Lights, Camera, Analytics: How Analytics Process Optimization Directs Data Success for Medical Device Companies

Transcription

1 Lights, Camera, Analytics: How Analytics Process Optimization Directs Data Success for Medical Device Companies Raj Jayashankar, Andrea Traverso and Amol Joshi

2 Lights, Camera, Analytics: How Analytics Process Optimization Directs Data Success for Medical Device Companies By Raj Jayashankar, Andrea Traverso and Amol Joshi Only 4% of respondents to a recent ZS study of medtech companies outsource sales analytics, which includes segmentation targeting and performance tracking. Just 8% outsourced marketing analytics such as closed-loop marketing and campaign ROI analytics. Several reasons account for medtech companies reticence to outsource analytics, but failing to do so may prove to be a strategic blunder. That s because as the medtech industry slowly embraces sales and marketing analytics, outsourcing becomes an essential component to ensure quality and efficiency. Analytics Process Optimization (APO) addresses the concerns that medical devices companies have about outsourcing analytics. This paper shows how APO can improve medtech companies analytics capabilities while using outsourced resources to enhance efficiency.

3 You ve heard this story before: Analytics can improve customer segmentation, pinpoint cross- and upselling opportunities, and find new ways to deliver value, and do so while being more efficient than today. As an executive or manager at a medical device manufacturer, it may sound a little too much like the clichéd ending to a movie: And everyone lived happily ever after. This distrust of analytics and analytics outsourcing is probably well-earned. Some medical device companies may find it too overwhelming to consider sophisticated analytics much less outsourced analytics when they struggle with routine sales and marketing reports. They may blanch at the cost of investment in technology and personnel. Most important, they may not see the need for this type of analytics. The medical device industry has been able to sell largely based on product features rather on value for specific customers needs. 1 As a result, few medtech companies outsource analytics. Only 4% of respondents to a recent ZS study outsource sales analytics, which includes segmentation targeting and performance tracking; 8% outsourced marketing analytics such as closed-loop marketing and campaign ROI analytics; and just 12% reported outsourcing Big Data analytics like clickstream data, social media and market information. 2 The pharma industry had the same skepticism about outsourcing analytics, concerned about upfront costs, control and computing capabilities. But those fears have not materialized: Pharma companies that trusted third parties with some or all of their analytics have been rewarded with greater opportunities and lower costs. Industries of all types now optimize forecasting, marketing and customer service capabilities, and their product offerings through analytics, 3 and many of those operations are outsourced. The reticence of medical device companies to outsource their analytics may prove to be a strategic blunder. As analytics grows in importance, and the medtech industry slowly embraces it, 4 outsourcing will become akin to making a major motion picture do you outsource the project to an experienced director, who can make a great film under budget, or to a relative novice, who might ultimately figure things out, but not after a lot of struggle and expense? 1 Pete Masloski and Priyan Patkar, ZS Associates, What s It Worth to You? How Value-Based Innovation Improves Medtech Development, January ZS Associates, Not so Future Shock: ZS s Commercial Operations Benchmark Study for Medical Products, Devices, and Services Industries, April Ventana Research benchmark report, Predictive Analytics: Improving Performance by Making the Future More Visible, February ZS Associates, Not so Future Shock: ZS s Commercial Operations Benchmark Study for Medical Products, Devices, and Services Industries, April

