Modular content: Pivot Your Content Strategy on the Fly Posted on April 23, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin The path of omnichannel in pharma has its twists and turns. However, this approach has turned into a daily routine of those who’s committed to delivering first-class experiences to their customers. It has changed the digital environment for good as pharma companies and digital solutions providers can no longer stick to just producing content — the realities require something greater than that: a new method of disseminating messages and materials. How do top pharmaceutical enterprises run this approach and pivot their omnichannel content strategy on the fly? An answer is a modular approach. This article is a sneak peek of a real-world case showing how the most flexible approach to content creation makes the highest impact on the customers. The game with the flexible modules If this is your first time hearing about modular content, these words are worth remembering as it inevitably becoming a substantial part of omnichannel marketing. Moreover, the flexibility of this approach makes it suitable to exist in any market environment. In July, the pharmaphorum’s How to Win With a Multichannel Approach in Pharma webinar in association with our experts became explosive. That session lifted the veil on the value of modular content in modern digital communication and provided many insights on how, with its help, pharma companies build highly targeted customer journeys. For those who missed the debate, modular content exists in the form of flexible modular units used in various channel-specific templates. They consist of a claim that is combined by supporting text and/or media and references. Together they are approved to be used across the channels. It means that you don’t have to create each piece of content from scratch and then compile all the materials together, review and approve it item by item. This significantly reduces the time and efforts you have to apply to content production. What’s more, such fragments can be used across channels – apart from an eDetailer in an email, and part of the email in a landing page, and so on. More wins of modular content: Accelerated content production Rapid updates Compliance with branding guidelines (materials can be pre-approved) Cost-efficiency Light-speed MLR More personalized approach becomes available Measurable impact Omnichannel support Omnichannel content excellence with modular approach Description Today, increasing customer expectations and changing competitive dynamics require more effective and impactful content with ever less investment. Therefore, the use of omnichannel activities calls for clearer governance and a higher content reuse rate. Again and again, it proves beneficial to set up a single workflow, where all assets are perfectly aligned, approved, and can be used repeatedly across multiple channels. This is what one of our global TOP 50 clients was interested in when they came to us early in 2020. We applied our expertise to establish more efficient practices in content management to streamline production without disrupting the current operations but with a possibility to scale the remodeled approach to multiple regions. This table is a chronology of changes we had to perform from today to tomorrow: Before After Go-to-market speed • 10 weeks between local customer requirements definition & agency briefing • 6 weeks between agency briefing & MLR approval/ # of iterations • 3 weeks for local transcreation & coding Time reduction, as a modular template approach will reduce the number of iterations to develop content by pre-structuring formats and accelerating MLR approval Cost efficiency • Cancellation fee ~7% of transcreation invoice • ~ 6,000 Euros for creative agency/cycle per asset and country • ~ 4,000 – 6,000 Euros for local transcreation and coding/cycle per asset and country Reduced costs for global transcreation as earlier demand forecasting lowers the cancellation rate Lower local transcreation and coding costs due to higher re-use rate of material, based on improved searching function (incl. metadata tagging) and automated coding Content effectiveness • Average HCP satisfaction score of 3.2 • Average sales reps satisfaction score of 2.7 Improved HCP satisfaction due to systematic and centralized customer insights generation from local teams and sales reps Improved sales reps satisfaction as clearly defined modules allow sales reps to precisely addressing key messages Results The project at hand required technological solutions to translate our vision into a reality. We engaged eWizard in the process to respond, pivot faster, and better with the modular powers contained in the platform. It became the feasible solution to supply the content in the amounts required and maintain a cost-efficient, coherent messaging. The platform has a library of approved digital assets to be reused. A single asset can travel across channels and projects, coming in handy for content creation whenever needed. This intelligent approach is designed to create highly personalized content with the ability to build a targeted customer journey. The gradual rollout on the markets started with the pilot spanning 5 markets to test the opportunities and possible challenges to work on further on the way. This was followed by a wave of regional rollouts in full scale. According to the newly established workflow, whenever a new content item is to be created, a chain process of instant evaluation is performed to determine what work can be excluded from the scope (as it has already been performed on other content items) and optimize the resource allocations. In this way, instead of a simple creation of content, a more flexible transcreation process allows for quicker assets’ production. Modular content is no longer a fancy legend, it’s the intelligent approach to content production we have mastered. The evolution is going on, therefore we adjusted the eWizard platform for the practical needs that arise in this respect. Download the PDF to get in-depth insights about the implementation process and the successful results of this case. Also, fill out the form below and our experts will reach you out.
Congratulations on confirming Management System Certificate in ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Posted on April 12, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin March 25, 2021 – Viseven company has successfully passed the first supervisory audit ISO 27001. This designates that the company is developing and improving processes including the information security management system as an integral part, and continuing to comply with the requirements of ISO / IEC 27001: 2013. The pharmaceutical industry is one among the highly controlled and regulated with numerous commands imposed by governments to protect people’s health and well-being. Therefore, since the processing of exponentially growing customers’ data became immense, the company is putting privacy concerns first. ISO/IEC 27001 certification is one of the most prevalent standards that confirms a company has sufficient control in place aiming to protect all the processes related to information security and data workflows. The purpose of these regulations is to identify risks, prevent and diminish them before they happen as they might cause the loss of information or other risky circumstances to the company’s assets. Practical scope of certification: Achieving ISO 27001 along with implementing an information security management system (ISMS) allows companies to reap multiple benefits such as: Handling information security risks effectively Protecting client and employee personal data Attaining sustainable EU GDPR (the European Union General Data Protection Regulation) compliance Protecting the corporate brand reputation, assets, shareholders, and owners Supporting the secure exchange of information Improving client satisfaction and keeping on-time services and products delivery At Viseven, the ISO/IEC 27001 certification is a staple of corporate responsibility. It confirms our compliance with the information security requirements of our customers and those of applicable legislation. It is ingrained in our corporate DNA as part of the digital culture of which we are part as a tech company. The focus of our approach is to save lives by making communication faster. Natalia Andreychuk, CEO at Viseven Minutes to certification Since all the requirements of the standard are met by Viseven, a whole spectrum of the company activities is controlled and secured on a sufficient scale. The ISO/IEC 27001 standard indicated that the company implemented a number of required procedures, policies, and guidelines to achieve the full range of control and protection over its services and products. The purpose of adhering to the requirements of this standard is asset and data protection from leakage, theft, or loss; higher trust from the customers and employees’ confidence. All of this ensures greater strength of the company in the highly competitive landscape, with clear and transparent workflows as well as role distribution among specialists. We already have two years of experience collaborating with PECB MS and have found this experience extremely positive inclusive of the team demonstrating a high level of professionalism. We are satisfied with the processes and can remark on a very responsible approach from PECB MS – a really rewarding collaboration. Vladislav Bezpaliy CIO & CISO Obtaining ISO 27001 unlocks the door to new partnerships and collaborations with the most demanding companies on a global scale. Not to mention the positive influence on customers’ trust together with the firm company’s credibility and reputation on the market. About Viseven Viseven is a full-cycle digital solutions provider with more than 10-years of experience in content development and digital transformation for the pharmaceutical market across the globe. Viseven has been offering leading-edge solutions and services for content authoring, omnichannel campaign orchestration, Digital Content Factory, and the evolution of digital culture from within the customer organization. Drop our experts a line to see inside Viseven services and products, deepen your knowledge in understanding the needs and requirements of Life Sciences as well as in unique omnichannel content expertise, creation, and management.
