IBS has implemented a complex management system for the Russian representative office of Novartis AG, the Swiss company, a global pharmaceuticals and health care leader.

The Russian representative office of Novartis AG opened shortly before the project commenced. A full-featured management information system was required to support Russian operations of Novartis Consumer Health, a company specializing in prescription-free medications. SAP ERP software, the corporate standard for Novartis AG subsidiaries around the world, was selected as the platform for the management system of the Russian representative office.

IBS won this project based on the results of a tender.

IBS has unrivaled experience of building corporate management systems for multinational companies, with over 30 western companies having used IBS services to implement information systems at their Russian representative offices. This enabled IBS to accumulate valuable expertise in adapting business processes of multinational companies to meet specific local requirements, Russian standards and local regulations. Among other things, IBS offered an important advantage of being able to provide hosting and maintenance services for the hardware and software on which the information system runs.

Working in close cooperation with Swiss colleagues from the SAP Competence Center of Novartis AG, IBS consultants implemented a corporate information system supporting all the most important management functions including financial and management accounting, logistics, procurement and sales management. In addition to local regulatory requirements, requirements specific to multinational pharmaceutical companies had to be complied with in building the system. In particular, the quality control system of IBS passed the validation principles compliance test (a requirement of the GMP industrial standard), which is mandatory for all Novartis AG vendors and guarantees the quality and safety of the company's products.

The corporate management system was implemented within a short timeframe — the basic system functionality was developed in three months. Upon implementation completion, the system was located in the IBS DataFort data center under a three-year agreement signed with IBS DataFort on hardware lease and technical support of the servers and the information system.

Under the agreement, IBS DataFort provides server management and maintenance services including services to ensure continuity of operation and information security, data backup, storage and recovery services, hardware repair and upgrade services and provision of remote access for Novartis AG staff for independent system monitoring and configuration.

IBS also took over support and development of the system implemented, and user support.

According to Alexander Saksin, Deputy Director, Corporate Management Systems Department, IBS, "In order to provide services to a big multinational company a consultancy company needs more than just deep knowledge of requirements specific to business processes of such companies and the ability to align those with local requirements. We know that high vendor reliability and rigorous service quality control are crucial for global companies. While preparing for the Novartis AG project, despite our ISO certificates we had to go through numerous tests to prove that our services and internal processes comply with the customer's quality standards and regulations. The audit confirmed compliance of our procedures with the most rigorous international standards".