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5 An answer in Analytics Process Optimization (APO) Analytics Process Optimization (APO) addresses the concerns that medical devices company have about outsourcing analytics. Through the right combination of outsourcing and in-house processes, of onshore and offshore resources, APO can improve analytics capabilities while using outsourced resources to enhance efficiency. What is essential to a winning analytics operation is that it cannot be a backward-facing endeavor. Foresight is key. Lacking predictive capabilities, analytics tends to be journalistic rather than insightful. Because it leverages third-party expertise and allows commercial operations to focus on issues other than reporting, APO can deliver the foresight that makes analytics a true competitive advantage (see Figure 1). However, divining this kind insight is often not a strength of medtech companies. They have made enormous leaps in technology through cutting-edge research and development, and have developed successful commercial models to sell their products. But they are not usually well-versed in data management, nor are they necessarily expert in generating insights from data even when they do a good job of processing it. Foresight Foresight 65 Would changing the rebate structure lead to strong growth? Value / ROI Insight Insight Hindsight Hindsight Has a price change affected top IDN sales trends? What are the monthly sales for the top GPOs? Current Investment Figure 1. APO addresses hindsight reporting to show what has already happened; delivers insight Source: ZS Associates to show why something has happened; and, at its most advanced, can give foresight to show what will Figure happen 2. APO in response addresses to changes. hindsight reporting to show what has already happened; delivers insight to show why something has happened; and, at its most advanced, can give foresight to show what will happen in response to changes. Source: ZS Associates 3

6 Making movies, developing insights Directing a big-budget motion picture is a triumph of organization: It requires coordination on a large scale, specialized technical expertise and filming on multiple locations. A director must work with screenwriters, cinematographers, actors, location scouts, set designers, lighting and sound engineers, film editors and so on. The director must cope with deadlines and budgets, and satisfy a large group of stakeholders at the studio. The amount of organization, skill and vision required is immense. The glamour of Hollywood aside, commercial analytics actually has more than a few similarities to making movies (see Figure 2). You serve a wide variety of stakeholders and must manage an even wider variety of workers with highly specialized skills and industry expertise. You have to coordinate across different locations (some overseas) and business units. There are budgets, deadlines and enormous pressures to deliver results. Ultimately, it s not a job for a novice. Like a movie studio chieftain, you re probably better off bringing in a seasoned director to make a big-budget action flick rather than a novice or someone who is an expert in filming instructional videos. Movie production Requires collaboration with a wide range of talent, ranging from actors to editors Must satisfy studio chiefs, who are closely scrutinizing the product and costs Entails work in multiple locations, some overseas Delays and errors cause costly reshoots, resulting in inferior work that misses seasonal release dates. Commercial analytics Requires collaboration with a wide range of talent, ranging from data scientists to marketing managers Must satisfy C-level executives, who are closely scrutinizing the product and costs Entails work in multiple locations, some overseas Delays and errors cause costly rework, and result in inferior analytics that are already out of date. Figure 2. The glamour of Hollywood aside, there are striking similarities between making movies and commercial analytics. 4

7 Five success factors for analytics In any APO project, specific factors determine how well the project succeeds. Here are five success factors that we ve found to be crucial in optimizing analytics at a medtech commercial operation: 1. Being able to leverage the proper expertise. Developing a competitive advantage through analytics requires supporting analytics services across different sales and marketing channels, while having broad experience in sales and marketing processes and capability-building programs in the medical device industry. Like a movie director, the ideal APO partner has expertise in a multi-vendor environment, and expertise in the area offered. The partner can use a library of analytics assets, along with technology accelerators, a deeper domain expertise and end-to-end ownership of analytics solutions, in order to develop economies of scale across scope across several products and regions, reducing total cost of ownership. 2. Exploration, capability and operations three pillars of analytics operations need tight integration. Because APO is an end-to-end process that integrates capabilities and operations, it is essential to have a partner capable of implementing and managing the process. Again, the movie analogy is apt: Lacking central direction, both a movie set and an analytics operation are likely to see costs spiral out of control and results suffer. For instance, we worked with a medical products company whose sales and marketing analytical needs varied throughout the year, usually peaking in the second and third quarters. It lacked integration across work streams, leading to responsiveness and communications challenges during the peak periods. This led to costly delays and rework, and only average (at best) internal customer satisfaction ratin. We helped the company integrate the operation, which entailed writing detailed work plans in advance, identifying key phases of the operation and setting up a dedicated, 50-member team in India. The result was improved responsiveness, quality and customer satisfaction. 3. All analytics are not the same: Each analytics function needs its specialized, optimal process. Analytics services should be tailored to an individual company s needs, from initial business design to building the right technology to operations and support. It s like picking the right director and actors for an action movie rather than a romantic comedy. For instance, a medtech company we worked with had several types of customer contracts, each with different levels of discounts and rebates. But the company lacked an analytics framework to see how those different discount levels affected sales and market share. We helped the company implement a specialized approach to analyzing its customer database and the discounts afforded different customers, helping develop better contracting strategy. In meeting these specialized demands, the company separated its contracting analytics needs and defined and developed an optimal approach for that particular issue.. 5