Digital Content Factory: Manufacture Content and Get Opportunities Posted on March 5, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin They say, if you see a factory in a dream, it only means that in reality, you have great ambitions and a desire to achieve something great. That’s probably the dream of many pharma managers as the race for state-of-the-art solutions to run digital transformation in life sciences goes on. Let’s talk about why pharma leaders have chosen this challenging time to build their dream content factories, what they represent in reality and how to make them easily manufacture content and opportunities. What is the Digital Content Factory? Why everyone in pharma is trying to create one? 2020 was like a lucid dream, however, the manifestos it declared have transferred to reality and drastically changed our minds. One of such manifestos is a more critical look at the content that we deliver to our audience. In 2020, healthcare spent 33% of their budgets on content. By 2030, Digital Content Creation Market is expected to reach a global size of US$ 38.2 billion. Pharma companies are currently producing a massive amount of digital content—and the demand is growing. Therefore, the content in the 2020s is destined to become more interactive, engaging, and, without doubt, connected. Digital transformation goes hand in hand with omnichannel technologies. Today it entered the pharma mainstream as a key component to deliver top-notch experiences to the HCPs. In a perfect dream, all the components needed for efficient omnichannel content management would be globally accessible and integrated. In reality, however, omnichannel content production requires a whole chain of dedicated professionals. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies currently face numerous challenges to produce relevant content for the target audience. According to 2020 Content Management & Strategy Survey, 78% of marketers say their organization takes a strategic approach to managing content. However, 73% of them also report they either don’t have the technology in place to strategically manage content across the enterprise or they aren’t fully using the technology they have. The aspiration to produce large amounts of omnichannel content has provoked a race for effective digital solutions and encouraged more collaborative approaches between organizations to tackle global challenges by joint efforts. Digital Content Factory stands out as the solution that provides frequent, agile, and extensive content production for pharma through symbiotic collaboration between the pharma company and agency-partner. A solution covers the entire content lifecycle, encourages content reuse, agile content production, and most importantly, enables the accomplished-on-the-market companies to drive digital transformation globally and locally. Such a model provides a single approach to content management, where a team of specialists takes on all issues related to content production, which allows pharma companies to spend more time on creative and strategic work and less time on routine tasks. Viseven Group is a well-grounded engineer of Digital Content Factories, therefore this information was just a sneak peek. With several excellent examples currently working for our customers, now we will tell you what it represents in action and how to make it work for your success. Digital Content Factory in Action Digital Content Factory is a comprehensive set of solutions that cares for all aspects of interactive content management. Vibrant omnichannel presence for pharma takes a lot. Such content factory is a symbiosis of technological power in the form of a best-of-the-bread platform for content creation and creative minds of omnichannel experts: Digital solution managers, Brand managers, Sales departments, MLR, etc. These people ensure something more than just the right amount of content but also make it circulate through the omnichannel system in a cohesive, customer-centered way. A Factory establishing a working ecosystem that connects the customer with a network of agencies to comply with unified benchmarks and corporate requirements. It allows the teams of content creators to accelerate and clarify content-related workflows of customers on global and local levels. How to make a Digital Content Factory work. 5 Principles 1. Organizational alignment The success behind a Digital Content Factory is a strong cross-enterprise team. In fact, it is liaisons working alongside Global Team, Digital Agencies, and Local Teams. Just like the factory workers, they use the same set of tools to produce successful reusable digital assets. Smart distribution of tasks fosters transparency and close communication. This, in turn, provides quick reacting and minimizing the risk of disruption to the content supply chain. 2. Content management 72% of marketers see content as a core business strategy for their organization. At the same time, pharma content development is a time consuming, expensive process that takes a lot of effort at each stage of genesis. That’s why smart content management presupposes a flexible use of digital assets. It doesn’t happen overnight, however, it has been noticed that pharma companies that constantly improve their content creation process end up becoming more successful. Here we are speaking of versioning and the content reuse that could be provided by the modular approach. Such practice allows delivering more types of content in a shorter timeframe with its deep content editing potential and a library of approved digital assets to be reused. This is the strategic approach to supply content in the amounts required – while maintaining quality. 3. Aligned processes across global and local affiliates The coherent content development process and the evolution towards omnichannel for each organization are truly starts within. With the implementation of new marketing tools, the desynchronization between global and local affiliates may occur at each step. Certain technologies may simply not work across all affiliates and regions. This factor may strongly disrupt a content supply chain in your organization. That’s why it is strongly recommended to scale properly the process from global to local affiliates. 4. Single standard and unity Brilliant work starts with the correct problem definition. That’s why many organizations are sticking to the single standard on the development of digital assets across the organization. 89% of marketers said their organization has style and brand guidelines in place. It shows how important it is to provide efficiency following the in-place standards of content development. These standards consist of clear requirements and guidelines, which cover all the stages of the content lifecycle and include: fixed and consistent pricing across marketspreset project timelinessingle development standardguidelines on projects execution and delivery that help to eliminate errors 5. Single workspace Along the process of joint content production, it is crucial to take care of a more collaborative, united workspace for everyone involved in the process. The availability of the right technology for content creation and data management in place provides better communication and agile content workflows across the organization. As a result, more collaborative space is generated for the teams and clients to work together on each step of the content lifecycle. What we offer Viseven Digital Content Factory is the smart business solutions that allows investing in creativity and running digital transformation along with a team of dedicated professionals who root for your success. The choice of a content authoring solution is crucial along the way. eWizard platform is an engine that powers Viseven Digital Content Factory. This is built upon a modular approach, the epitome of flexibility with its deep content editing and a library of approved digital assets to be reused. It is the direct way to supply the content in the amounts required – while maintaining quality. Digital transformation is not just about tech, it is also about human talent. While eWizard takes care of the technical component, and the dedicated team make sure that all the requirements of the customer are fulfilled accurately on time. This is a powerful duo providing an integrated channel approach to efficient content management, removing internal barriers, and align systems and processes globally. Viseven Digital Content Factory provides our pharma customers with: 50% reductionof the content production costSingle development standard across agency ecosystemFacilitated communication & access to global assetsElimination of internal barriers, aligned systems and process globallyA single approach to content management across all brands, channels, and marketsContent reuse, repurpose, and localizationWorldwide distribution around affiliatesIntegration with recognized systems like Veeva, IQVIA, or Salesforce.comMore time on creativity, less time for routine tasks Did you wake up with an idea to change something? It’s never too late to leave the world of vivid dreamers and dare to fulfill the most ambitious ideas and plans here and now. Put your plan into action. To measure the effectiveness of Digital Content Factory – get a free copy of our latest case study, introducing the real-world case about a successful implementation of this model by one of our TOP-50 pharmaceutical clients. Also, use the form below to contact our experts and discuss which Content Factory practices could be right for your business, how they could fit into the picture of your organic growth, and help you to manufacture content and opportunities across the globe.
