OPED GmbH

OPED has made a name for itself with the development of innovative medical products, such as orthoses for the foot, hand, shoulder or knee. These are often supplemented by individual therapy techniques based on digital tools such as explainer apps. The company is headquartered in the Valley medical park near Munich, Germany, where the place name, a familiar one in IT tech circles, is presumably of Celtic origin. Founded in the early 1990s, the medium-sized company has swiftly conquered the world, with subsidiaries in Australia, England, Switzerland and the USA; 47 other markets are served via distributors.

Social responsibility is lived at OPED: the company is committed to Valley as a production location (rather than China) and also offers jobs for people with disabilities. The company saves more than 174 tons of material annually and thus contributes to sustainability by cleaning and largely reprocessing the orthoses in its own production facility.

Since OPED already uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 NAV and many other products from the Microsoft range, we decided to use Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. The appropriate interfaces for data exchange between the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM systems were already in place. The solution’s flexible configuration was also an attractive feature, meaning that adaptations could be implemented without programming. When it came to choosing a software partner, COSMO CONSULT stood out with its expertise and experience. They understood OPED’s requirements and addressed these right from the outset. This meant that concrete solution approaches in the future CRM system were already seen from the first prototype.

A key success criterion is user acceptance, and this is especially true for sales, Ulmer emphasizes: “Field staff have the heaviest workload, because colleagues have to record a lot of data on an ongoing basis. Data quality is hugely important, so we have to keep showing benefits like transparency, overview or data security, as well as the ROI.” The CRM is also constantly optimized for user acceptance. In the process, any problems that arise are corrected and functions are improved or streamlined. We discuss the changes the teams would like to see in a weekly meeting with COSMO CONSULT, Ulmer reports: “We can only achieve these permanent optimizations with the experience of an expert partner. We ourselves are too small to have such expertise in-house. Our contact at COSMO CONSULT is available at short notice and I can always count on them.”

Sales opportunities and lead generation will be clearly displayed in the future to create even more added value for sales, for example as a traffic light system. Since there is now an app for Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM that can also be used offline, OPED also wants to see whether it makes sense to switch to this. The success with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM in Germany has already come to the attention of the Swiss parent company, so the CRM system will also be rolled out there in 2022. OPED’s motto is ‘Keeps you going’ and Stefan Ulmer sees it that way, too: “We will continually adapt our solution to meet the changing needs of teams. So the CRM system will grow with the company.”