Business Intelligence (BI) in Pharmaceuticals - An aid in informed decision making Currently, the demand for BI solutions is largely driven by MNCs & large enterprises. BI solutions seem to have gained more acceptance and significance in pharma industry where time plays a pivotal role in the future of the company. The article from Modern Pharmaceuticals, reviews the importance of BI solutions to the Indian pharma industry. - Sanjay Mehta, CEO, MAIA Intelligence Pvt. Ltd.

1. S MART S OLUTI O NS
Business intelligence in pharma
An aid in informed decision making
Currently, the demand for BI solutions is largely driven by MNCs & large enterprises. BI solutions
seem to have gained more acceptance and significance in pharma industry where time plays a
pivotal role in the future of the company. The article reviews the importance of BI solutions to the
Indian pharma industry.
An allocation of assets & resources relating
to new product development, the mix and
priority of sales & marketing initiatives are
important. The vertical structure of organisation
around product or therapeutic-specific silos has
fostered the creation of multiple, disparate data
sources and formats – islands of data. Real-time
business activity monitoring across brands and
functional departments require that these
data be integrated into a single repository,
which represents a significant challenge to the
pharma industry.
Further, the need for transparency has
also impacted the way pharma CXO’s think
about their particular business processes and
continued heightened regulatory environment.
BI for pharma companies has now become
what Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is for
Courtesy: bytesizedsolutions.com manufacturers.
Thus, it is difficult to keep track of important
Sanjay Mehta information. For the pharma industry, BI offers
a
Management Information Systems (MIS) reports,
s market pressures demand data analysis and allows them to monitor the vast
increased innovation and shorter amounts of data.
time-to-market product lifecycles, The availability of these patient-centric
pharmaceutical companies need data, combined with the need to address the
to re-think and evaluate alternative business decreased effectiveness of traditional promotions,
models, focussing on technologies like Business has made pharma companies aware of the need
Intelligence (BI) tools. to integrate information coming from both
With the heightened competitive internal and external sources. BI solutions are
environment among the new entrants in the being embraced as a means to translate and
pharma industry, pharma companies need to interpret this information in support of strategic
use all the tools at their disposal to operate more & tactical business decisions.
efficiently, increase revenue and re-balance the In an increasingly competitive market,
decision-making power. In order to build a pharma companies can utilise BI for growth by
significant marketshare in an expanding and improving product development, enhancing
competitive drug market, pharma companies go-to-market strategies, increasing operational
need information management solutions that performance, optimising their supply chains,
allow them to make better business decisions, regulatory compliance and driving revenue
thereby maintain revenue growth. & marketshare.
90 Modern Pharmaceuticals November 2010

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Again, BI can provide critical data Sales & marketing analysis Penetration, adoption &
analysis to pharma companies in order to BI allows companies to identify importance of BI in Indian
support informed, strategic action. Data products that are most profitable, markets
across functional departments can be monitor consumer behaviour in BI represents significant market opportunity
integrated, providing context for critical terms of prescription renewal & in terms of market size, mainly because
business decisions. Thus, BI gives a true product purchases, track the success they comprise large organisations. These
enterprise view across our value chain. of marketing campaigns, and analyse companies accumulate vast amount
Enterprise-wide BI can integrate profitability by product, customer, of data through global discovery
and co-ordinate data from R&D, sales geographical area or other factors. As projects, numerous clinical trials and
& marketing, with critical external part of their ongoing analysis of the cost-marketing activities. These factors
data vital to real-time adjustments to market and competitive landscape create a more pronounced and immediate
resources & priorities. Internal data, of the industry, pharma companies need for BI tools across the product lifecycle
including information from product can regularly track the marketshare in the pharma sector. As a result, a growing
development, territory management of individual drugs & drug groups. number of companies are turning towards
systems, sales force automation tools Companies can do this by considering enterprise-class BI solutions that provide a
and consumer direct marketing can be the following: common underlying architecture & end-user
examined across brands rather than v Analyse the prescription activity in a interface and integrate data from different
within specific product areas. Thus, geographic region laboratories, both research & clinical.
BI helps decision makers make more v Dissect buying trends of the largest The maturity of BI adoption can best
informed decisions and supplies users customers be seen with the new economy companies,
with critical business information on v Provide web-based analytics to a including those in the pharma sector.
their customers or partners, including sales force Currently, many pharma companies have
information on behaviours & trends. v Target physicians having high deployed & stabilised ERP/CRM/SCM/HRM
Furthermore, BI allows the comparison prescription rates of a certain or core business (transactional) applications
and review of past performances, in drug or treatment with new and are thus looking for a tool that can
addition to looking forward with different drug information leverage the IT investment in these packaged
‘what if’ models, where the user can Some of the companies who have applications. We are seeing great interest
manipulate the data. implemented BI software solutions from verticals, such as pharma companies, to
Again, BI enables a clear understanding are Wanbury Ltd and Glenmark adopt BI for increasing their competitiveness
of business, which is crucial. There is a Pharmaceuticals Ltd. MAIA Intelligence & transparency. In India, there is a general
need for an instant view of current sales has entered into a partnership and awareness on the theory and concept of
against budget or break-even, and a view strategic alliance with ERP vendors BI. They are spearheading BI adoption by
of administrative tasks that negatively like Soham for its Pharma Suite and going in for separate BI units within the
affect cash flow, including improper other consulting partners like Religare organisation to provide the ‘right’ product
tracking of running items, drug returns for Technova to jointly offer this BI solution to the ‘right’ customer and at the ‘right’
expired ones & timely replacement orders, specifically for the pharma industry. time & price. This industry is one of the early
tracking timely utilisation of materials to There are many other small - to adopters of BI in India. Currently, the demand
avoid expiry, etc. medium-scale pharma organisations for BI solutions is largely driven by MNCs &
that use 1KEY BI, which has been
Courtesy: businessintelligencebi.com
Customer analysis bundled with their ERP. Most Small
BI can help to identify & target and Medium Businesses (SMBs) again
individuals and demographics that look for a value proposition around
could be considered ‘undiagnosed’, three aspects – whether the solution
with educational campaigns whose is easy-to-buy, easy-to-use and easy-to-
goal is to encourage these individuals install & nurture.
to get screened and tested for possible Further, BI helps them build reports
issues. It can also combine product that compare trade in particular months
sales information with customer groups with that in previous years, and all
and customer channel information this analysis is available to the top
to analyse what makes customers fill management. In today’s competitive
prescriptions at a more consistent rate market – whether SMB or enterprise –
or what makes physicians prescribe customers are demanding better quality
certain drugs at a higher rate. of service at lower prices.
November 2010 Modern Pharmaceuticals 91