Go Beyond HCPs: Set Up Patient Support and Value with Pharma Content Posted on February 26, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin Take a moment to think of how your health behavior has changed over 2020. Can it be measured exclusively by the number of thoughts about hygiene and clean hands? Or was there something more to it? The positive impact of coronavirus (strange though it might sound) is in the change of mindset concerning our health. Some of us have started thinking more about our chronic diseases; some have been just evaluating the possible outcomes in case of infection. The truth is – we all did that. It means only that awareness has grown, that the management of our own health is above all in our hands whatever they are clean or not. Let’s discuss the role of the modern post-covid patients in the pharmaceutical industry and figure out why it’s a good time to spread value with pharma content far beyond HCPs. Set value with pharma content – cover all the touchpoints Something important in pharma has changed for good. It’s not simply customers’ expectations – the patient’s mindset has changed. The reasons for this were both the growing role of digital technologies in healthcare and the pandemic that has become a powerful impetus for change. As per most surveys, close to 25 percent of the consumers today are driven by health and hygiene choices. – Gaurav Sharma, Investcorp India Modern patients no longer want to surrender their health to the doctor’s hands, they want to be actively involved in the process of treatment. This new type of patient requires something more than just product information, they strive for assistance in aspiration to manage their own health. Thus, modern patients need personalized, interconnected, engaging, and even entertaining interaction with a healthcare provider. Meanwhile, 81% of pharma manufacturers still rely on healthcare providers to educate patients on their services. That’s why, in a big way, they target content primarily on HCPs, investing very little in patient and pharmacists’ awareness. What can pharma do now? We caught probably the most appropriate time to finally change our mindset as well and realize that our engagement shouldn’t be limited to HCP, it shouldn’t have boundaries. How to expand the dialog with healthcare professionals Pharmaceutical content for patients, in the traditional sense, is 100% valuable. At the same time, it’s not engaging, it’s not personalized, and it’s not even entertaining. You might say that it’s not supposed to be ‘entertaining’ the purpose is different, BUT your target audience might have a different opinion. 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services57% of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience If even these percentages are not convincing enough, then just think of billions of dollars spent on promotional materials when desired outcomes were never achieved. Patients lose loyalty when they don’t feel that the brand cares enough about their treatment outcomes. Moreover, this leads to patients’ nonadherence which is every year responsible for the loss of between 100-300 billion dollars in the US alone. Sometimes people do not follow a treatment or are unable to cope with side effects because they have little knowledge about their condition and treatment. It’s about time to invest more effort and creativity in content for patients and pharmacists. More pharma content for pharmacists and patients: Benefits Patients Better understanding of how to manage the specific condition.Active participation in the process of treatmentBetter outcomes and motivation to complete the treatmentLess frequent misuseMinimized damage to overall health Pharmacists More trusting relationships between pharmacist and the patientBeing able to deliver patient-specific medical information necessary to stick to the therapy plan.A profounding, outcomes-oriented drug therapy plan for the patientPossibility to consider patient adherence. Pharma Become a household brand among HCPsRemove information supply barriers between pharma manufacturers and patientsEstablish long-term relationships between medical representatives and HCP.Better patient adherence and brand loyaltyDeliver the right message about your pharma brand.Rise in prescriptions Pharmaceutical content enjoying success among patients The goal of any doctor is to create a clearer picture of the disease and engage patients in active treatment. That’s why, above all, from a med rep, HCPs need corresponding materials that would help them complete their mission. Such content should be valuable, well structured, interactive, and contain the right message about your pharma brand. Concerted efforts, when pharmaceutical companies would provide HCP with corresponding materials, and further HCP deliver it to the patients could be referred to as «cascade sharing». These efforts have a strong potential to elevate patients’/HCPs’ engagement and fit well into the picture of modern healthcare. Health applications, websites, landing pages, portals, videos, and many other materials can perform this mission and explain all aspects of the disease to patients. Let’s dive deep into the characteristics and capabilities of such materials. mHealth Apps In the era when being healthy isn’t simply vital but greatly trendy, it’s important to stay focused on patients. With 67% of the world’s population being mobile phone users, the most feasible way to stay patient-centered is mobile applications – offering truly engaging, gamified experiences, communication and information –and above all, psychologically calculated ways to support the patient in their journey. Moreover, these apps are great facilitators of patient adherence, providing beyond-the-pill value with its pill reminders, information on products, patient leaflets, calculators, symptom diary module (shareable to chat), information and articles on diseases. They may also contain video tutorials, quizzes, surveys, rewards and live chat 24/7 with the option to schedule calls with the HCP – offering a truly gamified patient experience. Web portals, websites and landing pages Today patients’ path to treatment begins online as over 70% have researched a prescription medication or medical device online in the past year. A brand’s websites, web portals, and landing pages have become a critical resource of true for patients. Therefore, they act as a critical entry point to access treatment and help patients improve adherence. 52% of patients rely on brand websites to research prescription information. 88.3% want pharma brand websites to connect them to providers. Thus, you can note that patients feel certain power being able to find the right information to manage their condition better. To choose the right treatment, pharmacists also should be updated with the latest health-related information. Therefore, if there were more such sites, there would no doubt be matching demand for them. A well-structured, user-friendly, and interactive website provides your pharma brand an enhanced online presence, the ability to be available for customers 24/7, and to gain consumer insights due to collected analytics. Emails Broadcast emails and approved emails are default facilitators of HCPs engagement. It is impossible to imagine a more personalized way to communicate with HCP, especially with all the interactive features users currently can enjoy. The truth is that one personalized email can generate more reactions than any other content. HCPs are eager to receive emails and they enjoy great success with an 18.58% open rate throughout 2020.Would it be equally interesting for patients and pharmacists? Definitely, yes. It would be beneficial for all sides of treatment as it would stimulate a dialog and inspire tight collaboration between them. Pharma can send specialized emails with information that the HCP could later forward to those patients who would benefit from it. The email with information from the HCP currently managing their condition will certainly enjoy great confidence and inspire more loyalty. Meanwhile, pharma can create more trust in their brand and be sure that patients receive the information they need at the moment. This practice is also beneficial for pharmacists, who are likewise required to work in concert with patients and healthcare providers to promote health and deliver patient-oriented support. Self-detailing Self-detailing is the practice when the medical rep invites the HCP to get familiar with an eDetailing presentation independently. Self-detailing has gained popularity among doctors because it is not tied to the doctors’ schedule, thereby giving them time and the opportunity to delve into the materials fundamentally. During the quarantine, the number of doctors interested in this practice was constantly growing. Also, the greatest value of Self-Detailing in the pharmaceutical market lies in its versatility and ability to complement any communication channel and any device. This practice could also be favored by patients who might be able to learn more about their condition and the methods of treatment. The equally nonintrusive manner could inspire more patient loyalty and bring certain benefits for pharma companies as well. During self-detailing, the patients can look through the structure and key messages in the presentation at their own discretion. That way, this channel gives a better understanding of the target audience, and gives honest metrics for the campaign, as it is likely to see a different pattern of slides and time spent on each of them. Parting thoughts Now of all times those unique moments when patients are eager to take care of their health and cooperate with the pharma. Let us help them in their quest to be healthier. We hope that now you see that moving beyond the creation of pharma content just for HCP brings recognition and loyalty among modern health-oriented patients. Finally, take a look at an example of a customer journey that reflects how all of these types of content can fit perfectly, complement each other and create value in pharma’s picture of customer engagement. Imagine that you want to promote a special mobile application among patients with poor adherence. Here are two interaction models that reflect how these types of content can foster collaboration with the HCP and generate loyalty and success of your app among the patients. An example of promoting a mobile application using content for a patient You may have noticed that this model of interaction is rather multichannel, but note how the one piece of content that is valuable to both the HCP and patient complements the efforts of other materials and encourages the patient to download the app. The next example shows how such content can encourage patients that have downloaded your application to fill the survey about the reasons for their non-adherence. If you got interested in more details on all aspects of work with such content – contact our experts. We’ll help you to choose those options that will be right for you, develop promotional campaigns, and calculate the most reasonable ways of implementation to create value in the new era of healthcare and life sciences.
