Additional Scope
One Key Application: Analytics in Managed Markets
|
Outsourcing is not just about cost cutting via offshoring; it is about extending the organization's business edge while gaining
resource efficiency and operational capacity. In doing so, companies may seek solutions for:
» Commercial Operations–data integration, performance analytics and reporting, data management, incentive compensation, call
planning, segmentation, customer relationship management (CRM), and sales administration;
» Market Intelligence–analytics and reporting, brand insights, competitive intelligence, opportunity assessment, and forecasting;
and
» Managed Markets Analytics–contract management and administration, and government and market pricing, access, and rebate analysis/adjudication/reconciliation
(see sidebar).
Figure 3: Spanning the Commercial Spectrum
|
Such solutions span the commercial spectrum and drive companies toward efficiencies to be gained along an "analytics continuum"
from retrospective analyses to future planning (see Figure 3). While the sales and marketing operations each require different
types of data, at a high level they should follow similar processes, including integrating data and creating market definitions.
Improving speed to insight is essential in order to better target customers and ensure better interactions with them.
In its broadest sense, analytics covers both business intelligence and more sophisticated predictive modeling and scenario-based
"guided analytics" (promotion response, segmentation, targeting). Such work helps a company focus on customer insights and
track market trends to better gauge and predict the business impact of decisions. Both areas can be outsourced; however, the
evolution toward guided analytics can evolve much faster than many believe because a greater competitive advantage can be
gained by leveraging best practices, reducing information complexity, and applying more advanced analytic capabilities. Outsourcing-guided
analytics involves working with a partner that has sufficient domain expertise to free in-house staff to perform analyses,
interpret findings, and prepare recommendations—the higher-level work that they both want and need to be doing.
Changing market dynamics and an evolving customer base have underscored the need to move beyond merely tracking, monitoring,
and trending toward predictive modeling and forecasting. Increasingly, companies must do more than assess what happened and
why; they must perform actionable analytics and make information-intensive processes more efficient.
|
PharmExec Blog
Follow Us
RSS
Bookstore