3. S MART S OLUTI O NS
large enterprises. BI solutions seem to have economic slowdown. The overall BI Product analysis: BI analyses buying
gained more acceptance and significance in market in India is at a nascent stage, tendencies and treatment outcomes to
pharma industry where time plays a pivotal with a huge untapped opportunity for create more drug & product variations
role in the future of the company. vendors to capture. BI can deliver on tailored directly towards different age
Return on Investment (ROI): ROI on this promise if deployed successfully groups and risk factors.
BI is high and fast. An example of Human because it can improve decision making Supply chain analysis: It improves
Resources (HR) analytics can be considered and operational efficiency, which in turn production schedules by analysing which
here. HR department, equipped with the drives the top line and the bottomline.As products stay on the shelves for the longest
facts & analysis, can plan and take the per NASSCOM ZINNOV INDIA Software time and how well each product is selling.
necessary action. This is just one area Product Business Study report, BI is on the Regulatory compliance: BI’s
within an HR domain. Likewise, BI can third opportunity priority list for Indian analytical and reporting capabilities
help any pharma organisation for ad-hoc software product companies. allow companies to gather & integrate
reporting, dynamic MIS thus enabling cost- information from across the enterprise
savings, and increasing revenue. Hence, a and present it in easy-to-run &
high rate of ROI happens quickly on BI.
Some of the companies easy-to-understand reports. Pharma
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): who have implemented companies, besides conforming with
Contrary to the traditional BI (MNC), BI software drug testing and health certification
operational BI leaders like MAIA norms, can comply with the often rigid
Intelligence’s 1KEY have low TCO, solutions are insurance and government standards for
considering the Enterprise License Cost, Wanbury Ltd payment and billing with BI.
IT-user involvement during deployment, and Glenmark Clinical data analysis: BI’s analytical
IT-user involvement for support, capabilities enable companies to
implementation, training and overall Pharmaceuticals Ltd. track the large amounts of information
business value delivered. Implementation from clinical trials, identify the most
of 1KEY happens as fast as within two days efficient practices, and optimise resource
and business users are trained in just few Visible trends for further allocation. By integrating data from
hours. Hence, the TCO is low in case of BI development of BI multiple sources, BI also helps companies
tools like 1KEY. We are now looking forward to new identify trends & anomalies and analyse
Based on Gartner research, only technology wave of Rich Internet risk during product development
30 per cent of companies that have Applications (RIA)-based BI. Business users & launch.
deployed BI consider their deployments have no experience of such an intuitive Financial analysis: BI integrates
‘very successful’ – the vast majority is Graphical User Interface (GUI). We are both financial & operational information,
labelled ‘somewhat successful’. releasing in coming months 1KEY Touch enabling companies to monitor and
Moreover, most existing BI players Dashboard based on RIA platform. We forecast financial performance as well as
(traditional BI) are primarily focussed have rolled out with couple of guinea produce statutory financial reports from
on Strategic BI alone. These tools pig customer for initial feedback. We the same platform that enables clinical
are expensive and used by only top want our customers to develop a deeper, data & quality control analyses.
management and the remaining longer commitment with our brands even Operational analysis: BI enables
85 per cent of business user pyramid if they are priced the lowest in the market. companies to track their supplier networks,
is deprived of a BI for MIS, analysis and Emotional customers are those who care, inventory stocks, product quality and
monitoring or gauging performances, share their views with the world, pay a production levels. In addition, BI’s ability
which, if provided, can help them gain premium for the products and stay for the to simultaneously analyse information
visibility into the business. long run. In fact, they are often the most from multiple sources allows companies
BI Market: There is still scope for profitable customers for a company. to monitor costs and operational efficiency
growth in the BI market. It has penetrated Simply put, BI is definitely a space across the enterprise, examine employee
only 10-15 per cent of the known user to look forward in coming quarters. productivity and allocate resources
base, but there is opportunity for BI well IInnovation in technology and delivery more effectively.
beyond today’s known markets. model disruptions have made BI software
Gartner Report ‘Hype Cycle for ICT in more accessible to a larger customer base. Sanjay Mehta, is Chief
India 2008’, expects BI market in India BI will be an integral part of the Executive Officer at
to reach $46.8 million by 2012. India is software bond that binds relevant MAIA Intelligence Pvt Ltd.
a huge market for BI and is fast growing information to intelligent decisions across Email: sanjaymehta@maia-
with double-digit figures even in this organisations. intelligence.com
92 Modern Pharmaceuticals November 2010