Practical hints to set up value and build trust through pharma content and digital assets in 2021 Posted on January 23, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin In 2020, the world was under the havoc caused by the COVID19 pandemic, and its shadows are still among us. But despite that, the pharmaceutical industry put some light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. In 2021, numerous hurdles will remain, but there are two sides of the same medal. These obstacles are also helping provoke innovative ideas and becoming the starting point of growth to navigate through turbulent times. The whole healthcare industry is rethinking its relationships with various types of customers. Marketing and sales teams are adapting their approaches to the new reality and upgrading their marketing strategies at scale. With a couple of weeks in 2021 passing by, we have come to a conclusion. This year (and further) Pharma will be put into the limelight even long after the pandemic starts fading. Though its contribution should go far beyond just the mainstream – the expectations and requests from HCPs and patients are rising proportionally. Amazing trends that will bear more fruit than ever Search for online content is a common thing especially for healthcare experts. After the tremendous shift to digital caused by pandemic, physicians are getting more involved in looking for therapeutical information themselves. They are also self-educating through digital means (multiple platforms, online courses, communities, and many more). Lots of HCPs are now using medical apps and websites to find the content they trust for their purposes. Valuable health-related information is becoming a prerequisite. Furthermore, this content is not just presented in lines or eDetailing – there are some predominant features already included, such as interactive videos, personalized videos, dynamic emails, and other types of pharma content. This leads to improved and more valuable patient experience with pharmaceutical brands. “According to a recent study, after viewing a video on a certain healthcare topic, 39% of patients made an appointment with the physician”. Technological advancement in the medical and pharmaceutical fields will be continuously changing the industry, while the demand for accurate data will only rise as well. Pharma and life science companies have to stay alert to the rising amount of inaccurate information concerning health and therapy approaches. We are living in the era where Instagram bloggers can become the source of trust. In the same way, a single post can affect the minds of millions of people. Well, who knows, maybe, the internet-savvy physicians will be soon prescribing health apps, along with drugs… Advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning will only enlarge remote patient monitoring. The use of analytics-driven patient monitoring can help maintain HCPs alerting to any issues (that need to be fixed) related to patients’ health. Increased transparency in everything related to the supply chain in life sciences will be coordinated by the new paradigm “Industry 4.0” (known as “Industrial Internet of Things, the German smart manufacturing concept). With the new principles, the value will be created through the interconnection of devices, machines, and other industrial equipment. “But there should not be concerns between traditional medicines and digital technologies. In 2021, we will see an increasing number of drugs developed in connection with digital therapeutics solutions”. Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis With so many uncertainties around HCPs and patients are now expecting beyond-the-pill support and much more transparent communication. Creating great content is not enough. The recent survey revealed that only 44% of patients report their needs are being met. The biggest gaps were seen in engaging directly with patients and HCPs. Patient centricity should be no more about an impressive goal – it’s a must. Some healthcare professionals declared they were more willing to engage and work with pharma brands, which they observed as more patient-centric. Besides, more than 50% of physicians reported they prescribed medicine from a pharma company they considered more patient-oriented. Beyond personal: delivering the coherent experience With the omnichannel approach joined the game, HCPs’ channel preference has shown a significant shift. Now pharma is challenged to maintain effective collaboration without face-to-face cooperation and, of course, remote detailing has been rising to peak levels. Among the most wide-spread pharma-HCP communication channels still prevail eDetailing, video conferences with medical representatives, and emails. Let’s examine in what way interactive presentations can help pharma to represent its product in a much more informational way: to provide the rapid and necessary information in time to include a brand portfolio that will help HCPs to become familiar with the scope of the company’s products to leave the space for learning. Interactivity allows HCPs to learn about new treatments, innovative approaches in diagnostics, etc. How about emailing? What makes this channel engaging for the physician? Ironically, its biggest advantage is eDetailing’s most obvious shortcoming: timing. Just think, the emails could be opened at any time, from any device. For example, the physician can open it on a mobile or desktop, read the subject line first and then investigate the content inside (using a link, an invitation, etc.). Besides, they can re-read the emails a dozen times. Another crucial means for running remote consultations is video conferencing. There are a lot of quality platforms and apps for virtual meetings with interactive services included (chats, screen sharing, and many more). This practice is even more beneficial in terms of the time aspect. Patients can make online appointments with their doctors and be treated faster. Physicians might give clear instructions, examine or diagnose patients without leaving their homes. During the lockdown period, this tool assists as a helpful alternative for patients and HCPs regardless of their physical location. Go a step further In the world of pharma, gamification has started to play a role far beyond just entertainment. For example, look at how Nike+ app works. It tracks the length of your run and sends you virtual awards after you stop. The ones who show the most excellent results are placed on a leader dashboard. Isn’t that fun? Here is one more case. This game has proven exceptionally successful in reinforcing HCPs’ practice. Over 15,000 healthcare workers have already used “Paper to Patient”. Physicians can complete training materials there and put that knowledge into practical tasks (yet on virtual patients). The last ones represent various levels of health. Depending on how thoroughly the doctor can diagnose and treat those patients, he or she receives the award and points for every virtual consultation. “Dynamic” connectivity Since wearable technologies created a new voice and tone among patients, HCPs, and pharma, the demand for mobile health applications is only rising. Just take a look at some most prevalent mobile apps types for HCPs: disease management and diagnostics, calculators, medical education, apps for medical communities, patient education, and so much more. Every particular app is targeted to solve a specific request. To name just a few, reaching a higher level of personalization, straightening patients’ awareness and adherence, providing better guidance to field and sales forces. A large-scale number of mHealth apps development is covered by Viseven expertise no matter whom they are intended for (physicians, patients, or pharma representatives). Of course, trends will come and go, but customer-centricity is the one that will always be in fashion. The future of powerful and just-in-time customer experience is closely tied with the full definition of their many needs and putting the customer at the center of whatever the industry does. The next step is to implement that knowledge into the relevant engagement strategies. From this perspective, the key to growth for any pharmaceutical brand is to thoroughly engage and pull HCPs’ interest through worthwhile and valuable content. Our omnichannel professionals with years of experience know exactly how to produce content that is digestible for your audience. It is all about creating content that is channelless and universal: from eDetailing creation, dynamic emails, self-detailing tools, mobile apps to website development. No more one-way communication. Turn to our Viseven experts for insights and guidance on how to create beyond-the-pill content marketing campaigns and get full support on executing a leading omnichannel strategy.
