Costco Wholesale Case
Costco Wholesale Rolls Out End-to-End Workflow Solution
REFILL 2 BY: 12/01/03
Leading Mass Merchant Partners with Innovation to Develop PharmASSIST Symphony Software
PHONE 607.798.9376
Throughout the mid to late 90’s, Costco faced many of the same challenges of the retail pharmacy industry at large: rising prescription volumes, increased workload in their pharmacies, and a shortage of pharmacists. Costco knew that to remain competitive it had to address these issues and as a result began exploring pharmacy automation technology to automate tasks performed by pharmacy staff.
case study
Costco Wholesale is one of the leading Mass Merchants in the U.S. with close to 20 million members shopping at over 300 locations in 36 states nationwide. …show more content…
In each case, Curtis and Floyd oversaw the installation and training.“Our hands-on involvement with the systems was an invaluable learning experience,” comments Curtis.“We were a two-man team and we spent a lot of long hours critiquing these systems.” Upon gathering a few months worth of data and usability feedback from the stores, Costco’s view of the world changed. As Curtis puts it,“What we really wanted, once we knew better, was more than just counting, it was enhanced workflow.What triggered the idea was the workflow component of the PharmASSIST Enterprise System.Thus, our focus turned to targeting processes within the pharmacy that we could automate and that would be beneficial to our staff… this led to the development of our wish list.” According to Curtis,“We put out RFPs to several vendors with our wish list attached. Innovation not only addressed the list, they offered additional features above and beyond the functionality we had requested, and their pricing was right on.” As Craig Norman, who heads up the program’s training and logistics, sums it up,“The difference between Innovation and the other companies was the other companies said, “Here’s our system, you figure out how to make it work in your pharmacy.” Whereas, with Innovation, they said here’s the system we have so far. How can we design and change it to make it work in your pharmacy? A totally different approach and much more the way we think here at Costco… much more entrepreneurial. That’s the thrust of our company… so from that standpoint, it was a very good
REFILL 2 BY: 12/01/03
Leading Mass Merchant Partners with Innovation to Develop PharmASSIST Symphony Software
PHONE 607.798.9376
Throughout the mid to late 90’s, Costco faced many of the same challenges of the retail pharmacy industry at large: rising prescription volumes, increased workload in their pharmacies, and a shortage of pharmacists. Costco knew that to remain competitive it had to address these issues and as a result began exploring pharmacy automation technology to automate tasks performed by pharmacy staff.
case study
Costco Wholesale is one of the leading Mass Merchants in the U.S. with close to 20 million members shopping at over 300 locations in 36 states nationwide. …show more content…
In each case, Curtis and Floyd oversaw the installation and training.“Our hands-on involvement with the systems was an invaluable learning experience,” comments Curtis.“We were a two-man team and we spent a lot of long hours critiquing these systems.” Upon gathering a few months worth of data and usability feedback from the stores, Costco’s view of the world changed. As Curtis puts it,“What we really wanted, once we knew better, was more than just counting, it was enhanced workflow.What triggered the idea was the workflow component of the PharmASSIST Enterprise System.Thus, our focus turned to targeting processes within the pharmacy that we could automate and that would be beneficial to our staff… this led to the development of our wish list.” According to Curtis,“We put out RFPs to several vendors with our wish list attached. Innovation not only addressed the list, they offered additional features above and beyond the functionality we had requested, and their pricing was right on.” As Craig Norman, who heads up the program’s training and logistics, sums it up,“The difference between Innovation and the other companies was the other companies said, “Here’s our system, you figure out how to make it work in your pharmacy.” Whereas, with Innovation, they said here’s the system we have so far. How can we design and change it to make it work in your pharmacy? A totally different approach and much more the way we think here at Costco… much more entrepreneurial. That’s the thrust of our company… so from that standpoint, it was a very good