Pharmaceutical

Initially, Qiado supported this customer in the integration of the IAS17 and IFRS16 accounting under the same system and the same process.
Another big challenge in this project was the integration of 6 SAP systems and at the same time integration with a contract management solution.

Qiado supported this customer in defining the IFRS16 process, IFRS16 calculations, and test cases. Moreover, recently Qiado also supported
a second integration due to a Merge and acquisitions done by this company.

A global leader in the life science tools sector decide to use Nakisa Lease Administration (NLA) cloud solution to manage the lease agreements and to follow IFRS16. As an international biotechnology company, the lease portfolio was diversified, including real state, scientific equipment, vehicles, and other contracts and types of leases all around the world spread through 4 continents.

Qiado was responsible for the implementation of the tool according to the customer expectations and due to the complexity of such project, our team went through a few phases:

1. Initiation

After the kick-off of the project and the business meetings, Qiado’s team traveled to London to meet the customer’s team, to better perform the Blueprint, explain the details of the new tool and the information that we were expecting to be provided by them. Furthermore, we wanted both teams to know each other first as a way to better understand the customer’s requirements and work together in synchrony.

2. Data Gathering / System Architecture

During several weeks, our team had regular meetings with the customer while performing activities in parallel. With the requirements provided by the customer combined with our team knowledge, we defined the system’s settings, the data logic, and the system workflow.

We built the system with the goal of providing the simplest user experience for the activities needed by the client.

Considering that the system was new for the customer, we organized several workshops and practical sessions to make the main user comfortable with the tool and for them to fully comprehend the calculation engine behind NLA. Moreover, we have a number of meetings to discuss the progress, sharpen some of the IFRS16 requirements, and clarify major doubts.

At the end of this phase, we were able to define all the system and application configurations. Also, with the knowledge acquired, the customer was able to build their lease data in a way that was perceptible for our team, a great way to confirm the fluid synergy created.

3. Data Conversion Rehearsal

One of the main reasons for the NLA implementation was the usage of excel spreadsheets to handle the IFRS16. Because of it, the data was organized in a complex way which led to several team meetings with the customer with the goal of organizing, in the most straightforward way possible, the data needed by the NLA. We performed all the activities and upload the data in QA, allowing the customer to understand the financial results and to adapt the process to fulfill their ERP requirements.

This phase was quite dynamic since we were adapting the data to improve the process in the best way possible. In the end, the customer was satisfied with the results and the system performance/calculations.

4. Go-Live

As a result of the project planning and the regular cooperation between teams, we were able to achieve a smooth Go-live that met the customer expectations. As an indicator of the success of the project, the customer decided to deliver to Qiado the responsibility to manage all the activities in the NLA as a lease accounting as service support.

The project had a lot of specifications and challenges that Qiado’s team accomplished with success:

• The Customer ERP

In this case, the client uses IFS as ERP and, as we know, NLA was built with a mindset of SAP integration. With our experience, it was possible to use the different system settings to allow the customer to have reports prepared in a way that was easy to have the proper figures ready to insert in IFS.

• Quick approach Implementation

In the business agreement, it was decided to use the Nakisa quick implementation approach meaning that not all the common implementation steps were going to be performed and that the project had a smaller budget compared to the common NLA implementation projects. From a project management perspective, the challenge was to build a plan where we had the need to go directly to the point and to make the most out of our experience to guide the customer in the system.

• Diversity of subjects

To manage and perform the project it was necessary to use different consultants from Qiado with different backgrounds and knowledge.

Considering the big experience and the skillful attention to details of the client’s accountants, we used our most experienced accountant consultant. Taking into account the need to develop the project in a quick approach, a consultant with experience in the Nakisa systems managed the configurations and lead the system choices. As LGC was one of the first customers to implement an NLA Cloud version, an expert technical consultant from our team offered great support in the SSO and other technical subjects necessary throughout the project.

In the end, the success of the project revealed what are the biggest strengths of Qiado: the diversity of skills and the experience of the team. For all the customer’s challenges, Qiado provided the best consultants managing to solve each one of them.

Following the success of the implementation project and the contentment of the customer, the relationship has been strengthened and Qiado now manages the customer’s NLA activities.  The customer has a recent merger, which means new challenges are coming and we are grateful and excited to be their support partner!