Second Sight Medical Products
Sight-Giving Company Maximizes ERP Usage Through Review and Upgrade
Second Sight designs, manufactures, and sells a retinal prosthesis that restores vision. The company was founded in 1998 with the engineering goal of providing sight to subjects blinded from outer retinal degenerations, such as retinitis pigmentosa. The company began by creating a first generation product to prove feasibility of the concept. The second generation device, which would later be commercialized, was created and went into clinical trials in 2006. Commercialization began in Europe in 2011 and the U.S. and Canada in 2014.
“With the help of Strategic, we were able to triage in real time, meet deadlines by prioritizing what needed to be done before and after the upgrade went live. We had the right people, the right resources and the right software in place to ensure our successful upgrade to QAD EE. The initial estimates were so on the mark, I was stunned how accurate they were.””
CHALLENGE
Second Sight first installed QAD Enterprise Applications Standard Edition (SE) in 2007 and upgraded to the 2009 SE version. In 2014, several company employees attended a QAD user group meeting and realized it would be very beneficial to modernize their system.
Second Sight has also been using Strategic Information Group (Strategic), a QAD consulting and channel partner, since 2007 and after the team returned from the user group, they requested Strategic do an assessment of their QAD.
SOLUTION
Second Sight’s decision to upgrade to EE was made quickly and preparations for the upgrade began. Pre-conversion work was done by using the detailed instructions in QAD documentation. A collection of tools and utilities was supplied by QAD and checks were done to identify items that might cause problems with the conversion.
RESULTS
Strategic conducted on-site training using a demo database with a focus on financials. QAD supplied training guides and user guides and the training was as hands-on as possible.
Second Sight has realized many benefits from the new functionalities that EE provides. “In many respects, our business needs haven’t changed, but with the EE platform, we are discovering new ways to do things that increase our operational efficiency,” states Little.