Owens & Minor Case Study

Robocom

CASE STUDY: Owens & Minor

sOlutiOn snApshOt

A Quarter of a Century and Counting: Robocom helps Owens & Minor maximize its operations and deliver competitive advantage for over 25 years

With revenue of $8.12B in 2010, and ranked #283 on the current Fortune 500 list, Owens & Minor, Inc. (NYSE: OMI) is the nation’s leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies to the acute-care market, and a leading provider of healthcare supply chain management solutions. The company’s 5,100 employees across 55 distribution centers and a corporate headquarters serve 4,500 hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, alternate care providers, and the federal government with a comprehensive offering of medical and surgical products. [pic 1]

For over 25 years, Owens & Minor has leveraged Robocom’s technology and industry expertise as part of its strategic growth strategy. Owens & Minor first implemented Robocom’s ERP platform in 1986, a system it refers to as OMNI. And in 1997, the company purchased Robocom’s warehouse management system (WMS). Since that time, Owens & Minor’s business has changed significantly as the company evolved from being a wholesale distributor into a comprehensive supply chain solutions provider.

Rick Mears, Senior Vice-President and Chief Information Officer for Owens & Minor, explains: “Our business has become far more sophisticated and complex over the years. Where customers once looked to us simply for fulfillment of supply orders, they now rely on us for comprehensive supply chain management solutions—expecting

the right product, at the right place, at the right time, at the right price. The flexibility of our underlying Robocom technology has given us the ability to leverage our existing investment while continuously evolving our systems to meet the changing demands of               our business.”

When Owens & Minor initially implemented Robocom, the technology integration requirements were straightforward: they needed the ability to interface with a hospital’s ERP system. Today, OMNI must connect with over 20 applications, including order management, inventory, customer service, purchasing, rebates, pricing, billing, A/R and A/P. And customer demand requires Web-based self-service, so they can shop, create, track or amend orders, check inventory, pay bills, print invoices, and more. The underlying Robocom technology has enabled all of that change to take place.

Business ChAllenGe To support the rapidly changing demands of the market and its customers, Owens & Minor needed to evolve from a wholesale distributor into a comprehensive supply chain solutions provider.

ROBOCOM sOlutiOn

For over 25 years, the company has leveraged Robocom’s technology and industry expertise as part of its strategic growth strategy, first implementing Robocom’s ERP platform and then customizing the solution over the years to meet its changing business needs.

Results

Instead of spending the $100 million it would cost to rewrite or replace their existing system, Robocom technology enabled Owens & Minor to customize its system while retaining valuable existing business logic. And the flexibility to make changes to the system when and how it wants to gives Owens & Minor