With its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in place, Amgen went looking for a supply-chain planning application with strong collaboration capability. "It needed to be fast, flexible, user-friendly and configurable," says Collier. In addition, the company wanted a tool that been proven effective in other industries, with reference checks from other customers.

Amgen’s need was driven by the knowledge that its business was on the verge of “major transformative change.” The company was undertaking significant expansion and reviewing numerous new-product candidates. It needed a planning tool that could respond to change quickly.

Amgen’s choice of RapidResponse from Kinaxis was motivated in part by the application’s reliance on the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model. In the biotechnology industry, Collier, says, there’s a need for maintaining good manufacturing practices standards. A cloud-based system gave the company access to outside hardware support.

In addition, says Collier, “it freed us up to be focused on supply-chain requirements.” The Amgen team worked to ensure that the software was categorized as a strategic planning tool.

Amgen had no concerns about letting go of its earlier, on-premises software. It worked closely with its audit teams and Kinaxis to ensure tight security controls.

The implementation was carried out through Amgen’s Center of Excellence, drawing on experts from multiple disciplines within the company. Such collaboration was essential to creating an integrated business process system design, Collier says.

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