Supera Farma partners with Meta for the implementation of SAP S/4HANA, ensuring scalability and governance.
With only 13 years in the market, Supera Farma, a pioneering joint venture in the promotion and commercialization of pharmaceuticals in Brazil, is currently the 13th most prescribed pharmaceutical company in the country according to the IQVIA ranking and aims to be among the top ten in the coming years. To prepare for this growth, the company partnered with Meta to adopt industry best practices by implementing SAP S/4HANA and the Organizational Change Management methodology.
Supera Farma was a pioneer in implementing a business model focused on promoting and commercializing products from its founding companies, Eurofarma and Cristália, and continues to innovate by seeking new external partnerships. “These external partnerships will allow us to expand our product portfolio in the market,” says Alexandre Augusto Correa, Administrative, Financial, and Operations Director at Supera Farma. To achieve this, the company sought the best ERP system that could provide robust governance, data integrity, and real-time decision support.
“We started with an extensive study to first choose the software and then the implementation partners, and it was through this research that we selected SAP and Meta,” says Rafaela Coura, Executive Manager of Technology at Supera Farma. According to Rafaela, they ultimately chose SAP S/4HANA with the Rise cloud solution. “One of our main needs was improving security. With the Rise selection, we can take advantage of the best offerings from external providers, using cutting-edge technology, security, and flexibility to scale as quickly as possible without needing to invest in our infrastructure,” she highlights. For Alexandre, the company is now ready for the future. “We have gained more robustness and security to drive Supera Farma’s growth. We will continue evolving to fulfill our purpose of bringing a greater diversity of medications to more doctors and patients, providing healthcare solutions, and transforming lives,” says Alexandre.
Change Management
Unlike many companies, Supera Farma understood that the ideal time to prepare for future expansion was when its processes were well-defined and stable. “Our processes were mature and stable, and we realized that was the ideal moment,” recalls Rafaela. She explains that “even in this favorable scenario, adopting the SAP system was a major challenge and represented a significant transformation in the company’s processes. We had a very short deadline and the goal of ensuring the project did not interrupt revenue flow or any fiscal or legal activities, nor commitments to employees, customers, or partners. And we succeeded!”
Beyond the implementation project, Meta was also responsible for the Organizational Change Management (OCM) service, a crucial pillar in ERP implementation projects. “The OCM process always begins before the implementation itself, supporting the client’s HR and communication teams to ensure internal employee engagement, which is essential for successful implementation,” explains Janaína Sombrio, Business Manager at Meta. According to Rafaela, the project was fundamental in ensuring a smooth transition. “No system project configures itself. I can say that this is Meta’s main differentiator: bringing in professionals who can understand the business and configure the system to meet our needs,” emphasizes Rafaela.
Meta involved more than 30 professionals in the project, including managers and consultants specializing in both change management and development. “All these professionals worked alongside Supera Farma employees from the kickoff phase, where the internal communication identity for the project was created, to the go-live. With OCM, it is possible to extend change management beyond the new ERP implementation to the entire company,” explains Janaína.
