The Innovat BioTec Engineering Group GmbH and its subsidiaries is a large European-wide biological and medical engineering firms. Their area of expertise is in the domain of Medical and Biological Engineering and Science. The group have research and manufacturing operations in several EU member states including Switzerland, Germany, France, and Ireland. They are also a member of The European Alliance of Medical and Biological Engineering and Science (EAMBES)

The market sectors that the group operates in are very competitive. The group was coming under increasing pressure to control costs and to integrate the operations of its various subsidiaries. They needed to increase efficiency and streamline their complex supply chain with suppliers as well as minimize the holding costs of inventory. Integration with customers and cost management was seen as the key to the competitiveness of the group.

Management at the group were keen to implement best practice in Activity Based Costing (ABC) processes across the group. Product innovation, quality management in production and maximizing the use of information technology are seen as critical success factors for Innovat BioTec and for the biological and medical engineering industry generally. For more information, the following are some links relating to the biological and medical engineering industry:

• European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering & Science

  http://eambes.org/

  
  

  World Health Organisation - Biomedical engineering global resources

  https://www.who.int/health-topics/medical-devices#tab=tab_1

Irish Medtec Association

http://www.imda.ie/

IFMBE – International Federation for Medical and Biological engineering

https://ifmbe.org/about-ifmbe/

Information systems at the Innovat BioTec Engineering Group

One of the priorities of the management team at the group was an upgrade of its Enterprise Systems and other information systems. Management sees these information systems as critical to providing the required competitive advantage particularly in terms of state-of-the-art e-business capability. They see the need for improving business processes by upgrading their systems and the need for better business intelligence in all areas of the group’s activities.

Management at the group selected SAP’s Enterprise Systems at the time. The system implementation ran into minor difficulties, however, the outcomes from the project were seen by the group as successful and a key aspect of their manufacturing operations. This SAP implementation needs upgrading. The group wants to obtain the latest version of SAP S4/HANA

Although the systems achieved several operational improvements for the group, they had found that they haven’t realised all the promised benefits of the enterprise system – benefits that were claimed with the business case made at the time. The group’s senior management acknowledged that they haven’t invested enough in their information systems to keep them up to date over the last number of years. There is also a need to implement ‘state of the art’ just-in-time manufacturing and B2B facilities to fully integrate both suppliers and industry customers in new ways and maximise the benefits of e-business. Senior management see data integration with suppliers and customer’s e-business as a key strategy in the groups drive to cut costs and stay competitive.

The senior management team at the group have already decided to stay with the SAP product range. This is because of the existing large initial investment in SAP systems and because of management’s generally satisfactory experience with these systems. (Note: SAP is used in this case study as a typical example of an enterprise system. Other vendor's systems are available and can provide similar functionality.)

MAIN ASSIGNMENT REPORT (80 MARKS):

To assist in their decision-making process, you are to advise the Innovat BioTec group on their plans for upgrading the firm’s enterprise systems as well as other information technology issues. A major objective of the firm is cost reduction in the face of increased competition and maximising data integration with subsidiaries and suppliers. The discussions in your report should address how the benefits of these technologies would relate to this cost saving objective and also mention any non-cost benefits

1. What are the on-going challenges faced by organizations who wish to exploit information technology effectively and successfully? How do you align IT strategy with business strategy?

1. Discuss the typical components and the benefits of integrated Manufacturing Information Systems for Innovat BioTec and this industry sector

1. Discuss the typical components and the business benefits for Innovat BioTec of adopting and incorporating the latest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) modules /products.
2. Make a case for the business benefits of implementing the latest Business Intelligence (BI) tools for the enterprise. Give examples of benefits specific for this industry sector. You will need to do some research here.

1. Outline the different types of intellectual property legal protection that a firm may use. Discuss the relevance of each type of legislation for likely assets and products in this industry sector.

1. Discuss the key technological trends that heighten concerns about social and ethical issues. Outline the data protection and privacy obligations of the group under European legislation.

Deadline:

Please note the following for your report:

• Provide a report-type structure with the five sections clearly identified.
• Link your answers to the specific business circumstances of the firm and industry as outlined in the assignment case study. You will need to do some research on this.
• State any assumptions you need to make the report as readable as possible for the target audience.
• There are marks awarded for additional research. You must properly cite all references used, listing them at the end of your online contributions and your main report

Assignment type:	Report
Word guidance:	4,000 words