Hologic, Inc. Supports Growing Women’s Health Company with Upgraded Business Systems
 
 

Hologic, Inc. Supports Growing Women’s Health Company with Upgraded Business Systems

Printer View Printer View

Hologic, Inc. is a leading developer, manufacturer, and supplier of premium diagnostic products, medical imaging systems, and surgical products for women’s health. It is a market leader in mammography and breast biopsy, breast magnetic resonance imaging, radiation treatment for early-stage breast cancer, cervical cancer screening, treatment for menorrhagia and uterine fibroids, permanent contraception, osteoporosis assessment, preterm birth risk assessment, mini C-arm for extremity imaging, and molecular diagnostic products, including human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.

With operations in more than 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, and China, and more than a dozen locations across the United States, Hologic manages a complex network of business operations. Also, as a medical product and equipment manufacturer, it must comply with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations as well as those of corresponding regulatory agencies in other countries.

 
Challenges and Solutions

A word from Hologic, Inc.

  • “Oracle has been a key partner to Hologic as we have grown and expanded internationally, and Oracle E-Business Suite plays a vital role as the foundation of our operations, helping us save women’s lives every day.” – Paul Malenchini, Vice President, Enterprise Applications and Program Management, Hologic, Inc.

Hologic runs its business on Oracle applications, including Oracle E-Business Suite Release. The company’s original deployment in 2002 was upgraded several times providing the critical scalability to support the company's active acquisition and robust growth, which over eight-year period saw it grow from a US$150 million company to a US$1.8 billion enterprise. Oracle’s flexible applications and a proven process that Hologic’s IT team developed for quickly integrating new companies were instrumental in helping the organization manage and make the most of its rapid growth.

Hologic wanted to continue to optimize its business processes and get the most from its enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment, so it initiated an upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.

“We wanted to close the books faster. We wanted to take more orders without adding more order takers. All of these efficiencies rely on the stability of Oracle E-Business Suite,” said Paul Malenchini, VP of Appplications and Program Management, Hologic, Inc.

“Oracle E-Business Suite is part of our enterprise applications foundation and we consider it to be an enabling system,” said Dave Rudzinsky, senior vice president and chief information officer., Hologic, Inc. “The upgrade to Release 12.1 would give us an opportunity to go back and fine tune business processes. We could look for business value and explore how we can help the company to achieve its goal of making better quality and more innovative technologies for women’s health. We could find ways to help drive revenue while reducing costs.”

The company also wanted to benefit from new features, including expanded capability for sub-ledger accounting, improved productivity in order management, thanks to a simplified user interface, and enhanced tools for recruiters and managers in Oracle iRecruitment. Also, the Oracle E-Business Suite version Hologic was using was no longer supported and would eventually result in more costly support fees. Lastly, Hologic believed the upgrade would improve its ability to integrate other applications and help move it toward Oracle Fusion applications, according to Rudzinsky.

To achieve these goals, Hologic upgraded to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1, while simultaneously upgrading its Agile applications. Hologic runs a single global instance of Oracle E-Business Suite and, rather than roll out the upgrade one country at a time, it chose a “big bang” upgrade.

The global upgrade took less than six months from initial planning to go-live. Today, more than 1,000 business users regularly access the system, with 100 to 150 super users across five lines of business using it heavily, and several thousand self-service users accessing it occasionally for tasks, such as submitting procurement requests or retrieving employee benefits information.

Overall, the upgrade has improved usability and functionality. Hologic has benefited from greater efficiency across numerous business processes. For example, Hologic’s accounting office, which runs as a shared services center, achieved the desired five-day global account close at the end of the fiscal year, just two months after going live on the upgrade.

During the implementation, Hologic also added a few new modules, including Oracle Performance Management, which integrates with existing human resources (HR) modules and gives the company a more comprehensive platform for efficiently managing employee performance measures and encouraging greater productivity.

 
 

 
 

Oracle Product and Services

Implementation Process

Hologic managed the upgrade with an executive steering committee and a 100-person global core team, which included senior management from HR, order administration, contract administration, service, manufacturing supply chain, quality, shipping and distribution, and accounting and finance. The committee also included IT team representatives, including business analysts, applications technical analysts, and business intelligence-reporting analysts, plus a few global consultants. In Italy, Spain, and France, Hologic worked with Oracle Consulting to help localize the system and make adjustments to meet international statutory requirements. Weekly communication among team members was key to the implementation, which spanned more than 10 countries and many time zones. The team also kept other Hologic employees informed through regular e-mail updates and town-hall-style meetings.

“Our motto throughout the implementation was no surprises, no delays. We fulfilled that promise and completed the upgrade on time. We were live at start of business on the scheduled day, and we have certainly had to iron out a few issues, but overall everything went smoothly,” Rudzinsky said.

Partner

In addition to Oracle Consulting, Hologic worked closely with its managed service providers, Oracle Partner Data Intensity and Oracle Partner Apps Associates, during the upgrade to develop its technical integration points and help with issues resolution and regression testing. 

Resources