EXTEDO optimises time recording and project controlling with ZEP

EXTEDO is a leading provider of software solutions and consulting services for the regulatory affairs of medicines, medical devices and plant protection products (Regulatory Information Management). Currently, more than 700 customers in 60 countries trust EXTEDO's solutions, from small and medium-sized enterprises to multinational corporations. In addition, the company, which is headquartered in Ottobrunn near Munich, provides EURS, a standard system for validating, reviewing and approving applications for medicinal products, which is used by more than 30 regulatory authorities around the world.

The company employs more than 115 employees worldwide as well as numerous additional external consultants on site. EXTEDO uses the cloud-based software solution ZEP - Time Recording for Projects - for time recording of project orders and invoicing.

Trend towards the "shared economy" in the pharmaceutical industry

"We have been experiencing a trend towards the shared economy in the pharmaceutical industry for twenty years now," explains Elmar Weber, looking back at the company's history to date. As Chief Financial Officer (CFO), he is responsible for all corporate services (HR, Finance, Legal) at EXTEDO. "We were able to play a significant role in the first phase - the transition from paper-based to electronic admission procedures - with our solutions. And EXTEDO is also involved in the second phase, the digitalisation of the very complex approval process, and offers a common cloud platform for all project partners involved in the validation."

Especially in the early days, the company received large development contracts that were billed on a time basis. The combination of Microsoft Access database, Excel lists and Word documents used for time recording and accounting at that time quickly reached its limits. Even though he was not yet employed by EXTEDO at the time, Elmar Weber knows from stories: "Aggregating the numerous documents at the end of the month in order to be able to create the invoices from them proved to be very time-consuming and error-prone. For this reason, the decision was made in 2007 to look for a special solution for time recording."

Within the scope of a corresponding research with a subsequent selection process of various providers, EXTEDO finally decided to use the ZEP solution. ZEP stands for time recording for projects and was developed specifically for use in project-oriented companies.

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