Karma Healthcare moves for a healthy change

CUSTOMER BACKGROUND

Life can get better when you are in control. And control is exactly what Karma Healthcare has been rendering to thousands of physically-challenged people across the world. It is also the reason behind the company’s decision to implement Ramco ERP on Cloud.

Established in 1987, Karma Medical Corporation, headquartered out of Taiwan, has been providing mobility solutions for the physically challenged in over 40 countries. Products like manual wheelchairs, power wheelchairs, and scooters produced by the company have enabled the physically challenged to enter the mainstream living and aspire to a more active lifestyle. The company works in close collaboration with therapists in Australia, France, Japan and the UK.

With over 100 patents to its credit, including several industry-standard technologies, it is little wonder that the company has been receiving a slew of awards. Some of the notable ones are the “Brand New Star” granted by TEBA (Taiwan Excellent Brand Association), the “2010 PACE Zenith Awards” for ATIGRA — mid-wheel drive wheelchair and the 2008 “Better Technology Awards”. It was also selected as the preferred wheelchair brand by the Chinese Paralympic delegation.

In India, the company operates as Karma Healthcare Ltd., based out of Kolkata. A new manufacturing plant is expected to open in Chennai shortly. Apart from Chennai and Kolkata, the company has 11 branches in India and hopes to expand to accommodate 24 new branches in the near future.

FAST GROWTH REQUIRES FASTER DECISIONS

“The company is at a critical point in its growth. With its rapid expansion plans, automating key processes was crucial”, says D.N. Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer, Karma Healthcare. They realized that an efficient ERP solution could cater to their multi-branch and multi-location requirements, besides giving them better control over inventory and customs-related values. It would also help them get a stronger grip over consignment trade processes, stock transfers, repacking and reprocessing, and stock & cash flow monitoring.

Since its inception in India in 2007, the company had been using a very popular financial software. However, as the company began to expand, they found that this product could no longer keep up to their burgeoning needs, or address their desperate requirement for business intelligence. It automated their basic inventory, excise and accounting processes, but did nothing more

“We could not glean meaningful information from the system or take decisions because it did not support report generation”, says Kamal Ghiya, Implementation Partner for Ramco. Report generation required months of effort and the changes could not be captured in real-time. The manual reports came with the risk of deviations and inaccuracies.

What the company needed was a single window by which the disparate processes could be drawn together to provide keen business insights, besides helping them formulate savvy market strategies.

“While we were scouting for ERP solutions, we made a detailed search for all the products. Our need was a world-class solution at Indian costs – something that would not push us for undue investment requirements at this stage of the company. That way, Ramco ERP on Cloud was exactly what we were looking for. The flexibility of customization and the pay-per-use model has been a boon for us. It also offered us anytime, anywhere access which was crucial considering our pan-India presence”, notes Mr. Trivedi.

GREAT KARMA WITH RAMCO ERP ON CLOUD

The company was able to go live in less than 11 days. Though there were apprehensions about migrating information from the older system to Ramco ERP on Cloud, the transition turned out to be pretty smooth. “We were able to carry out this part perfectly,” says a delighted Kamal. “Right from 2007, every piece of information that the company had was migrated to the new system.”

The moving process also entailed a 20-day classroom training program for 10 users from the company. Says Mr. Trivedi, “Since implementing Ramco ERP on Cloud, we’re glad to say that we finally have the much-needed insight. Today, thanks to Ramco ERP on Cloud, we have intelligent reports spanning particular segments (eg. city-wise reports, customer-wise reports, etc.) and we’ve integrated information across several channels. Real-time information has helped us formulate our plans for the company’s future, especially with regard to expansion. Now, we know our strengths and the areas that we will have to focus on. I can confidently say that Ramco ERP on Cloud has maximized our effectiveness and we hope to see tangible results very soon.”

Ramco is currently in the process of providing the company with customized reports. “We have already completed 70 percent of the task. Once this is accomplished, the company can look forward to even more insightful analyses”, says Kamal.

CAN RAMCO DO IT FOR YOU?

To find out more on how Ramco can answer your needs, just drop in a mail to contact@ramco.com or visit us at www.ramco.com