Stuck in the middle of the road to omnichannel? Here’s what to look at Posted on January 14, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin The “good old days” in pharma are gone. Over the last year, the concept of pharma digitalization has drastically changed. A couple of eDetailing presentations on tablets and a dozen email templates – this is no longer enough to impress and engage. Leaders of industries are growing omnichannel as a living organism that makes the content circulate and deliver top-notch experiences to their customers. Experiences they expect to receive. The pharmaceutical industry has taken up the challenge, and by trial and error, by risk and courage, started implementing elements of omnichannel into their strategies. How to make omnichannel live and function, though? How do you grow this ecosystem correctly? Let’s answer this question. Why pharma is taking the omnichannel path Look at the HCP audiences beyond the metrics. Beyond the figures and graphs. Something very important has changed, and that is the expectations. For the moment, 67% of all customers say their standard for good experiences is higher than ever. Modern customers, be it a doctor or anyone else, no longer interact with the brand through one platform. Instead, they expect a connection between digital and in-person experiences, devices and service, consistent and contextualized interactions across every channel. In other words, they demand a seemingly uncanny level of personalization and multiple means to connect with their companies of choice. That’s why major players in the pharmaceutical market are trying to keep pace with the customers’ expectations. They are growing their own omnichannel ecosystem to not just to keep pace but thrive on the market. The industry has encountered an entire science, where different competencies are intertwined: solution architecture, content, psychology, strategy, people, workflows, and tech. To manage all of this, you need expertise, and up to this day, many are bound to scrape for it piece by piece. Fork on the omnichannel trail. Which path is yours now? There is no single truth about how to become omnichannel. Pharma companies have to be a little more creative when it comes to giving customers what they want. Nevertheless, those who have already set foot on the omnichannel path have a solid foundation in the form of a good Marketing Automation system, CRM system, or content strategy. See why it is important. If omnichannel had a trunk, it would be the CRM system. Omnichannel is contextual marketing that should be data-rich. CRM generates the needed amount of information from multiple channels, tracks information in real-time, and represents a real center for their response. It allows to apply analytics “on the fly” and record, in detail, each customer’s journey to make a customer engagement more than ‘strictly business.’ At the core of every omnichannel success story is a powerful automation system that orchestrates a large amount of data and helps to segment the target audience. It is the platform to automate and manage various crucial campaign processes (build customer journeys, and conduct social media management and broadcast emails, manage customer experiences) in one place. It gives a single view of the customer across channels. A lot of channels sprout from the omnichannel system to make the content circulate and fill the strategy with meaning. Content is the king, the essence, the most important thing you can share with your target audience. With its help, you can hit the sensitive strings responsible for your customers’ needs; express who you really are and what differentiates you from the competition. To make this a reality, you need a content platform tailored specially for creating flexible omnichannel content. Regarding this, eWizard platform offers Modular Content – the future of omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel is a complex ecosystem where many components come together. A technological basis alone can’t make you omnichannel. Now the question is how to transform the sophisticated technical & organizational system into a living organism that reacts and adjusts its functions to the reality around it? Of course, there exists no single right way to become omnichannel. Every organization is different and has different elements in place. The company may have everything that is fundamental for growing omnichannel (CRM, email service, marketing automation system) and, at the same time, face choice paralysis when looking for the next steps. What to do next? While having a bunch of channels to engage HCPs is a great thing, there is still a question of how to convert them to success and achieve actual ROI. Why do some companies get real profits from the introduction of omnichannel, while others stagnate at some stage and don’t get the promised outcomes? It’s all about the perception of omnichannel, which has long been imposed as nothing more but a buzzword. When many realized that it is not a perk but a foundation of tomorrow’s HCP engagement, they rushed to cultivate omnichannel by plugging as many systems and channels as it is possible. In an ideal world, all the technologies needed for omnichannel customer service would be plugged-in, but the reality is far different. Organizations are typically set up around specific channels and systems that are not integrated and do not necessarily have the same goals. The lack of a clear strategy that would consider the missing pieces of the puzzle prevents them from harmonious cultivation of the omnichannel system instead of imposing it. A true customer experience isn’t’ meant to have as many channels and systems as possible – it replicates the HCP’s path in the real world. As pharma started grasping the concepts behind omnichannel, it became clear how integration and interconnection could bring something you could never achieve with just a conglomeration of channels and tools. Having a good Marketing Automation system in place is a prerequisite. Once it is there, we have to sew the various experiences together. Believe it or not, you can always start growing omnichannel with what you already have. You don’t have to give up what you already have, you just need to identify the gaps or missing pieces and consider the paths you can take now. At this stage, you can: Why choose Viseven At Viseven, we have the expertise to grow your ecosystem organically from what you already have. Gently providing the missing links, systems, breaking silos, and establishing agile workflows, from architecture to content to mindset, we help our customers move in the direction that benefits them the most, yielding high ROI. No need to risk and build. Evolve and grow your omnichannel capacities organically instead, step by step. Take your place at the forefront of dialogue with HCPs. Because they deserve to hear your voice. Holistic approach from the very start: systems, content, and people. The trial and error phase of omnichannel has just ended. Confidence you are moving in the right direction Be sure of every bit of your investment, in the effort, costs, and focus. Take small, reasonable steps toward the big goal. We know your organization is unique, and tailor our expertise and offers to match your requirements with precision. It may be that you have already taken the omnichannel path but have no idea what direction to take next. If you want to grow further and transfer the efforts of growing omnichannel into real income – book a meeting with experts. They align journeys, content, architecture, and workflows together and transform this sophisticated technical & organizational system into breeding grounds for your growth.
Overview: 4th Edition of the Salesforce “State of Service” Report Posted on January 8, 2021 by Andrii Nikulin When pharma professionals are taking the course on the brighter post-pandemic future, it is important to look around, orient towards the professionals, and get the latest insights from the fields in a timely manner. Thus, we could not ignore Salesforce’s latest State of Service Report based on over 7,000 survey responses worldwide, discovering how the top teams are navigating the ever-changeable pharma weather and what trajectory customer service is having now. Looking to the future be aware of the most recent data on the hottest topics that were on everyone’s lips during the turbulent 2020: How the service standards have been changing in the midst of a crisis Strategies, tactics and solutions organizations are turning to in the new normal How teams are navigating the changes in their work environment The trajectory of field service during a time of social distancing Time sets the new standards of the customer service The post-pandemic HCP engagement will sharply differ from the pre-2020 routine, as the pandemic, among other things, has set the new standard for customer expectations. A dramatic shift that occurred in the healthcare industry forced the pharma teams to permanently shift the emphasis of their work. The Salesforce report offers eloquent statistics reflecting how exactly the pandemic affected the regular operation of people, process, and technology. The impact of this make-or-break year on how teams work can hardly be overestimated. Managing remote employees during the pandemic, provide employees’ safety, maintain “social distancing” and “contact tracing” is the challenge that proved to be in the power of only high performers. Therefore, the set of skills that employees must apply in their work is becoming wider and more diverse. 55% of agents say they need better training in order to do their jobs well. Not to mention the lack of technology that specialists suffer from against the background of an increased number of digital channels and acceleration of digital initiatives during the pandemic. Amidst economic uncertainty, the companies were holding off on increasing their budgets. The report proves this point by the figures showing that in 40% of teams, the budget stayed the same when 28% saw a decrease. It means that from now on life sciences invests more in easily deployable and cost-effective digital solutions that would cut the marketing resource consumption. It is confirmed by the fact that from March to December 2020, several dozens of new customers have adopted eWizard platform. The key tactics and solutions to embrace the changes Life sciences have checked the code to comply with the success measures, and it is a secret to no one that it is agility. This philosophy of allowing companies to pivot on the fly and quickly respond to change is synonymous with an omnichannel strategy. Pandemic forced pharma strategists to master these two essentials of today’s and, without doubt, tomorrow’s HCP engagement. Have a look at our PDF, revealing all facets of the omnichannel art of customer engagement, or contact our experts to immediately get insights and guidance on the essence of true omnichannel. Earlier in our blog, we introduced 3 working models that set the tone for agility inside the organization. Briefly, it is: agile teams flexible processes reusable assets Be sure while you reading, the other companies are rapidly automating their processes. According to the report’s numbers, 77% of agents automating routine tasks allows them to focus on more complex work — up from 69% in 2018.Life sciences are implementing various solutions to add a good share of empathy the modern HCPs need and build relationships that would be more than “strictly business”. That’s why, for example, AI/ML, chatbots, and other technologies have revealed the full extent of their capacities as the solutions that are helping to gather more basic information about patients, understand their behavioral patterns, automate their feedback, and generally personalize the interaction. Learn more about the power of artificial intelligence in HCPs engagement and how it shapes the future of healthcare management in our latest overview of TechIQ Global Virtual Conference. We hope the challenges will fade as 2020 comes to an end because for all of us the best is yet to come! Take the first step into a new future, being armed with valuable reports reflecting the true current state of the market. Download the “State of Service” report and be aware of the latest updates from the customer service professionals.
