Top 8 Benefits of ERP for Biotech 

Biotech and life sciences companies face many financial, logistical, and operational challenges, including managing grants, adhering to regulatory and FDA standards, managing potential security risks, and more. That’s why many companies rely on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. ERP for biotech streamlines operations, provides real-time data visibility, and helps business leaders stay on top of all research and development (R&D) activities.  

R&D lies at the heart of biotech operations. It’s also expensive, making it even more important for companies to manage costs and prevent waste. In addition, biotech firms often receive funding from multiple sources, including private investors, grants and public funding, startup loans, and more. Some of these may be designated funds, meaning they can only be spent on a specific project or for a specific purpose, and may have more stringent tracking or auditing requirements. Biotech ERP helps manage this, too, including ensuring that the company is always audit-ready and preventing the mingling of designated and non-designated funds. 

Biotech ERP Benefits

Here is a list of the top eight benefits of biotech ERP. Every ERP implementation is unique, with the software being customized to fit the needs and workflows of each company. However, there are some general benefits that apply to almost every ERP instance. 

1. Streamline Operations & Boost Efficiency – ERP for biotech streamlines operations across the business, including automating workflows and approval processes, improving communication between teams, and providing real-time visibility into all operational and financial data. It automates manual processes and reduces manual data entry. This improves efficiency and eliminates unnecessary or wasteful processes.  

2. Improve Regulatory Compliance – For biotech companies, regulatory and FDA compliance is a big deal. The biotech and life sciences industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world. Biotech ERP software has embedded compliance features that make tracking product safety and maintaining regulatory compliance easier. This reduces the burden on employees and improves regulatory compliance.  

3. Better Security – Biotech firms handle some very sensitive data, including their own proprietary data and patient data. They may be subject to the same HIPPA requirements as medical doctors and medical institutions for protecting patient data. They may also face FDA requirements for managing clinical trials or safety requirements for handling hazardous chemicals and other materials. ERP software contains built-in safeguards and robust security features, including data encryption and role-based permissions that restrict who has access to sensitive data. 

4. Better Quality Assurance – Product safety is an important concern for biotech firms, too. They need to make sure that every product performs exactly as intended, and that every product or batch is identical and of the same high quality. The last thing any biotech or life sciences company needs is a product recall and the associated loss of trust and consumer confidence. Biotech ERP has built-in tools for tracking and managing quality control data, including tools for managing test plans and test equipment, inspections, creating certificates of analysis, and more.  

5. Improved Funding Management – ERPs have robust tools for managing company financials, including reports and dashboards that make it easy to view financial data in real time. Multi-dimensional reporting capabilities allow business leaders to slice and dice data along any dimension they need, including tracking funding by project, source, location, and more. ERPs automatically prevent the mingling of designated and non-designated funds and allow businesses to make sure that they’re using every penny efficiently and exactly as they intended.      

6. Increased Scalability – ERPs improve scalability, allowing business to easily grow or ramp up without production. They also improve flexibility, allowing businesses to quickly adapt to changing market conditions. 

7. Better Inventory & Product Management – Biotech software improves both inventory and product management. They provide end-to-end product traceability from the moment the raw materials enter the pipeline until products are shipped to customers. Advanced product management features streamline production and help business leaders track and manage every part of the production process from planning and development to product delivery.  

8. Improved Risk Management – ERPs improve risk management by allowing companies to better identify and manage potential risk proactively. They also help companies minimize costs and maintain operations even in challenging market conditions. 

Getting the Most Out of Your Biotech ERP

Implementing an ERP is a complicated process. Properly implementing an ERP involves working with a knowledgeable implementation partner who will examine your current processes and procedures and identify any areas where your current systems fall short. Then they’ll work with you to customize your new ERP and any associated systems. 

Companies often get the best benefit out of their ERP when it’s fully integrated with their other systems, such as a CRM or website. At CertiPro, not only are we experts in all things related to biotech ERP and ERP implementations, we’re also an expert in eCommerce integrations and creating personalized Customer Portals. 

Here’s how it works. Our E-Link tool forms a real-time bidirectional sync between the ERP and webstore or Customer Portal. Data like Product Information, Pricing, and Inventory will automatically flow from Sage into the webstore, and new orders from the webstore will be uploaded into Sage for automatic order processing. This means employees don’t have to re-key duplicate data into different systems, or manually download and upload data.  

Placing B2B orders is traditionally a manual and time-consuming process that often requires multiple emails or phone calls. Companies often have negotiated special rates and terms or may require access to specific inventory items. This can be quite difficult to navigate on a webstore without an ERP eCommerce integration like E-Link. With our E-Link tool, even the trickiest B2B customer can log into the Customer Portal and easily place new orders. 

Other customers didn’t need eCommerce functionality but did want to provide a Customer Portal that gave clients instant visibility into the status of grants or ordering tracking information. We can handle that, too. E-Link is a highly flexible tool that our developers can customize in any way our clients need. 

What CertiPro Can Do for You

At CertiPro, we’ve experts in everything related to ERP for biotech. We’ll customize and implement a system that’s perfect for you and your customers. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.