The Taksa system serves hundreds of Finnish pharmacies. Crasman carried out a challenging integration project and ensured that the PIM system data is reliable and consistent.

In a nutshell:

Taksa is the Finnish Pharmacy Association's product database, which contains a wealth of product information on medicines, herbal preparations and general goods. The Taksa system is used by around 600 member pharmacies of the Pharmacy Association and hundreds of online pharmacies.

Challenge: Outdated system and poor-quality data

The Taksa was built on technology that is nearly 20 years old and in need of modernization. The Pharmacy Association aimed to find a ready-made PIM platform that could effectively meet their needs. The goal was to avoid unnecessary customisation, thereby enhancing stability and maintainability, and ensuring the system has a long lifespan.

The Taksa product information management is a crucial system for its industry, providing enriched product information to all information systems of the Pharmacy Association member pharmacies, which accounts for the majority of Finnish pharmacies. The product information concerns medicines, so the PIM solution and the product information must be extremely reliable – an error could potentially be life-threatening for pharmacy customers.

– It can rightly be said that the project is critical: a significant portion of Finnish pharmacies operate using the system's information, and if the information in the system is erroneous, its repercussions are massive, explains Markus Manner, Development Manager of the Finnish Pharmacy Association.

Solution: Modern Akeneo platform and tailored product information model

The Pharmacy Association had considered Akeneo as their desired platform, with which Crasman has significant experience. Additionally, the longstanding collaboration between the Pharmacy Association and Crasman made Crasman a natural choice as the system supplier.

During the project, particularly the importance of the specification phase was highlighted. Crasman defined the product structure and integrations and migrations of the PIM system in cooperation with the Pharmacy Association and Akeneo, from which a comprehensive specification documentation for the implementation phase was created.

– I appreciate that Crasman challenges their clients. Their role was crucial in thorough specification and questioning existing practices. Additionally, they carried the entire project with integrations very systematically and carefully, Markus Manner recounts.

Results: A robust system for the future

The new Akeneo-based Taksa is modern, and thanks to standardized data models, its maintainability and usability are at a high level. The practices and models created during the project, as well as supplier independence, ensure that the lifecycle of the system is long. During the project, errors in the previous PIM system were also corrected, so data integrity and quality are in a better state.

– Perhaps even the most important thing for the project's success was that the new product information model has been considered from every angle and is future-proof. By defining the product information model at the same time as the new system, we got everything, so to speak, done in one go, explains Lotta Multimäki, Crasman's PIM expert.

– The renewal brings numerous benefits. The new Taksa enables the same product information to be used by every information system regardless of the customer's service channel. The degree of automation in the system is significantly higher than before. The processing of pharmaceutical products becomes more efficient, which allows for the broader production of enriched information. Additionally, the system is compatible with the global GS1 standard, which facilitates the expansion of productization and the incorporation of new suppliers into Taksa much more easily than before, Markus Manner lists.

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