- caatoosee software cleanses data to keep field sales staff better informed
- caatoosee CEO Guido Alt: Inroads into the pharmaceuticals market

Leonberg, Germany - May 21, 2003

Generic drugs supplier ratiopharm, based in Ulm, Germany, has purchased the caatoosee iq-server for SAP® CAM for its German and Spanish operations. With the aid of this software, ratiopharm can ensure that the important address data of its business clients some 500,000 hospital, chemist and doctor addresses is permanently free of duplicates. The company opted for the SAP-certified caatoosee product because it wanted to slash the manual overhead involved in checking for duplicates in its SAP® systems and thus target its business partners more efficiently. The software can also handle address data from other countries and help prevent misspellings. All in all, ratiopharm expects the product to make significant savings and achieve a rapid return on investment. The generic drugs specialist is an SAP® development partner for the pharmaceuticals industry, while caatoosee is an SAP® software partner.

Specializing in the development, production and marketing of generic drugs, ratiopharm is Germanys most-prescribed brand of medication, with annual sales of 130 million packets. The company is expecting its recent cost-cutting and deregulation measures to further improve the efficiency of its marketing activities and sharpen its customer focus. But this cannot be achieved without high-quality data. A simple mistake in a street name can lead to a chemists branch being stored twice, pushing up sales and marketing costs. An inadvertent duplicate entry of a doctors surgery can have just the same effect. But such inaccuracies have more serious consequences when it comes to large hospitals. An incorrect department name could cause letters and other documents to either arrive late or go missing completely. Stefan Langthaler, head of business systems at the ratiopharm group, explains: We deal with a highly sensitive customer base. Chemists, doctors and hospital employees expect accurate, up-to-the-minute information from us, so our address data must be flawless. The caatoosee iq-server helps us achieve this. Ultimately, it will improve our entire customer service activities while simultaneously reducing sales and marketing costs. Thats what clinched it for us.

The system is set to go live at ratiopharm in the summer. The caatoosee iq-server for SAP® CAM detects both identical and similar address data, which helps keep central address management data in pristine condition at all times. caatoosee offers two methods of data cleansing: In online mode, the system informs employees of potential duplicates as soon as they enter the data. In batch mode, employees can check entire files for duplicates. For companies utilizing multilingual data, the error-tolerant search capability is a must, as it will immediately locate the right address even if misspelled or incomplete details are entered.

"After SAP and the TÜV NORD GRUPPE, we have been able, in our capacity as SAP software partner, to secure another key customer in SAP development partner ratiopharm," says caatoosee CEO Guido Alt. "This contract will help us make inroads into the pharmaceuticals market. Given the stiff competition in this sector, pharmaceuticals manufacturers must back up their products with a superior level of service for their customers chemists and doctors alike. And accurate address data is fundamental to ensuring this service. caatoosee delivers exactly the right solution for the job."