalSoft’s shipping management solution, CMS WorldLink, as the company’s enterprise-wide global transportation logistics tool. CMS WorldLink simplified company-wide shipping systems by allowing Applied Biosystems to standardize its shipping processes and systems configurations across numerous warehouses based on its own needs and criteria. While the tool allows for customization for site-specific needs, the standardization has allowed Applied Biosystems to do away with the inconsistencies and resource-consuming customizations of its past.
In addition to standardization, CMS WorldLink is a browser-accessible live system, allowing Applied Biosystems logistics managers and team members alike to access vital shipping data when needed, no matter their location.
Moreover, by integrating their own business rules with the additional “E-Motion” and “Dangerous Goods Packaging” modules, Applied Biosystems has successfully overcome carrier hurdles, eliminated user labeling errors and increased package throughput to its many worldwide delivery destinations. Due to the biological nature of some of the company’s products, the “Dangerous Goods Packaging” module further allows the company to readily prepare a dangerous goods manifest per carrier requirements.
A More Effective Global Company
Applied Biosystems abandoned its obsolete transportation management system riddled with incompatible data and deployed CMS WorldLink, a browser-based, enterprise-wide, application-based solution designed to centralize business-critical data, simplify transportation management processes, cut costs and create real-value efficiencies within global shipping systems. To date, Applied Biosystems has enjoyed million-dollar cost savings year after year since its implementation of CMS WorldLink, a robust transportation managment solution. As the company continues to grow, it continues to manage its expanded global shipping operations via CMS WorldLink. Significant savings in time, money and resources have made CMS WorldLink an invaluable shipping management tool, allowing the company to better administer the worldwide distribution of its human health and biotechnology products throughout Europe, Asia and beyond!
