Digital collaboration – efficiency everywhere

High quality medicines at an affordable price – that is the mission of the leading importer of pharmaceuticals: kohlpharma. The hidden champion from Merzig, Germany, buys pharmaceuticals from EU countries at low cost and passes the savings on to cost carriers in healthcare. In light of demographic change and increasing healthcare costs, kohlpharma thus provides more people with access to affordable drugs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pharmaceutical importer kohlpharma faced the challenge of enabling its employees to work remotely within the shortest possible period of time, while also meeting the strictest data protection and compliance standards for critical infrastructures. In the past, the company had already gained experience with digital communication platforms, however without achieving broad acceptance. The present goal was not only to create a reliable digital framework for communication and collaboration, but also to integrate employees into the change process and deepen their individual digital expertise. It was therefore the perfect project for Fujitsu. Fujitsu and kohlpharma have enjoyed a trust-based collaborative relationship in the area of storage for many years now.

"We value Fujitsu as a reliable partner on an equal footing," explains Stefan Pistorius, who heads the System Administration and Support Group at kohlpharma. "We were therefore pleased to have Fujitsu at our side when it came to the digital transformation of our work processes and culture, giving us the accustomed high consultation quality and outstanding dedication."

This change process began with an inspiration workshop with Fujitsu, an expert for implementing Microsoft 365 solutions. It was followed by a best-practice workshop. A third workshop focused on the analysis of kohlpharma's current IT landscape, including customer-specific requirements for cybersecurity, compliance, employee training needs and the anticipated acceptance. Microsoft Teams quickly emerged as the best cloud-based platform for sharing information and for the joint project work.

The secure infrastructure, which permitted a new kind of digital work, was set up in two days. "Fujitsu organized the entire provisioning process, including what are now 640 Teams licenses, and adapted the infrastructure to our strict security requirements. In the end, our only job was to provide the office equipment, so that all office employees were fully prepared to work from home," Pistorius reports.

Migrating to a digital collaboration solution not only enabled kohlpharma to ensure smooth operations during the pandemic, but employee satisfaction also increased noticeably, thanks to the flexibility that goes along with remote work. Approximately 300 employees are therefore now taking advantage of the option to work from home permanently or on a regular basis. Johannes Reinert, member of the kohlpharma executive board, is also happy with the successful move to the new work culture. "I can see how this past year has changed the way we work, yet without negatively impacting the result of our activities in any way."