Award-winning cosmetics start-up from Austria on the road to success with SAP Business One Cloud
SAP Business One Cloud offers an efficient modular system that quickly and easily creates structure and digitizes processes
Under the brand name PHYSTINE care products for skin health are developed, which meet the maximum requirements for effect & sustainability all around: The best for people & the environment! From raw material extraction to production and packaging to the product, its use and disposal, PHYSTINE offers consistently natural, ethically and ecologically produced products. PHYSTINE is a start-up company in the field of natural cosmetics from Austria. Founded in 2020, the company sells its products both through a web store and through stationary partners such as pharmacies, therapists and beauticians.
Sustainability as the basis of our business
“Fair trade and inclusion of all, including potentially disadvantaged social groups, in our value creation processes, as well as the conviction that our specific combinations of natural substances are the best care for a healthy body, are the foundation of our work,” says 39-year-old business economist, founder and CEO Clemens Bechter.
Lean processes through integrated web store and professional fulfillment
Right from the start, it was clear to PHYSTINE that an ERP system is needed in order to be able to transparently map the multi-stage production process and, in particular, to professionalize batch management and customer order processing. The web store is connected to SAP Business One via a conesprit interface. In addition, inventories are transferred from SAP Business One to the web store via the interface. As a result, only those items that are actually in stock are sold there. The web shop order is mapped in SAP Business One as a sales order. This is immediately transmitted as a work order to the employees in the shipping department. The next process steps up to the customer are almost completely automated. Phystine’s employees thus save a lot of time and errors can be avoided.
A cloud solution as an indispensable added value
“Through the SAP Business One Cloud, data can be captured and processed on the move at any time without incurring our own hardware and maintenance costs,” a very important aspect for us as a start-up that has to pay close attention to the cost-benefit ratio.” Lara Bechter explains. Thanks to SAP Business One Cloud, PHYSTINE can grow scalably and focus on its core business: Creating products that help maintain or improve skin health.
Experience and expertise as a basis
Lara Bechter, a biomedical scientist by training, is responsible at PHYSTINE for product development and approval as well as for manufacturing and quality assurance of the products. Clemens Bechter takes care of the economic, sustainability and organizational issues in a generalist manner. “We both have many years of experience with international global players in leading positions, so we are grateful to already be able to draw on a lot of expertise in all business areas,” says Lara Bechter.
Reducing complexity in the production process as a success factor
Production planning at PHYSTINE is inventory-controlled and based on multi-stage production processes. Based on defined minimum stock levels, production orders are planned for the end products. SAP Business One recognizes which production orders need to be executed in which order to produce these end products by resolving multi-level bills of materials. The MRP assistant also reveals which ingredients need to be reordered and which service providers need to be contacted so that production orders can be carried out on time. “Batch management in particular is very important for us. In Austria, cosmetics production is subject to food law and thus to the highest regulations regarding traceability of ingredients,” explains Managing Director Bechter. He continues, “Through SAP Business One Cloud, we can now generate detailed analysis data sheets at any time and thus comply with all legal requirements.” Traceability of ingredients is also important for the annual organic certification.
For us as a start-up, SAP Business One Cloud is ideal. There are no hardware and maintenance costs and we can access the system from any location.
We already knew how to work with SAP from our many years of professional experience in management. It was therefore clear that we would not want to do without the added value in our own company.