Success Story Dräger

Albrecht Solutions Brings Dräger Technology Solutions to South America

About Dräger Group

Dräger is an international company specializing in medical and safety technology. The company was founded in Lubeck, Germany, in 1889, and is still family owned. Today, Dräger employs more than 13,500 people in more than 40 countries. Dräger’s medical technology products include anesthesia workstations, medical ventilation systems, patient monitoring, and neonatal care systems.

For emergency response, mining, and law enforcement professionals, Dräger offers a complete line of respiratory protection equipment, gas detection systems, diving equipment, and alcohol impairment detection systems. Medical professionals, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, and law enforcement professionals around the globe have come to rely on Dräger’s technology to help them do their jobs.

The Challenge

Dräger maintains regional offices around the globe and each regional office operates autonomously so they can deal directly with regional customers and address area regulations. However, also needs to be integrated into the systems at headquarters in Germany.

Dräger faced a dual challenge: 1) supporting regional workflows and processes that would ensure that service agreements were up to date and to track parts and service based on customer contracts, and 2) localization of business systems, including conforming to local regulations and languages. They needed an integration partner who could customize workflow and handle localization for Dräger regional offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.

The Solution

To upgrade its Latin American operations quickly and efficiently, Dräger chose to partner with Albrecht Solutions. Albrecht offered the right combination of experience in ERP development and sales and distribution processes, as well as financial and supply chain strategies. Albrecht Solutions also offered a depth of expertise in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which was a crucial platform for back office applications since it would shorten time to deployment. And, Albrecht Solutions has an impressive international project portfolio so it was clear they could deal with the unique needs of regional offices in different Latin American countries.

The first step was to audit each regional office to determine which resources were needed, and to assess local business and government regulations in order to align the regional business processes with local requirements. After assessing the various needs of Dräger’s regional offices, it was clear that the sales process was the place to begin. Every equipment sale was accompanied by its own contract, which would define commercial conditions for warranty, maintenance and repairs.

The system had to be designed to handle all service activities from the initial call all the way to completion and documentation. A call could trigger a complex process with diagnostics, repair or maintenance activities and information about the customer, the device with its history as well as existing service contracts needed to be accessible at any time during the process.

The solution also had to comply with the local culture and language. Translating the software interface into Spanish and Portuguese was not difficult, but there was a challenge with training. Most of the support materials and original documentation are in English, but the local team required training in their native language. Albrecht was able to work with their regional experts to ensure that comprehensive systems training was provided.

The Results

Drawing on the firm’s experience working with global businesses, Albrecht was able to design and implement the new service process for each of Dräger’s Latin American regional offices. The Albrecht team was able to address a variety of challenges:

Developing a standardized, regional process that enables each regional office to measure key performance indicators (KPI) and compare their performance with other offices in the region;
Accommodating government rules and regulations, as well as localization of software interfaces and provide training to accommodate local language and culture;
From initial audit to completion, Albrecht was able to deliver the entire Latin American service process installation and localization project for the regional offices in 14 months.The success of the Latin American localization project demonstrates Albrecht’s capabilities at developing ERP systems for any market or application. As Dräger’s international business continues to grow, Albrecht will be ready to help integrate the company’s regional operations.

About Albrecht Solutions

Albrecht Solutions is your solution to business evolution. The Albrecht team are experts in deploying tailor-made software solutions to meet their clients’ unique business challenges. Albrecht consultants are expert, efficient, and international, working with clients around the globe to assess and streamline business operations to improve operations while reducing costs and increasing efficiency.Albrecht Solutions is a certified Microsoft Dynamics NAV partner with extensive expertise in enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology. With offices and local experts in San Francisco, Lima, Milan, Lucerne and Mumbai, Albrecht’s network of global consultants have in-depth knowledge in several industries and multiple international markets.