The consumer cooperative's 45 pharmacies COOP Pharmacies generate massive amounts of data. Alistar iimplemented Power BI software that enables the organization to quickly visualize and analyze those data streams. Based on those insights, COOP-Apotheken determines its priority projects and areas of focus.
COOP-Apotheken is an independent, sustainable, and innovative consumer cooperative with 45 pharmacies, which also handles the repackaging of medications for 65 residential care centers throughout Flanders. The organization relies on Alistar to handle its IT infrastructure and solutions. COOP-Apotheken’s headquarters has been using Navision as its accounting system since 2009. It was due for an update—a sign for the cooperative that it was time for a new to make progress in terms of performance.
With Power BI, we can quickly get an objective view of our data flows
Jelle Ketels, Project Manager at Coop Apotheken
Faster data processing
“It was important to us that learning to work with the new solution wouldn’t require too much effort on the part of our employees,” says Jelle Ketels (financial analyst and internal project manager at COOP Pharmacies). “We were also looking for a way to to process available data even more efficiently ”and, above all, to use it to boost our efficiency." COOP Pharmacies adopted Microsoft Business Central as an ERP system. To gain maximum insight into the processes, Alistar also implemented Power BI, with comprehensive reporting tailored to the customer's needs.
Secure Business Intelligence with Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is Business Intelligence and Reporting-Software that provides insights to both small and large businesses through data analysis. You can effortlessly connect various data sources and combine that data into reports and visual dashboards. Employees can also easily use it themselves to create their own lists, charts, and overviews with just a few clicks. The built-in AI helps highlight interesting trends, and the advanced data security features ensure that your business intelligence remains secure.
Power BI provides an objective view
Jelle Ketels: “Our 45 pharmacies use specialized pharmacy POS software. It generates massive amounts of data. Which pharmacy sells which products at what times to what types of customers? When is it busy at which pharmacy? How many employees are needed at each location at any given time? What is the turnover rate for a specific product? What percentage of their revenue do the pharmacies source from our preferred wholesaler…? In short, a wealth of data that, when fully anonymized, provides very useful business insights. Thanks to Power BI, we can quickly gain an objective view of those data streams.”
Invaluable time savings
After three years of intensive use, COOP Pharmacies can take stock of the Power BI software. “A single tool provides us with all the useful insights we need to guide our strategic decisions,” says Jelle Ketels. “It’s not easy to quantify the time saved in hours, but I would describe it as… priceless! In no time at all, we identify priority projects and the main pain points. At the same time, we keep a close eye on every market development. That way, we always allocate the most people to the most relevant projects.”
A cross-pollination
Alistar’s implementation of Power BI went exceptionally smoothly at COOP Pharmacies. “Back-and-forth communication is extremely important in the initial phase,” says Jelle Ketels. “We specified what insights we wanted and how we wanted to visualize them. Alistar then assessed our requirements against the capabilities of Power BI. You learn a lot from that intense interaction. ”Once the solution was finalized, it turned out that a brief training session was all that was needed to get started."
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