Case Study: Bial Group achieves centralized, agile ERP control and lower costs with IFS

Pharmaceutical group Bial continues multi-year relationship with IFS to manage its corporate processes

Bial, a 90‑year‑old Portuguese pharmaceutical group with operations across Europe and beyond, needed a single integrated ERP to centralize finance, logistics, manufacturing, maintenance, HR, quality, BI, demand planning and EDI, improve agility and autonomy, reduce costs, and meet strict traceability and regulatory requirements. After evaluating major vendors, Bial selected IFS for its flexibility, comprehensive functionality and lower total cost.

IFS was implemented on an Oracle database (initial investment ~€600k) and now supports ~200 users, connecting specific systems like warehouse automation and information security. The result is centralized, real‑time business visibility, faster workflows (automated reporting), improved batch/package traceability and FDA-validated processes, yielding cost reductions, greater operational autonomy and plans to extend the solution to immunotherapy manufacturing and mobile access.