Situation
A global pharmaceutical company was expanding into the U.S. market and was being hampered in its efforts due to the data management system they were using. The system drew from multiple data vendors, an integration hub, a CRM system and a spend management system leading to wasted time integrating data and information from the vendors and less than optimal insights from the data generated. They turned to KMK Consulting for an end-to-end commercial data operation and analytical platform to support their product launch and day to-day operations.
There were multiple challenges to overcome in developing an end-to-end commercial data operation and analytical platform solution for the client. Challenges were a result of:
Data Storage in Silos
Gaps existed in the client’s spend management, CRM and Field Reporting systems with lack of integration and mastering across organizational functions resulting in the generation of wrong claims. As a result, reporting suffered and there were increased inquiries from business users.
Semi-structured and Unstructured Data
Because of this data structure or lack thereof, business users were not able to directly use the data for analytics but were required to transform the data and apply rules to derive insights. This required more time and effort from the users to apply joins from various datasets to obtain useful information.
High Integration Cost
The new product launch and other change requests required a high integration cost across platforms to consolidate the additions and changes, as the overall system required less configuration and more code changes.
Limited Advanced Analytics Capabilities
Due to the diversity of datasets, it was difficult for the analysts and data scientists to derive meaningful insights. They needed to transfer the datasets into different platforms and perform analyses separately, which was inconvenient and time consuming.
Approach
The KMK team first performed a review of the client’s previous system to identify any gaps and user pain points. We then implemented KMK Vortex, our cloud-native commercial data and analytics platform, as the solution to address these problems. Our Vortex solution included a data lake, data warehouse, MDM, BI, and data analytics, all integrated into a single, easily accessible platform that our client owns. This enabled their operations analysts, data analysts, data scientists, and other business users to access the integrated data needed to generate actionable insights that drive the business forward.
Vortex is a configurable platform, so enhancements and change requests can be easily managed without expensive timelines and efforts. For example, users could make changes to a business rule for determining sampling eligibility or add a new data source with minimal effort in Vortex, whereas in their previous system, these changes would have taken days of effort and integration testing.
Additionally, we configured our reports and analytics workbench to enable ad hoc analysis by data analysts and data scientists so that it was easier for them to generate the insights they need.
The key advantages Vortex offered made an immediate impact to their operations with its:
One-Click System
An easy-to-use interface featuring a fully automated process connecting with the 3rd party vendors such as CRM, OCE for data exchange, with a daily refresh. Overall processing was accomplished within a few hours with no manual intervention needed.
Easy Change Management
The platform provided faster turnaround for change requests and the flexibility to make any changes within the data pipeline due to the OCE and other data sources.
Transparency for Business Users
Business users remained informed with email notices and an automated operations dashboard for daily refresh status.
Interactive Analytical Layer
The self-serve reporting and analytical capabilities allowed business users and data analysts the ability to visualize data in multiple technologies such as Python, R, Power BI, and Tableau.
Outcome
By implementing Vortex, our client improved management of their US operations and successful product launches. Vortex allowed multiple users to access the necessary data from a single cloud-based platform, maintaining a seamless connection. As these issues were resolved because of the strong integration between all systems and accurate data reporting. Additionally, their data analysts benefited from ready-made analytics templates that could be quickly customized to meet their specific needs. The reusable architectural framework provided by Vortex sped up implementation, 35% reduction in costs to integrate new data sources. This made data configurations easier to support product launches and the establishment of new business units.
