As one of Australia’s leading IVF and genetic testing clinical providers, Genea boasts industry-leading success rates with its clients being 40 per cent more likely to conceive than the Australian and New Zealand industry average. But when the IVF Group spawned a new clinical supplies business, they realised they needed new system capabilities – and needed them fast.

Challenge

Automated vitrification and embryology are key tools in the science of successful in-vitro fertilisation. Having been in the fertility treatment sector since pioneering the technology in the 1980s, Genea was ready to expand their business. Their “new baby”, Genea Biomedx, was born as a supplier of IVF technology to the wider industry in Australia, New Zealand and further afield. The subsidiary worked as an outlet of Genea’s specialist tools and techniques, which had arisen from a long-running investment in R&D.

But designing, manufacturing and distributing medical supplies and equipment proved very different from running fertility clinics, so Genea quickly recognised that the time was right to implement a more specialised system.

Solution: Infor Warehouse Mobility

With strong plans to expand the business internationally, and with many business processes to be developed off the back of the new software system, the company needed an ERP to be put in place quickly. Infor’s SyteLine (CSI) was chosen and an aggressive project timeline was forced by the demands of the new business.

“Early on in the establishment of Genea Biomedx, we realised a quality ERP system was crucial to the establishment and ongoing success of the business, says Peter Nevin, CIO at Genea. “With our short time frames before going to market, we required a solution to be implemented straight away and Infor provided this. The rollout was seamless and now we have an established programme for the future which can also be rolled out in overseas markets. EMDA took a lead consulting role in the implementation, and in partnership with Infor, we were able to fast-track the rollout of the software from a typical 12-18 months plus timeframe down to just four months.”

Genea’s ERP system needed to be easy to roll out to support rapid growth, scalability and the ability to work across multiple global markets. As a web-based solution that was developed to meet complex sourcing and sales needs of global manufacturers, SyteLine (CSI) fitted the bill on that front too, says Nevin.

“The challenge was to find a web-based system that would support bills of materials that include liquids and chemical formulas, and the complexity that comes with managing the ordering and servicing of hard, physical items such as medical instruments.”

Not least among Genea’s considerations was the need to meet stringent compliance requirements of the industry including important regulations on quality control and quality accreditation. Infor’s ‘Quality Control System’ within SyteLine (CSI) documents all the manufacturing processes and the way materials are sourced, right through to the finished product, which lowered the compliance hurdle for Genera’s new business.

The capabilities that come with the new solution have meant that Nevin is now planning for the replacement of Genea's clinical system with SyteLine (CSI), so that the whole business is consolidated onto just one core system.