CRM Proves Essential for Pharmaceuticals & Life Science

Many pharmaceutical giants launch global CRM projects with the objectives of establishing common processes and sharing best practice. However well-meaning such plans are, they are inevitably thwarted by two realities:

There's no such thing as a global customer in the pharmaceutical industry; and
There are significant business environment differences between the United States and Europe. (Most global CRM projects target these two areas.)

The regulatory environment in Europe is very different than that of the U.S. For example, in Europe, Direct To Consumer (DTC) advertising is not allowed and pharmaceutical companies don't have access to prescription data at physician level, only at geographic (brick) level.

Additionally, medical and legal guidelines are more stringent in Europe. There are mandatory reporting requirements for meetings and medical education events, and sales representatives have to take great care how they profile doctors. This risk has now reached the stage where some pharmaceutical companies have preferred to eliminate free text fields altogether from their CRM solutions and to severely curtail even the use of some pick lists.

European data privacy laws are more restrictive in Europe than in the U.S. And lastly, medicine is culture-based. A doctor's prescribing behavior, a consumer's reason for going to see a doctor in the first place, and his willingness to accept certain types of medication can vary significantly by country -- especially within Europe, never mind the U.S. This fascinating subject is explored in detail in Lynn Payer's book Medicine and Culture.

Needless to say, all of this results in very few possibilities to effectively develop global customer segmentation profiles and global sales and marketing processes, however enticing and compelling this might seem on paper. When global projects nonetheless go ahead, one of two things invariably happens:

Each country ends up with its own customized version running on a local server. This is a politically acceptable compromise, which if properly managed, usually works satisfactorily.

There is a single version running on a fully centralized architecture, with all the attendant difficulties of managing a one-size-fits-all solution with various flavors for various countries, with serious design and implementation issues resulting in a costly, complex and rigid solution with long lead-times between new versions.

Experience shows that the above business realities just cannot be translated into standard processes and standard systems. The costs in terms of IT infrastructure and operational disruption are simply too great -- for returns which are difficult to justify. Global pharmaceutical companies should try and define in concrete terms -- rather than in woolly and all-embracing concepts -- just what business objectives they're trying to achieve and whether wholesale standardization on CRM software is the best way to go about it.

The Life Science industries face tremendous risks. Products require massive up-front investment. Most never make it. And the revenue window slams shut when the patent expires.

Unisys Life Sciences lets firms do more with less. At lower costs. Faster. Flexible, reliable and secure solutions. Leaner supply chains. Anti-counterfeiting securing your healthcare supply chain. Business intelligence creating a 360 degree view of the customer.

Life Sciences solutions span:

Unisys Guardian Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions to protect strategic branding, intellectual property and R&D investments and ensure patient safety.
Business Intelligence services to enhance customer visibility.
Customer Relationship Management to help sales reps influence prescription decisions and cultivate relationships with physicians.

Unisys brings decades of experience to operations management. IT-enabled business strategy. Infrastructure and outsourcing services. Server and data consolidation. Open Source solutions.

Our 3D Visible Enterprise methodology transforms business complexity into visibility. See your whole business. Processes, systems and services. Understand cause-and-effect relationships. Know the effects of change ahead of time.

We help companies within the pharmaceutical industry maximize the effectiveness and financial impact of their Customer Relationship Management and Sales & Marketing functions.

Within the pharmaceutical industry, maximizing the effectiveness and financial impact of the Marketing and Sales functions has proven to be a differentiator. Our studies across the United States and Europe entitled 'How Much are Marketing & Sales Really Worth?' show how these capabilities drive performance.

Find out how we are delivering more value to customers and a greater return on Customer Relationship Management investments across Accenture. Key to increasing sales, marketing efficiency and ROI is Closed Loop Promotion-an approach that allows sales representatives to present and discuss customized education and information based on ongoing feedback from physician interactions. Research by Accenture confirms that physicians seek more detailed, comparative and customized information from pharmaceutical representatives.

We seek out alliances with best in class companies and organizations whose capabilities complement our own. We have created strong ties to Sales & Life Sciences Marketing specialists in areas across Customer Relationship Management, Channel Management and Contract Management to deliver comprehensive solutions to our clients.

Many pharmaceutical giants launch global CRM projects with the objectives of establishing common processes and sharing best practice. However well-meaning such plans are, they are inevitably thwarted by two realities:

There's no such thing as a global customer in the pharmaceutical industry; and
There are significant business environment differences between the United States and Europe. (Most global CRM projects target these two areas.)