Omnichannel: Digital and Face-to-Face Activity Alignment Posted on December 23, 2020 by Andrii Nikulin HCP engagement models are getting ever more complex and diverse. It is a time-driven tendency reshaped by the ultimate impact of COVID-19 on the pharmaceutical industry. Customer needs are also getting more vagarious, and an overwhelming flow of information retouch the way it should be presented to the HCP. For all of these reasons, pharma сompanies are struggling to find the right balance between face-to-face and virtual promotion. Let’s talk about what caused these changes and how to blend these two experiences for the HCPs. HCPs engagement must be redefined… Again? COVID-19 has changed the picture of HCP engagement for good. During the pandemic, everyone from doctors to patients has appreciated the flexibility of virtual engagement, and a decline in using remote working tools shortly is not expected. Accordingly, these models will still be in the post-COVID future. The industry hardly had time to adapt to the first shift in channels usage, and here we go again… The mix of channels preferred by HCPs is changing all the time, so it takes some effort to predict where it will go in the future. Meanwhile, 85% of HCPs said they would like digital engagement to complement face-to-face. Therefore, pharma companies look closer to hybrid communication models to strengthen their presence and have a greater impact on the audience. Face-to-face and digital cannot exist without each other because in tandem, they provide a higher level of satisfaction and a better return on investment. Segment Sales 2016 2017 Growth Rep only 121 132 9% Digital only 32 33 3% Rep + digital 46 52 15% Source: Veeva Guide to Digital HCP engagement Sometimes the connection established on a face-to-face visit cannot be replaced. It is crucial when it comes to product launches that require frequent interaction with healthcare providers. Something is easier to achieve with virtual engagement, especially when access to HCPs is limited. It is important to blend face-to-face and digital activities correctly, depending on the objectives of your campaign. HCP engagement of the past: Face-to-face One-size-fits-all approach Disconnected and siloed One-way communication The more the better approach HCP engagement of the future: Omnichannel Customer-centric Connected Relationship-driven promotion Strategic investment What is driving hybrid communication with HCPs Today in pharma, digital campaigns are almost entirely separated from personal visits. Medical reps are actively triggering emails but unaware if additional digital activities occur. SFE managers are focused on a face-to-face channel having little experience with digital. There are also multichannel managers who, as a rule, synchronize all activities, but even they may not be aware of how the touchpoints across channels interact and fit together in a single picture. Technical flaws and the fact that data on face-to-face visits are not transferred to the marketing automation system are to blame. Also, desynchronization occurs when the data from the marketing automation system is not distributed in the CRM. The objective is to ensure that the flow of information from different channels does not turn the communication strategy into a complete mess. However, every challenge creates an opportunity. The challenge is now to grow robust, flexible, and agile commercial capabilities that will work long after the pandemic is over. Pharma has to build communication with HCPs focusing primarily on their desires and needs. That’s why large pharma enterprises are adopting flexible omnichannel solutions that enable them to engage with HCPs in the way they would like. Our interest in this topic is mostly driven by the number of such requests from clients. One of our major international pharma clients was once interested in a smart sequencing of face-to-face visits and virtual to make the most of face-to-face interactions and deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. The integration of digital and traditional channels is challenging— but the reward is multiple. Omnichannel technologies develop a deep understanding of the customer journey that helps to synthesize the insights about HCP preferences and be ready to respond to them appropriately at the right time and in the right format. Omnichannel technologies inspire a frank, value-based dialog with the customer by: Establishing two-way communication with HCPs Providing a single, unified experience for the customer Delivering relevant content to the target audience Supplying personalized experiences for HCPs Blending the digital and the personal activities to get the best from each Mix it up wisely The ultimate goal is to develop an intelligent feedback system that can identify the best content for a particular doctor. It is rather challenging to achieve such flexible, responsive commercial capabilities. First, you have to overcome some barriers like: Shortage of content Siloed system Luck of data on customer needs. Legal restrictions on the content Appropriate professionals What your company really needs is the right technology and personalized content to fit these new channels in agile ways. Get the capacities of the leading omnichannel solution firmly integrated into your Veeva ecosystem. eWizard platform breaks silos and combines content authoring, asset management, and distribution with omnichannel campaign execution. It establishes seamless workflows, drives digital transformation and culture. eWizard supports the innovative modular approach and allows flexible work and reuse of various digital assets. Omnichannel technologies provide data that helps to identify the optimal mix of channels and organize a successful alignment of all activities inside the campaign by: Transferring data between the CRM and the marketing automation system Planning of the customer journey taking into account the activities of the medical representative Enabling a rep-triggered journey for a representative to see the whole journey, launch it, and see the result of this journey in the CPM – this is the first option of alignment. Providing an opportunity to rationalize the share of personal and digital activities in those segments and those regions where it is appropriate – as the second option. Face-to-face is a key channel for pharma, but it also the most expensive one. Sometimes it is more practical to use more digital activities for the doctor who prefers it or increase the number of personal visits for those segments where digital activity drops. We believe that any communication model must be omnichannel, where face-to-face promotion is just one channel. Stop concentrating on the constraints of one-way communication and see more opportunities to bring consumer preferences to life. Turn to our experts for insights and guidance and expand the dialog with your target audience.
7 hot topics and takeaways from Veeva Commercial and Medical Summit Online, Europe Posted on December 8, 2020 by Andrii Nikulin What’s the perfect meeting place for pharma marketing, communications and IT professionals to exchange their practical insights and experiences over the past several months? Numerous excellent events exist to express tendencies and ideas, but when it comes to real-world, tangible cases, the first thing that comes to mind is the platform provided by a giant innovation enabler that is Veeva. Year by year, Veeva Commercial and Medical Summit has been justifying its reputation as that single powerful community builder one conference after another – and 2020 is not an exception. Fresh intriguing findings from the world of medical reps, HCPs in the time of crisis, sophisticated, COVID-proof marketing strategies and sudden answers to questions with a long history, such as customer experience in pharma – all of this was wrapped in the format of a virtual event. No single blog post would suffice to describe everything, so let us just look at the seven most intriguing ideas – and suggest viewing the sessions themselves on demand for the ultimate immersive experience. It is definitely worth the time. We at Viseven Group, being certified Veeva Technology Partner, Multichannel Partner and a provider of solutions and services for Veeva users for years, can confirm this from an insider point of view. Setting the scene In the opening keynote to the event on November 17, Chris Moore, President at Veeva Europe, noted one thing that most of us working in and for pharma communications can relate to the year 2020 has been truly special in terms of innovation and creativity. Looking back on these days, we are likely to see them as a turning point that made hundreds of professionals rethink almost everything, from digital tech to value propositions. The changes urged by the world situation will stick around and affect both the “digital haves” and the “digital have nots” – but what are these changes in practice? Two interesting sessions seem to define quite many of the hot topics and ideas that resonated through later panel talks and Q/A’s. One of these was a session with a medical representative and the other an inspired talk between marketing specialists. Together, these two organizationally unrelated episodes make for a perfect exposition of the event. The “fireside chat” with Romain Piccolo, Sales Representative (Respiratory) at Boehringer Ingelheim, was dedicated to the experiences and insights from the fields that only actual reps can provide. No need to say, this year especially such insights are valuable, considering how the tables have turned with digital and remote engagement. Beside the observations on how to engage HCPs in the new remote format in a country like Spain, where the traditions of in-person visits are strong, there are surprising and quite encouraging findings. For example, it turns out the “traditional”, go-to demographics like age have little to nothing to do with the actual digital affinity score for an HCP, with various groups completely ready for the format itself. It looks like in the future, the golden number of, say, 15 visits a day will give place to a golden ratio between different channels in the HCP engagement structure. While trying to diversify that channel mix, however, pharma unlocks yet another challenge, and that is content. While the “how” of HCP engagement is now being secured by nifty solutions – e.g. the HCP being able to request what they want to see, and health centers organizing calls – there is a mismatch between the available and the perfect when it comes to content. Particularly physicians tend to value content that is created by peers (such as key opinion leaders) more than the more commercially wired variety, and of course, more scientific topics is a common wish, not to mention the need to personalize the information that comes to the doctor. The second session that defined the hot topics for the summit featured Melissa Fellner, Global Marketing Director at AstraZeneca, and Veeva’s Business Consulting specialist Leonie Goddard, discussing the journey to digital excellence that AstraZeneca is undergoing. Apart from the vital role that Veeva’s assistance played in adapting to the new digital norm, several other things are noteworthy here. First and foremost, it’s the customer experience. Looking at what other industries now have to offer to the consumer, one cannot but wonder how to emulate that in pharma. Essentially, good omnichannel means integrating the brand offering in the customer’s own lifestyle, and it turns out life sciences are capable of that even regardless of the regulatory environment and other well-known “impediments”. The future of pharmaceutical