Cimed: Implementing a next-gen technology strategy in the cloud as a novel prescription to sustain ambitious growth
A scalable foundation for constant innovation
Cimed Indústria S.A. opted for the RISE with SAP journey when transitioning its large-scale on-premises IT landscape to SAP Cloud ERP Private on Google Cloud Platform. In reshaping its technology environment in the private cloud, it minimized the infrastructure management burden, while process automation and optimization unlocked big productivity gains.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Life sciences and healthcare | São Paulo, Brazil | >5,000 employees | Delaware Consulting Brazil |
increase in revenue projected within five years.
documents validated for regulatory compliance.
of customizations eliminated by the Cimed team.
IT Manager for SAP projects, Cimed Indústria S.A.
Scaling operations to accommodate massive growth
Cimed Indústria S.A. is a major pharmaceutical company in Brazil with a heritage spanning 48 years and known for brands including Lavitan, Carmed, Cimegripe, K-MED, and Xô Inseto. Over the years, it has developed a presence in more than 90,000 pharmacies nationwide while also serving hospitals and establishing its own e-commerce channels. With a portfolio of over 600 high-quality products, it operates a manufacturing complex in Pouso Alegre, a central distribution center and printing plant in São Sebastião da Bela Vista, and 26 other distribution centers spread throughout Brazil.
The company’s search for more-effective and safer formulas has driven it to invest more than R$90 million (US$16 million) per year to develop its products, even conducting experiments in space through the CimedX project. This initiative performs protein crystallization tests aboard the International Space Station, focusing on the areas of immunology, aging, and vitamin absorption.
Cimed’s standard for high quality and the accessibility of its products have made it one of the fastest-growing companies in the pharmaceutical sector in Brazil over the last decade. With the company growing at twice the industry average rate since 2018, its highly customized operating environment was struggling to keep up. So, when establishing an accelerated growth strategy focused on further doubling its sales volume to R$10 billion by 2030 while supporting expansion to new business units, Cimed seized the momentum to reshape its technology environment.
IT Manager for SAP projects, Cimed Indústria S.A.
Building a future-ready technology foundation supported by nine partners
Cimed’s search for a managed, scalable, and flexible technology foundation to optimize back-office processes, boost efficiency, and support continuous innovation led it to choose the RISE with SAP journey as the cornerstone of its transformation.
Through RISE with SAP, Cimed could set the stage to accelerate its growth agenda and enable process automation and standardization while delivering a unified view of the business and meeting strict compliance requirements.
With the transformation strategy touching the entirety of Cimed’s SAP solution landscape, the company prepared for the migration with a preplanning phase. This included handling archiving initiatives and profile revitalization before establishing a strong governance structure and active executive sponsorship, with nine strategic partners commissioned for the project. Delaware Consulting Brazil was appointed as the lead integrator partner, and Google Cloud Platform was selected as the hyperscaler.
Cimed adopted a brownfield approach for the technical migration to minimize business impact. This encompassed migrating its legacy data to SAP Cloud ERP Private and implementing key capabilities for business areas, including materials management, warehouse management, finance, controlling, and sales.
The company conducted three rounds of migration simulations to enhance overall readiness for the transition, including SAP system integration to the private cloud led by the SAP Enterprise Cloud Services team. This enabled processing time to be cut in half during the final migration.
In addition to the brownfield migration, a greenfield approach was used in the process redesign for the implementation of the SAP Credit Management and SAP Cash Management applications. The SAP Document and Reporting Compliance solution was also implemented and customized to work with batch inspections, while more than 300 documents were validated against the strict regulatory demands inherent in the pharmaceutical sector.
Throughout the project, Cimed adopted key measures focused on transformation success, including hiring contingent workers to replace key users during the project and involving users with distinct knowledge of ERP processes and domain expertise. A strict testing regimen covering 32,000 steps was conducted over one month and a big-bang approach was taken, going live with all solutions simultaneously.
IT Manager for SAP projects, Cimed Indústria S.A.
Continuing at the forefront of innovation while strengthening compliance
In a controlled and assisted transition, Cimed successfully migrated from its on-premises environment to SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions on Google Cloud Platform in just seven months. The move provided a strong technology foundation for new innovation initiatives and a scalable environment to support growth. It also strengthened IT governance while significantly reducing the infrastructure management and maintenance burdens for its IT team.
With unified processes and data managed from one central location, there’s enhanced security and robust audit trails that align with strict regulatory requirements. Cimed’s users are also benefiting from a more intuitive user experience and increased process standardization, while the company has seen productivity gains through process automation and optimization.
Thanks to a preplanning initiative, Cimed eliminated approximately 40% of customizations in its preparation for the migration. In parallel, the SAP Enterprise Cloud Services team upgraded the cloud ERP to its latest version prior to the migration. This allows Cimed to access Joule technology and other new innovations from SAP for exploration in due course. Likewise, upgrading virtual machines with the latest available technologies, both at the source and within the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, facilitated a faster and more reliable migration.
Sustaining a market-leading growth trajectory
Since the go-live, Cimed has continued its regular collaboration with the SAP Enterprise Cloud Services team, helping shore up ongoing landscape stability and aligning with SAP’s technology road map.
The company is already planning phase two of its transformation project that’s focused on digitalizing processes and pursuing efficiency. A major priority for this phase involves mapping critical business areas of logistics, procurement, and master data management in tandem with process optimization for the various business units, including aesthetics, oral care, and baby care.
Elsewhere, Cimed is planning to execute innovation initiatives using low-code strategies.
Featured partner
Delaware Consulting Brazil is part of a Belgium-headquartered global IT consultancy with a presence in 19 countries and over 20 years of experience in providing consulting, implementation, support, and technological innovation. Delaware Brazil was appointed as the lead integration partner, guiding Cimed’s migration to SAP Cloud ERP Private and implementing new solutions, including customizing SAP Document and Reporting Compliance to comply with strict pharmaceutical regulations.