Each country ends up with its own customized version running on a local server. This is a politically acceptable compromise, which if properly managed, usually works satisfactorily.
Each country ends up with its own customized version running on a local server. This is a politically acceptable compromise, which if properly managed, usually works satisfactorily. There is a single version running on a fully centralized architecture, with all the attendant difficulties of managing a one-size-fits-all solution with various flavors for various countries, with serious design and implementation issues resulting in a costly, complex and rigid solution with long lead-times between new versions.

Experience shows that the above business realities just cannot be translated into standard processes and standard systems. The costs in terms of IT infrastructure and operational disruption are simply too great-for returns which are difficult to justify. Global pharmaceutical companies should try and define in concrete terms-rather than in woolly and all-embracing concepts-just what business objectives they're trying to achieve and whether wholesale standardization on CRM software is the best way to go about it. A Pharmaceutical Industry Wish List With the strong winds of competition beating down on the pharmaceutical industry, the race is on to build stronger relations, to claim a better share of the market, to cut costs, and become more efficient. Amidst all the activity somewhere is the relationship between the patient, doctor, sales force, and channels (distributors, stockists and retailers).

With products ranging from low involvement products to critical, high involvement products, the type of relationships between the companies, their channels, doctors and end customers are quite unique. It a relationship built on trust and delivery.

Like many other countries, the pharmaceutical industry in India is faced with many challenges:

Increased competition
Decreasing market share
Managing extensive distributor/stockist network
Product management
Managing a large sales force
Managing marketing efforts
Collating islands of Information

And amidst all this activity, comes customer management. To try to assess the market trends/customer needs. To be proactive in satisfying the customer, running focused campaigns, managing brand image!

Pharmaceutical Industry Wish List

With the strong winds of competition beating down on the pharmaceutical industry, the race is on to build stronger relations, to claim a better share of the market, to cut costs, and become more efficient. Amidst all the activity somewhere is the relationship between the patient, doctor, sales force, and channels (distributors, stockists and retailers).With products ranging from low involvement products to critical, high involvement products, the type of relationships between the companies, their channels, doctors and end customers are quite unique. It a relationship built on trust and delivery.

Like many other countries, the pharmaceutical industry in India is faced with many challenges:

Increased competition
Decreasing market share
Managing extensive distributor/stockist network
Product management
Managing a large sales force
Managing marketing efforts
Collating islands of Information

Who is the Customer?

In the pharma-manufacturing/distribution sector, the customer is approached indirectly using the "Doctor channel." Since the organization does not sell directly to the consumer of the drugs, it has to service the prescribing professionals and retailers to do the job of maintaining customer relationship. The organization in turn maintains its relationship with the doctors and the stockists/retailers.

With talk of CRM practically encircling all quarters, the question that comes to mind is: How can the pharmaceutical industry use CRM techniques to build better relationships with its consumers, recommenders (doctors) and channel partners? At the same time ensuring sales force optimization, communication and efficiency.

With the above challenges, pharmaceutical companies are turning to CRM solutions to provide for their wish list.

Wish List from a CRM Solution?

One major part of the CRM initiative is viewed as the implementation of a CRM-Technology Solution. This should ideally complement the ongoing functional processes being undertaken as part of the CRM initiative. But instead, it is not unusual for the initiative to start slipping into the technology perspective-with the solution driving the processes and not vice versa.

A CRM initiative impacts various departments, each with their own needs. Interacting with various department heads in the industry, below are some generic observations on the expectations from implementing a CRM solution:

Sales Perspective

With a centralized database and interaction history for doctors, chemists and stockists-the sales efforts can be focused.
Capturing doctor prescription habits.
Information input channels like Web and PDA to help in market information capture.
The organization can own the customer relationship.
The Sales area can be seen in a single picture.
Tracking direct sales as well as channel sales.
This will enable sales force automation and stockist management.
Easier on-line reporting for medical representatives (sales force)-daily call reports, etc.
Tracking RX (prescription) trends and samples.
The selling cycle from Lead to Order can be automated with closed loop tracking and opportunity management.
Secondary and tertiary sales tracking.

Marketing Perspective

Product launches
Cost-effective seminars
Effective conference management
Brand management
Product analysis
Competitor and competitor product information
Doctor profiling

Support Perspective

Centralized knowledge base
Specialty product support teams
Real time issue logging by doctors/professionals
Issue to resolution tracking/escalation

The key focus remains on the customer management and sales force management. Today, the organizations depend on their sales force to get the consumer trends and feedbacks from the market. This information is then collected and structured for analysis. In this scenario, with employee turnover, the organization does not own the customer relationship.

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