communications, according to that view, is determined by factors such as deep customer insights, integrated campaigns and dynamic segmentation. These, in turn, equate to supplying personalized content (content again!) across an extended, modifiable channel mix that includes digital services from pharma. With handy tools that provide the next best actions and prompts (for example, to the medical representative as the engagement orchestrator), brands can arrive at the stage where they deliver carefully tailored experiences that can be measured and perfected along the way. Below are seven ideas that were partially outlined here, as expounded in other sessions in more interesting detail – ideas likely to influence 2021 and the years to come. 1 Let the HCP decide! In the eventual turn of events (even if we don’t think of the pandemic for a moment), letting the HCPs themselves decide to a bigger extent what they want to hear from pharma proved inevitable. This attention to what the HCPs themselves experience and feel is noticeable even as one looks at the summit agenda. On Day 2 of the event, several sessions were specifically dedicated to listening to practicing healthcare providers, one in English, one in Spanish, yet another one in Italian. Companies have been relaxing the messaging intended for those medical professionals most under pressure from the coronavirus, and adapting the tactics for the rest, which is just an extension of a trend that emerged earlier on: recognizing the importance of the audience’s choice. As a climax of this development, Veeva introduced a solution called MyVeeva for Doctors in a session led by Paul Shawah, Senior Vice President for Commercial Strategy, and Chris van Löben Sels, General Manager, MyVeeva for Doctors & Veeva Labs. The idea behind MyVeeva is simple and powerful – a single app intended to make it easy for the HCP to connect with pharma and search for reps or MSLs. Once invited by their representative to use the app and successfully registered, the HCP can not just communicate with that particular rep in an in-app chat, exchanging files and messages, but also find other representatives, as well as schedule meetings and enjoy a number of other services, including digital leave-behinds, patient resources, samples and more. 2 Meet the hybrid engagement model While in March it may have seemed that remote engagement is the eventual horizon for everything and everyone until COVID-19 is a chapter in history books, the actual practice proved otherwise. Human interaction in F2F mode is extremely difficult to eliminate from the equation, and frankly speaking, it is not to be eliminated entirely. On the other hand, the restrictions and safety considerations have opened the potential of other channels, leading to the emergence of a “hybrid” model – with some touchpoints occurring at rep calls as before, and others either orchestrated by the rep or done via non-personal promotion and led by the marketing teams themselves. In his presentation, Giovanni Luca Merlotti, Head of Global Multichannel Execution, Sanofi Pasteur, explored the intricacies of balance between the rep-driven channels versus the HQ-driven ones in the mix. Eventually, such a mix is intended not just to expand the reach and increase the frequency of interactions, but also strengthen customer engagement as such. Remote detailing, as empowered by Veeva solutions, plays a crucial role here, and so does content. A similar sentiment can be observed in the strategy discussed at another session featuring, among others, Adela Schulz, Multi-Channel Customer Engagement and Digital Transformation Lead at MSD: decisions now have to be made what topics should be discussed F2F, and which ones online. This measure was the result of the crisis, but its consequences will naturally extend into the future. Another participant of that same session, Anna Casanovas, IMCM Business Integration, Bayer, supplemented the topic of agility in life sciences’ communication strategy by emphasizing the need for personalization and modular content. 3 Customer experience, 4 Value proposition, and 5 Push and pull At the current stage of omnichannel development, pharma is in the position where other industries can provide an insight into how customer experience can be furnished in better ways. However, there is obviously no single set of pre-packed ideas and solutions, since industry specifics plays a major role. There is much room for creativity, and a lot of questions to be answered, especially when it comes to the regulatory nuances and sensitive topics. However, is this the real blocker along the road to great CX? An attempt to split the problem into manageable chunks was made by Victoria Serra Gittermann, Principal Consultant, Business Consulting, Veeva, in her presentation titled The Six Imperatives of Great HCP Experiences. The analysis started with identifying the six common blocks that impede building a successful CX for the physician audience. The first of these is the desire to exert too much control over the dialogue and formalize the customer journey, essentially robbing the HCP of the opportunity to make choices. A frequent mistake at the initial steps of omnichannel implementation, this is typically solved once the engagement model moves to the next step of maturity, not least due to better data work (see below). Another problematic point is a value proposition that is inherently narrow because it focuses heavily on the product itself, instead of offering something broader and “growing” from the actual working practice. At the same time, this leads to lack of transparency about the objectives of communication – a known detriment to building trust that the reps’ personal qualities only partially bridge. One more blocker that stems from here is the “mass content coverage” practice from yesterday’s playbooks, with insufficient personalization and targeting. In practice, this entails the focus on “push” tactics rather than creating enough “pull”. Finally, if you add the limited coordination and governance around customer engagement, siloed workflows and lack of agility in the processes, the picture becomes complete enough for the problems to be solved. To untie this knot, the presenter suggests six imperatives: Move from static to dynamic insights (behavioral/attitudinal segmentation, dynamic customer journey mapping, etc., content tagging) Align value proposition to customer needs (targeted key messages, focus on health outcomes) Build trust (transparency, consistency, doing the right thing over time, shared purpose, ecosystem, evidence) Making it easy to engage, on the customer’s terms (channel integration, predictive analytics & next best actions, automation) Make it personal (Modular content, metrics and tagging, content automation) Build a customer-centric operational model The need to work on a broader definition of value proposition was also emphasized in the session led by Suzy Jackson, Executive, Life Sciences, Accenture, dedicated to the impact of COVID-19 on the digital field model. One of the key findings cited was that in the light of current changes, pharmas are starting to “…redefine their relevance… and healthcare providers are seeing the value.” However, this particular session also contributed interesting insights to illustrate the next point. 6 What’s there in-house? Take stock of your processes, capabilities, and skills The need to build in-house digital capacities is a recognized one by now. After all, convoluted processes, reliance on too many external agencies and subcontractors, together with silos, have long stood in the way of even the most ambitious projects. Of course, no one talks seriously about transferring all the digital activity inside the organization – rather, it is now the matter of flexibility, ownership and agility. Notably, much has been spoken about pharmas’ in-house talent in terms of data management. This is an extended topic that would require an entire blog post all to itself even if only to scratch the surface. Here, we can mention such sessions as Bayer: Advancing Digital Transformation with Data & Technology with Elie Dubrulle, CRM Project Manager at Bayer Healthcare, and Angela Genco, Head of Integrated Multichannel Marketing & Sales, Bayer Italy. However, it is not just with data strategy that a revisioning of in-house capacities can lead to good results. Turning back to the Accenture session mentioned earlier, an interesting insight was revealed: when a medical representative has the autonomy to send an Approved Email with a link to pre-selected content, impactable sales rise by 7%. Is this about content? Yes. Is this also about letting more flexibility into the working model and allowing decisions to be taken in a multi-level pyramid? Definitely. Does this presuppose educating the workforce? Of course, it does. New governance and process models are also beneficial in the realm of content, to be sure. This is, however, just a small part of how content work has changed. 7 What does the perfect content look like? Any equation for communication excellence will necessarily involve the content variable. What’s the catch? The very fact that content is, in fact, a variable – because each HCP’s needs are that, too. But then, how do you ensure the content you deliver is flexible enough to function as such? A presentation by Puneet Srivastava, Content Strategy Leader at Bayer, explores the ins and outs of content excellence as it is available to Veeva users. In an intriguing classification, the different types of content are placed along two axes: “Long” content – “short” content and “Active” content – “passive” content In this way, one may characterize, for example, remote and face detailing and webinars as “long-form” and “active” (with real-time HCP involvement and interaction), websites, ebooks and videos as “long” and “passive”, and email/SMM as “short” and “passive”. However, there is one missed spot, and that is the one offering short and active engagement. This, in practice, corresponds to the new content consumption patterns and requires even more interactive materials to be designed and deployed. How to enable content production and circulation at such rates? The answer lies with processes, governance and tracking. Plugging together strategic content creation, on the one hand, and content publishing, on the other, presupposes rethinking the way content itself is handled. Much has been spoken about, and already implemented, in the realm of modular content for life sciences. In essence, the materials circulate as flexible topical units that can be assembled into channel-specific templates, which allows for better, more meaningful tracking – and easier governance and MLR procedures (you can read more on this in our previous publications, since Viseven has been among the pioneers of the approach and covered this topic extensively in first-hand accounts). Back to the presentation, with the modular strategy in hand, Bayer is able to ensure not only the right structure, but also a well-defined content taxonomy and tagging, pinpointing performance indicators and tracking, and a standardized content supply center. All of this allows the company to maintain a high level of informational value offered to its vast HCP audience across channels and along the axes of the content-based touchpoint spectrum. This overview is just scratching the surface of what was discussed at the event. You can request video recordings of the sessions that interested you on-demand at the official event page. For all purposes linked with Veeva expertise, related services and collaboration around Veeva ecosystems, feel free to address Viseven team as a certified Veeva partner.