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9 4. Without strong leadership and governance, an analytics operation will fail. This can be the difference between an analytics operation that delivers ROI and one that s eating precious resources with no return. An optimal analytics solution must include program governance and the ability to manage change and ongoing performance. Leadership must clearly communicate program objectives; develop governance guidelines and a risk mitigation plan; implement workflow management tools and train employees; measure key performance indicators (KPI) regularly; and review performance to ensure continuous improvement. 5. Ultimately, companies reap competitive advantage via operational analytics that leverages automation and well-defined processes. The focus will shift from transactional reporting to generating predictive insights that have a real impact on sales. This is only done through automated and well-defined processes. There are many reasons for this, but mainly because the volume of monthly reports remains large, while different stakeholders make several ad hoc report requests on a regular basis. Moreover, data quality management and QA/ QC measures are often weak. Automation and well-defined processes are essential tools to overcome these challenges. We ve seen medical device companies make this transition to a limited degree; it is certainly not an industry-wide shift yet. Those analytics processes that were able to transition to insights reporting from transactional reporting used an automated process, and addressed issues that had high business impact. Cost declined. Sales and marketing teams were in a better position to pivot and adapt to changes in the business climate. In terms of operational analytics, business reports were delivered to key stakeholders with little or no disruption in service. What lies ahead The call for outsourcing has been with us for some time. For reasons outside medtech companies control, the industry has been slow to embrace analytics outsourcing, or even analytics at all. There s no need. The data s no good. The cost savings is minimal and the end product doesn t justify the investment. But, as this paper has documented, it is a mistake not to consider APO. With less product differentiation, tougher competition and a shifting customer landscape, there s clearly the need. Data and data sources are far more advanced than even a few years ago. And there is ample evidence that the cost savings in APO does not lead to an inferior product to the contrary, APO delivers superior analytics at a lower cost. The alternative is not necessarily an attractive one: your commercial operations slowly falling behind while your sales force struggles to close deals and uncover new ones. Or put it in more cinematic terms, the difference between APO and keeping all analytics in-house is like allowing an experienced director make a blockbuster, or having a first-time director try hard but probably end up with a box-office flop. 7

10 About the Authors Raj Jayashankar is a Principal with ZS in Boston. Raj has more than 15 years working with medical device companies and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries on their commercial operations. He has led transformational change on analytics solutions, business model innovation, business operations and organizational change for both high-growth and mature life science companies. Andrea Traverso, an Associate Principal with ZS in Evanston, Ill., has more than 14 years of experience in consulting. She has helped companies in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries across a wide range of issues, including go-to-market strategy, commercial excellence, analytics, operations and a variety of other sales and marketing issues. Amol Joshi is a Manager at ZS in Philadelphia. Amol has worked with a variety of pharmaceutical and medical device clients, focusing on sales and marketing operations and analytics outsourcing. Prior to joining ZS, Amol worked for a global management consulting technology services and outsourcing company. 8

11 About ZS ZS is the world s largest firm focused exclusively on improving business performance through sales and marketing solutions, from customer insights and strategy to analytics, operations and technology. More than 3,000 ZS professionals in 21 offices worldwide draw on deep industry and domain expertise to deliver impact where it matters for clients across multiple industries. To learn more, visit or follow us on Twitter (@ZSAssociates) and LinkedIn.

12 For more information, please contact: ZS Associates zsassociates.com ZS Associates, Inc