
Signature process makeover.
Healthcare champion Galenica makes its e-signature processes fit for the e-health market with Adobe Acrobat Sign.

4,500
Hours of work saved per year in e-signature document processes
Products:
Objectives
Build efficiency and speed for signature processes
Complete transparency and documentation of signature processes
Create maximum digital reliability and security
Results
Reduces processing time and transaction duration significantly
Smooths flow of information with status overview, copy, and archive automation
Helps ensure adherence to compliance requirements such as CS validation
Digitally closer to customers and colleagues
Galenica Group is the leading healthcare provider in Switzerland. With the country’s largest pharmacy network, a large number of own-brand products, and its own wholesale and retail logistics, this group of companies makes it as easy as possible for customers to find health, beauty, and well-being. Galenica intends to remain close to the market in the future through continuous digitization of previous paper processes. For example, it enables more agile collaboration internally and with partners. Adobe Acrobat Sign e-signatures help Galenica do just that.
Action required to counteract acute paper inefficiency
When Alloga employees, one of the logistics companies within the Galenica Group, secure the supply of medicines throughout Germany, they leave nothing to chance. They document and validate all process steps on the computer. However, they continued to put their signatures on paper printouts, which cost a lot of time during the process. Marc Wuergler, Head of IT Application Management at Galenica recalls, “We asked ourselves: Is there no way for the release certificates to be validated digitally? Having to print, send, sign, scan, and forward everything again and again contradicts our goal of always becoming more efficient.”
The IT professional set out to find an easy to use e-signature solution that was suitable for mandatory computer system validation. Wuergler found what he was looking for at with Acrobat Sign as the e-signature solution not only covered all of Galencia’s needs, but was also the most financially attractive.
From Galenica’s point of view, the fact that Acrobat Sign can be scaled flexibly also proved to be a stroke of luck. After all, when the group of companies decided on the solution, the sudden move of many employees to home offices clearly demonstrated the need for digitization in other areas as well.
“During the COVID-19 lockdowns, document processes were even more difficult to deal with– especially for purchasing and finance,” reflects Wuergler. “If a team needed new software and the procurement request wasn’t moving forward, no one could know off the top of their head which of the four to five validation bodies had the document. Document tracking was tedious and time-consuming. It was no longer suitable for a healthcare market that needed to move faster than ever before.”
“Everyone is excited about Acrobat Sign because you get all the signatures so quickly. We can’t even imagine how we would manage without it.”
Marc Wuergler
Head of IT Application Management, Galenica AG
Recipe for success for Galenica’s digital fitness
Acrobat Sign is available to around 400 Galenica decision-makers who have the authorization to sign. They initiate an average of around 5,000 signature processes per month, e.g. for procurement requests, invoices, and internal approvals. The e-signature solution developed into an integral part of day-to-day business and is now indispensable. “Acrobat Sign was a quick win for us. The platform was available immediately. Getting it up and running was so easy that we didn’t even need Adobe Professional Services,” reports Wuergler.
“The switch to e-signatures made a huge difference,” says Wuergler. Instead of repeatedly investing a lot of effort and patience to clear document jams, employees now complete many more administrative tasks in less time and can devote themselves to more productive tasks.
“Before, whenever there was a hitch, we often didn’t know exactly where that hitch was,” says Wuergler. “Digitally tracking process statuses enables complete transparency. If an order is pressing because of a limited discount offer, you can specifically ask the person or persons involved,” says Wuergler, describing the much more efficient process culture at Galenica.
Wuergler himself benefits from the advantages of the solution almost every day. “For me, as a cost center manager, Acrobat Sign makes an enormous difference. I can capture everything digitally and forward it to the Finance team that way, too. Since we started using the solution, I no longer receive internal mail. It’s all so much easier now.”
Visibility and reporting provide greater insights into how customers respond to messages, and where they are in the customer lifecycle. The campaign operations team segments audiences to create personalized experiences through a variety of channels. Detailed reports also get fed to business development representatives (BDRs) through the Marketo Sales Insight connection with Salesforce. This empowers BDRs to lead more meaningful conversations and make an impact faster.
“With a busy team supporting campaigns from around the world, we need to be as effective and efficient as possible. We rely on Marketo Engage to improve how we collaborate and create diverse, high-value campaigns. For instance, using the Program Member custom fields feature we can develop new, streamlined campaigns in centralized rather than disjointed programs. This functionality alone has allowed us to scale and support a greater number of personalized campaigns with less effort,” explains Tanea Porro, manager, campaign operations team, Adobe.
Clear conclusion: Acrobat Sign works
Efficiencies created by using Acrobat Sign are a huge added value. “Before the solution was implemented, it often took two weeks and, in extreme cases, two months to complete a process. With Acrobat Sign, this has been accelerated to two to five days which is a significant gain,” notes Wuergler.
Just as advantageous as the time saved by eliminating mail dispatch and waiting time is the much smoother distribution of information. Wuergler notes, “The quality of documentation is much higher with Acrobat Sign. Everyone knows where a process is at a specific time. At the end, all parties automatically receive a digital copy. No document is lost, each one can be accessed via search mask. It’s just a perfect world.”
The simple operating concept of the e-signature solution also increases productivity. According to Wuergler’s analysis, Acrobat Sign saves five minutes of processing time per document for every single employee. This currently results in a projected 4,500 hours of work saved per year that they can use for more valuable activities. The feedback from employees is unanimous. “Everyone is excited about Acrobat Sign because you get all the signatures so quickly. We can’t even imagine how we would manage without it,” emphasizes Wuergler.
There are environment gains too when using Acrobat Sign. Every month, Galenica reduces paper consumption by around 20,000 printouts. The CO2 consumption saved is equivalent to the electricity required to operate a refrigerator for around 14,000 days. This energy can now be spent on the cool storage of vital medicines with an even much better conscience.
“The quality of documentation is much higher with Acrobat Sign. Everyone knows where a process is at a specific time. It’s just a perfect world.”
Marc Wuergler
Head of IT Application Management, Galenica AG
Improved experiences lead to deeper enterprise-wide use
For Galenica, this is just the beginning. Due to the improved experience, more and more departments are showing interest in the e-signature solution. In addition, the integration of Acrobat Sign into the in-house archiving system, integration with Microsoft 365 is on the to-do list. This is easy thanks to the built-in interface. “Thanks to the potential of Acrobat Sign, we will be able to continuously replace many more old paper processes with new digital ones in the near future,” says Wuergler.