Nobel Health Technology’s Professional Services Optimized through Adoption of ERP System With Strengths in Functions, Cost and Brand Name,
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Enabled Corporate Management TransformationlBrand Name
“Considering the nine major cycles of the company’s internal control, Dynamics ERP can help the business operate in more digitalized and scientific ways and enables effective integration of internal information and external resources. These will allow us to support clinics to remain focused on providing good quality medical services while helping the company explore opportunities for lateral integration.” – Dr. Chao-Kai Chang, CEO of Taiwan Nobel Medical Group
As Taiwan Nobel Medical Group (the Group) developed itself into a healthcare enterprise, it demonstrated benefits of professional division of labor by creating Taiwan Nobel Health Technology (Nobel Health Tech) which provides healthcare management services to the Group’s clinics, and by implementing an ERP system with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for enhancing its internal audit and control as well as process improvement. All these are expected to contribute to the Group’s objective of becoming a listed company.
Dr. Chao-Kai Chang, CEO of the Group said “Considering the nine major cycles of the company’s internal control, Dynamics ERP can help the business operate in more digitalized and scientific ways and enables effective integration of internal information and external resources. These will allow us to support clinics to remain focused on providing good quality medical services while helping the company explore opportunities for lateral integration.”
Fulfillment of listed company requirement through adoption of ERP system
Ophthalmology and aesthetic surgery are the two pillars of Taiwan Nobel Medical Group, which owns 8 clinics across Taiwan. As independent company, Nobel Health Tech provides professional healthcare management services to the Group’s clinics including supplies of consumables, group purchasing, manpower dispatch, and venue and equipment rental.
Nobel Health Tech also develops cross-industry alliances such as the brick-and-mortar shops opened end of last year under its ophthalmology clinic’s collaboration with a popular eyeglasses brand. The company’s next objective is to enter the biotechnology market, which involves participation in research, development and manufacturing of medical products. The company will continue to expand its service coverage to clinics outside of the Group, and may even serve medium- and small-sized clinics in China with its professional experience in hierarchically integrated healthcare and management.
According to Kang-Nian Chiang, CFO of Nobel Health Tech, considering the company’s plan to become listed in 1-2 years, prior practice of using book-keeping software and engaging with external accountants has to be changed. The company’s financial and IT teams therefore started a selection process for anERP system at the end of 2015.
The solution evaluation covered ERP systems of multiple well-known domestic and foreign brands. Some systems are huge, with burdensome introduction cost and project timeline; some require substantial customization and thus making system maintenance and supporting manpower a difficult issue.
In comparison, Microsoft Dynamics 365 best meets Nobel Health Tech’s needs in system scale and total cost of ownership (TCO), while its complete functions guarantee support for future growth. Most importantly, standardized introduction is available. Even if customization needs arise later, adjustments may be made by internal IT personnel familiar with the Microsoft environment.
Enhanced internal audit and control & optimized operation process
With support from K&S Inform, Nobel Health Tech completed the first stage go-live of Microsoft Dynamics 365 at the end of 2016. The ERP function module adopted included fixed asset, bookkeeping voucher, account receivable and account payable. With the second stage go-live will come the Purchase, Sales & Inventory (PSI) module, which is estimated to be completed in the second half of 2017.
Chiang pointed out that K&S Inform played a supporting role behind Nobel Health Tech’s adoption of Microsoft Dynamics 365. During the process K&S provided comprehensive documents and timely response and solution to Nobel’s questions, while also sharing experiences from other user companies, thus facilitating conclusion of the project according to the scheduled timeframe.
One of the benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is reduction of manmade errors and timely identification of errors. Nobel Health Tech used to rely on Excel for table creation and data entry, but errors were uncovered only at the year-end settlement or even during the taxation season in the following year, not to mention that corrections could be made only based on employees’ memory. In comparison, the ERP system enhances the level of internal audit and control since all processes must be carried out following SOP, and that all traces of the process are well preserved due to careful design of the system. It has now become easier and faster to identify and correct errors once they occur.
According to IT specialist Chih-Jui Chiang of Nobel Health Tech, the user interface of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is very similar to that of Office and therefore is easy to adopt. Through introduction of the ERP system, Nobel simultaneously updated its overall IT environment including replacing hardware to alleviate burden on operations and enhance efficiency, as well as adoption of Office 365. The new interface with its easiness of use has been positively recognized by users.
Introduction of PSI and CRM for supporting future growth
The strong report creation functions of Microsoft Dynamics 365 allow Nobel Health Tech to provide more specialized reports for clinics such as employee attendance, and bonus calculation. The PSI module to be introduced soon will lay the bedrock for the company to truly implement professional division of labor, while also making it easy to accurately monitor its costs.
Before, procurement was almost entirely done independently by the clinics, but going forward Nobel Health Tech will negotiate prices and make bulk purchases before reselling the supplies to each clinic. This allows Nobel to play the role of a one-stop service portal instead of having each clinic engage with different, multiple suppliers, and thereby simplifies receipt management, cheque issuance and payment, making the operation smoother and more systematized.
Since patients of the two major businesses under Taiwan Nobel Medical Group mostly pay out-of-pocket (instead of using the government-supported insurance) for services of higher unit prices, Nobel Health Tech plans to introduce also the CRM system of Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help clinics record, track and respond to customers’ needs. The CRM system will strengthen the clinics’ connection with their customers, and can be connected with the existing ERP system for seamless data management.
Kang-Nian Chiang commented, “Microsoft Dynamics 365 has complete and diversified functions. We can first create basic application with ERP system and then scale up function modules such as PSI and CRM, in order to fulfill new or expanded requirements. Adopting ERP and CRM systems of a globally well-known brand will also help attract foreign customers and even help the company expand its professional healthcare management services to areas outside of Taiwan.”