Vical is a life science company based in San Diego, CA.  They research and develop vaccines for life threatening diseases through the use of DNA-technology.  Vical had a history of using the Oracle Financials business application for many years and this solution had become an unacceptable cost burden.  The costs continued to grow over the years as they would engage expensive consultants to support the compulsory upgrades to the static applications without the benefit of improved functionality and reporting.  Like many life sciences’ companies they also needed to prepare for changes in their business including an increased requirement for inventory control and potential production and commercialization of their products.  Implementing these changes in Oracle would have been a very costly endeavor.  Vical made the decision to evaluate other ERP business applications on the market including Microsoft Dynamics GP through Tridea Partners.   

Microsoft Dynamics Solution:

With the help of Tridea Partners, Vical implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP across their organization.  In addition to rolling out the core financial functionality, they also implemented an advanced requisition management functionality to support the purchasing process throughout the business.  This purchasing application has helped create a more efficient and controlled purchasing function saving them time and errors.  Additionally, Vical has instituted an inventory control system in Dynamics GP that would have been cost prohibitive to implement in Oracle.  This inventory roll out will provide the groundwork for later manufacturing and commercialization while adhering to strict FDA requirements.  It is estimated that they spent one-third the cost to deploy and maintain this extended functionality in Dynamics GP versus Oracle Financials.  They are also now able to easily access their business data through intelligent reporting that doesn’t require much costly outside assistance.  As a result of the Dynamics GP implementation, the team at Vical now has very robust system that will continue to scale as the business continues to evolve.