Pioneering Pharmacy2U utilises Sage X3 as a platform for growth

Pharmacy2U Ltd, the country’s largest dedicated internet and mail order pharmacy, is maximising new business opportunities through its Sage X3 enterprise resource planning system, and support from Sage Business Partner, Datel.

One of the UK’s fastest growing companies, Leeds-based Pharmacy2U provides an alternative to high street pharmacies and has been instrumental in developing the new NHS Electronic Prescription Service, which is giving patients the option to have their prescriptions sent to a pharmacy of their choice.

As Pharmacy2U Managing Director Daniel Lee explains, the conditions are right for substantial business growth: “In our business, the majority of orders come through our website and we’re expecting to experience exponential growth in online orders. To capitalise on this opportunity by efficiently fulfilling demand, we need a system that integrates seamlessly with our customer database and our website back-office. Datel helped us to understand how Sage X3 provided by Datel Computing Ltd offers the scalability, flexibility and integration to support our business well into the future.”

He adds: “This year is especially important for Pharmacy2U as we build the largest dispensing facility in the UK, and we couldn't have embarked on such a large-scale IT transition without Datel’s first-class support.”

Two phases of the three-phase rollout are now complete. Finance Director Scott Fawcett notes: “Datel worked with us right from the start to design and implement each phase of the rollout. This has included a significant amount of tailoring and working with Datel’s consultants to customise the system exactly to the needs of the business. As a result, the rollouts have gone very smoothly, and Datel has been there with us to make sure the system is operating as intended.”

Scott Fawcett outlines some of the benefits of using Sage X3: “We have extremely high volumes of transactions coming through our website, so it’s essential that we reconcile these to our website back office and also to the cash receipts. Sage X3 makes the reconciliation process very efficient and therefore keeps the running cost of our finance team down. Another key benefit is that the system allows us to manage our stock very closely, and reduce our stock holding. This frees up working capital at a time when we are experiencing significant growth.

"As Finance Director, I can also have confidence in the financial information that I’m presenting – I can trust the numbers. Also, the level of tailoring of the system allows me to access a whole raft of management information very quickly.”

Andrew Pritchard, Account Development Director at Datel, comments: “We are delighted to be working with Pharmacy2U as it further strengthens its lead position in a rapidly changing sector. Sage X3 is proving to be a dependable and flexible platform on which to take Pharmacy2U’s significant growth plans forward. We continue to work with Pharmacy2U’s IT team to integrate Sage ERP X3 with the company’s business systems.”