Community Rx aims for high-tech edge

Chain Drug Review, Nov 24, 2008

NEW YORK -- As technology continues to play a bigger role in health care and retailing, community pharmacy companies across the country have been expanding the use of sophisticated systems across their entire operation.

The increased use of technology has resulted in such benefits as improved shopping experiences for customers, a more efficient prescription-filling process for patients and enhanced web sites for online consumers. This also has led to a litany of behind-the-scenes improvements.

"It is impossible to try to manage a business and make effective executive decisions these days based on quarterly and year-end reports," Fruth Pharmacy chief executive officer Don Pullin says about the 25-store drug chain's recent implementation of Activant Solutions Inc.'s Activant Eagle business management and point-of-sale (P-O-S) software.

"We wanted more timely data so that we could catch negative trends in time and reverse them, while also identifying and making the most of positive trends," Pullin explains.

Aurora Health Care, meanwhile, is in the midst of a chain-wide rollout of new pharmacy P-O-S and front-end management solutions. Executives say the systems, from ECRS Software Corp., have been added to about 60 of the approximately 130 stores that Aurora operates across Wisconsin.

"As an integrated health system, it is important to have the type of technology that is adaptable to multiple settings," says Kimberly Hodgkinson, director of finance for Aurora Health Care Ventures.

The new systems will help Aurora gauge the needs of its patients and customers and tailor its services and merchandise mix appropriately, she notes.

And as e-commerce becomes a more important part of many retailers' operations, some companies are taking a novel approach to selling goods online.

"We will soon be taking the online experience to the next level," Walgreen Co. senior vice president of e-commerce Sona Chawla told Wall Street analysts at a recent investors meeting in New York.

Over the past few years, she said, the Walgreens web site has become a more integral part of its operation, with the number of shoppers who made purchases this year hitting 11 million, up from just 4 million in 2005.

"Going forward, we don't just want to be focused on the 'buy' part of the shopping cycle but also on what our customers want to learn," Chawla said.

Walgreens has also been making some changes to its internal systems. Earlier this year, for example, the drug chain began using Bank of America's ePayables payment solution in its accounts payable department.

A Bank of America spokesman says the system helps businesses lower payment-processing costs, reduce risk and improve productivity by making payments and delivering remittance data to vendors electronically.