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Rewiring a Legacy: How a Century-Old Pharma Giant Transformed with Microsoft Fabric

Company Overview

A global pharmaceutical powerhouse with more than 11,000 employees and operations in 75+ countries has spent more than a century perfecting drug discovery and manufacturing.

Behind the scenes, however, its HR, Procurement, and Finance teams juggled SAP Rise, SuccessFactors, MES, LIMS, and countless spreadsheets, producing oceans of data but only puddles of actionable insight. Leadership knew the next era of growth would hinge on turning that data into real‑time intelligence.


Departmental Challenges

Human Resource

  • Disjointed systems and manual reconciliation across 5+ data sources

  • Limited real-time visibility on attrition and hiring trends

  • Leadership lacked strategic self-service analytics

  • No predictive tools for workforce planning

Procurement

  • Inconsistent data across POs, inventory, and supplier performance

  • Sourcing decisions delayed due to reactive, siloed reporting

  • Spend classification lacked a unified approach

  • SAP SAC limitations in agility and rising costs

Finance

  • Time-consuming reconciliation and KPI reporting

  • Manual AOP alignment efforts

  • SAC constraints blocking scalable analytics


Goals Behind the Journey: Business Objectives

The transformation wasn't just about replacing tools; it was about building a modern decision-making ecosystem. The organization aligned with atQor on the following key objectives:

  • Modernize analytics to support real-time, insight-driven decisions across HR and Procurement functions

  • Eliminate dependence on rigid BI tools by adopting a flexible, Copilot-ready architecture

  • Democratize access to insights for over 500 business users, reducing reliance on central teams

  • Reignite Microsoft engagement through impactful use cases and meaningful outcomes

  • Cut down reporting costs while laying the foundation for a unified and scalable data platform that grows with the business


From Vendor to Vision Partner: Why atQor

atQor approached the engagement as a business transformation, not a tool swap. By combining deep domain knowledge with Microsoft Fabric expertise, the team promised three outcomes:

  • Speed to Insight: Real‑time analytics accessible to any manager

  • Future‑Proof Architecture: Copilot‑ready, AI‑friendly, cloud‑native

  • Cost Rationalization: Replace bloated BI licensing with an elastic, pay‑as‑you‑grow model

The pharma company saw atQor not only as an implementation partner but as a catalyst to reignite its dormant Microsoft relationship.


The Blueprint Behind the Breakthrough: Solutions

  • Fabric Innovation Workshop: This two-day sprint identified key pain points and aligned them with Fabric’s capabilities, successfully transforming initial scepticism into strong support

  • Unified Data Foundation: Azure Data Factory pipelines streamed data from SAP Rise, SuccessFactors, legacy HRMS, and flat files into One Lake’s Silver-Gold zones, preserving lineage while enabling agile modelling

  • Copilot-Ready Semantic Models: Domain-specific Lakehouses exposed HR, Procurement, and Finance measures in natural language; managers could ask, “Show attrition hot spots for Q3” and get answers in seconds

  • Governance & Security: Azure Purview catalogued assets, and role-based policies from Azure AD ensured GDPR-grade compliance

  • Adoption & Change Management: Hands-on labs, “analytics office hours,” and gamified adoption challenges drove 98% user uptake within two months


Smarter Decisions. Stronger Outcomes: Business Benefits

1. HR Transformation: From Reactive to Proactive

  • Unified over 5+ disparate HR systems into a single, analytics-ready model

  • Enabled real-time visibility into attrition, headcount, and AOP alignment

  • Empowered HR leaders with Copilot-ready dashboards, no dependency on IT

  • Achieved 98% adoption within 60 days, accelerating workforce planning decisions

2. Procurement Optimization: From Gut Feel to Data-Driven

  • Automated vendor classification, PO tracking, and contract compliance metrics

  • Improved sourcing agility with predictive alerts for supplier delays and risks

  • Reduced manual reconciliation efforts by 60%

  • Identified savings opportunities 38% faster using dynamic dashboards

3. Finance Agility: Continuous Performance at Scale

  • Slashed manual effort across KPI tracking, AOP alignment, and forecasting

  • Enabled self-service analytics for finance teams previously tied to SAC constraints

  • Delivered 85% reduction in time spent preparing reports

  • Laid the groundwork for real-time financial storytelling and strategic decisions

4. Enterprise Impact: A Foundation for the Future

  • Deployed Microsoft Fabric in under 4 months across HR, Procurement, and Finance

  • Generated $1.1M+ in estimated annual business efficiencies

  • Enabled a shift from legacy BI tools to a unified, modern data platform

  • Sparked new enterprise-wide AI conversations—Copilot, AOAI, and ESG analytics in motion


Reflections from the Head of IT

“This was more than a tech upgrade, it was a cultural shift. Our teams now have the insights they need, when they need them. Thanks to this transformation, data has become a strategic asset. The collaboration with atQor has turned information into a strategic asset.” — Head of IT, Leading Global Pharma Company