Marlo Farma makes pet care and veterinary pharmaceuticals distribution a walk in the park with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

For the past 30 years, Marlo Farma has served as Serbia’s leading wholesale distributor of veterinary pharmaceutical products, pet food, and equipment. Over 90 employees support a network of 1,500 customers, continuously introducing innovative products and technologies to the local market. 

Marlo Farma relied on an outdated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to facilitate sales, warehouse, and other processes. The solution had technical limitations and wasn’t setup to sustain the company’s exponential growth. “We had to synchronize the central database three times a day,” recalls Marko Marić, Chief Executive Officer at Marlo Farma. “This caused inaccuracies in purchases, with mismatches between actual sales and available stocks in the warehouse. Because of the inaccuracies, the sales team had to repeatedly go back to customers and adjust purchase orders, leading to reduced customer satisfaction.”

Teaming up with GoPro, a certified Microsoft independent software vendor, Marlo Farma decided to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. “We chose Microsoft because of its secure and stable environment, as well as GoPro’s proven expertise in deploying such systems, guaranteed by the Microsoft certification,” shares Marić. The change also enabled the pet care company to leverage solutions like Power BI and other GoPro applications hosted on Microsoft App Source. 

Larger impact, same resources

After migrating, Marlo Farma’s warehouse operations run in perfect harmony. “Supported by several automations in Business Central, our logistics and warehouse operational efficiency has increased by an impressive 30 percent,” notes Marić. The company also streamlined its sales processes by making the Business Central application available to sellers in the field. “Overall, we save 20 percent time in our sales and warehouse cycle management,” adds Marić. “The solution supports company growth and complex operations with the existing human resources. Ultimately, it allows us to serve our customers better, which is the most important to us.”

Besides streamlining operations, Dynamics 365 has also brought the Marlo Farma team closer together. “By integrating with additional products from the Microsoft ecosystem like Office and Teams, we have improved our collaboration capability,” notes Slavko Marković, Head of Marketing at Marlo Farma. “Additional cloud-based solutions truly accelerate our business transformation, enabling us to fully focus on our core business and increasing customer satisfaction.”

More visibility and compliance

With Power BI, Marlo Farma armed its sales and customer management teams with crucial, accurate, real-time insights, leading to more informed decisions. “Power BI gives us a centralized view of key business data like stock availability and customer information on any device. It enhances our finance, sales, logistics, and warehouse management. This lets us launch new ventures easily, boosting our growth in both retail and production,” shares Marić. 

More visibility also means more compliance. “Having precise data is especially crucial for heavily regulated pharmaceutical items like vaccines and medicines, and for pet food with short expiry dates,” explains Marić. “What’s more, with GoPro’s customizations and localizations, we are fully equipped for operating within the local legal framework. For example, GoPro’s module for payroll management supports all types of calculations used in the Serbian market.”

A secure future

While reaching these heights, Marlo Farma ensured that security remained paramount. “We’ve increased our overall security posture since going onto the cloud. Now it allows us to manage even the most sensitive data of our employees fully in the cloud environment,” adds Marković. 

Looking ahead, Marlo Farma continues its search for more efficiency. “With more artificial intelligence capabilities in Microsoft solutions, we look forward to exploring the ecosystem for securing our leading position on the market and offering our customers more personalized experiences,” concludes Marković. “Our migration to the cloud has definitely opened new possibilities in the future.”