FFF Enterprises: Maximizing reliability of pharmaceutical services through technology

Dec 31, 2019 - Read Article

FFF Enterprises, Inc. has been a trusted name in wholesale pharmaceutical distribution for decades, thanks to its commitment to consistency, transparency, and timely order fulfillment. The wholesaler understands its vital role in the health of the patients who rely on the products it distributes.

"If our supply chain is negatively impacted, people's lives are on the line, so we take our responsibility very seriously," says Jon Hahn, Chief Information Officer at FFF Enterprises. "From the technology side, we have to ensure that our infrastructure, business apps, and tools are functioning at all times, 365 days a year."

After encountering issues such as core switch outage, server outages, MPLS edge router outages, and running SAP on a legacy infrastructure and hosting provider, FFF Enterprises recognized the need for a change. It enlisted the help of Google Cloud and Google Cloud Partner Managecore, LLC to migrate its systems.

Managecore performed the migration to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and provided the architectural overhauls necessary to improve the availability and reliability of SAP apps. FFF Enterprises now runs critical SAP S/4 HANA apps, including BusinessObjects, Sales and Distribution, Material Management, FICO, Warehouse Management, and more on GCP. GCP offered a higher performance and more robust and dependable infrastructure than FFF Enterprises' legacy systems at a comparable or lower cost. The move to GCP for FFF Enterprises was further enhanced by the customer-centric approach Google Cloud takes, as well as the robust Google Cloud partner network.

"Google Cloud Platform and the Google Cloud Partner network offer us avenues to address a more comprehensive digital transformation now, and in the future. We're looking to not just utilize innovative technologies from Google, but also to find new ways of advancing our business and emulate some of its approaches to progress and growth."
—Jon Hahn, Chief Information Officer, FFF Enterprises

"Since our founding in 1988, we've worked diligently each and every day to fulfill our mission of Helping Healthcare Care® because we know that there's always a patient waiting at the end of every transaction. Our passion for product safety, patient health and outstanding customer service continues to drive us to expand our programs, products, and services in order to identify future opportunities where we can advocate for the advancement of patient and product safety," says Hahn. "The Google Cloud team stays engaged with us and proved their commitment to us; that hands-on approach, as well as the availability of strong partners to help us with deployments and migrations, makes all the difference."

FFF Enterprises is now exploring more ways to innovate and improve operations using GCP solutions, including BigQuery, Tensorflow, IoT Core, and others.

"Google Cloud Platform and the Google Cloud Partner network offer us avenues to address a more comprehensive digital transformation now, and in the future," says Hahn. "We're looking to not just utilize innovative technologies from Google, but also to find new ways of advancing our business and emulate some of its approaches to progress and growth."

"Migrating our SAP hosting service with Google Cloud and Managecore has been a game changer. It maximizes the reliability of our IT systems and puts us on a path toward advancing our digital transformation."
—Jon Hahn, Chief Information Officer, FFF Enterprises