Viseven webinar at NEXT Pharma Summit: The Three Hearts of Omnichannel Posted on December 2, 2020 by Andrii Nikulin Ever so many topics to discuss when it comes to digital transformation and innovation in pharma – and just one factor that makes for an excellent discussion platform: is being to the point. NEXT Pharma Summit is an ambitious endeavor intended to satisfy exactly that criterion, becoming, as the organizer’s ambition spells out, the sharpest commercial event for pharma. Successfully so, as we at Viseven may attest, along with numerous partners and sponsors from the industry. By now, NEXT Pharma Summit is an excellent provider of relevant content on a number of issues in and around pharmaceutical commercial operations, digital excellence, innovation, patient centricity, omnichannel evolution and communications. The hallmark of the project is being extremely selective about the topics to have discussed – and the informational value to provide. No formalism or buzzword abuse, just valuable insights from pharma masterminds, with a bit of insider understanding and loads of materials like webinars, whitepapers and on-demand sessions. Omnichannel is a burning topic, and also the focus of a recent session featuring Nuno Rodrigues, Digital & Multichannel Manager at Roche, Rorik van Velij, Worldwide Omni-channel Capability Lead at Bristol Myers Squibb, Marie Mistral Fruit, Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at Viseven, and Dario Safaric, Chairman at NEXT Pharma Summit. In an intense 1-hour session loaded with insights they discussed the three concepts that deserve to be at the heart of a successful omnichannel strategy: Content, Context and Customer, providing actionable ideas and examples from their rich professional experience. Below is a short synopsis of the webinar, as well as a link to access the video recording. The brief history of omnichannel in pharma Following the trends in omnichannel is a bit like watching your favorite Netflix series: of course you can start from whatever episode you want, but to gain a real understanding you would likely want to watch from Season 1. Don’t worry, though: the session started with the quickest recap possible, provided by Marie-Mistral Fruit in a retrospective. Now that we know so much about the evolution of digital capacities in pharma, how do we evaluate the developments of the previous years, and what was the real impact of reps adopting iPads on F2F visits to the HCPs? At some point, the field force was circulating with visual aids to show to HCPs, collecting insights about the market situation and (occasionally) the doctor’s preferences. The latter many of them used to keep to themselves to ensure their own quotas in the following months. However, now we see the full picture and the importance of that data. #pharmamarketing works in a circular way: interactions boost #data, #CRM data boost interactions, but how to leverage both? The answer is #content, and one has to use it wisely. Expert take by Marie Mistral Fruit of Viseven at @SummitNext webinar! pic.twitter.com/M9bmdF1oPB — Viseven Digital Content Factory (@viseven_CLM) November 4, 2020 Eventually, the smartest of the marketers and SFE recognized they would likely need to capture the HCP’s motivations, personas and choices in bulk if only to adapt the messaging and craft the content that was worth it. That was when interactive elements made their way into the eDetailing presentations of the “digitalized F2F” engagement era – quick surveys where HCPs would literally manipulate the reps’ tablets to enter information. Those insights, landing in CRM, broke the dam for the entire pharmaceutical communication strategy. Science first, product-related messaging next – this was the idea that resulted when there was enough data in the pharma marketers’ pockets. When bringing informational value to the HCPs became a recognized necessity, the quality of interactions improved somewhat for those who turned this idea into action. Hence the rise of portals and unbranded campaigns. The next step? A 360-degree view of the customer, no more and no less, and is what would make omnichannel possible in the first place. Here is another caveat, though: data is harvested from interactions, and to have more quality interactions, you need more data. How to handle this circular logic to spiral outward and scale-up? The 3 C’s of a successful communication strategy The problem described above only exists for the model that is currently the norm in most organizations: the “plain multichannel” organization, where the channels are not connected, the HCP gets bombarded by essentially the same messages in each of them, and the learning in each of them never transcend the boundaries of each of them. Here is where the “three C’s” can be identified to help: Customer, Content, Context. By understanding them properly and aligning them with one another, you can start by creating content for specific cohorts of HCPs but bear in mind the ultimate goal: bringing value and understanding the context and the customer at the level that is currently available to you. This further empowers us to capture even more insights and evolve into a more mature model. Customer: the starting and ending point of the strategy, since it is their preferences that define the content that is to be delivered. The understanding of the customer is not to be artificially fitted into a formalized pattern, though, as the context of each interaction matters immensely (see below). Content: still the King, being the vehicle and principal means of communication. Now that we are likely to see less face-to-face interaction in the future, the importance of creating content that does not have to be forced on the audience is rising. This means personalization and careful listening to the needs of the audience… or rather, each individual within that audience. Context: the where, how and when of each interaction. What has the doctor been exposed to before the touchpoint? Where exactly in the journey are they? How exactly was the message wrapped up and presented to them? What may the doctor have been thinking when the touchpoint occurred? Calls to action About 2/3 of the session – everything after the starting presentation – was dedicated to an interactive Q/A blitz, consisting of sharp glimpses of practical, actionable ideas to help get omnichannel on track. Of these, let’s grab just a couple of the more intriguing ones for your consideration. Contextualize! As mentioned above, context can be successfully handled in a very narrow, practical sense: the where, how and when. Why does this matter so much? In terms of data, this is one of the reasons that insights from reps are still often superior to the automatically captured KPIs. In the words of Nuno Rodrigues, I can imagine a physician just stop in the screen about the safety of the product because he’s answering a phone call, and the eDetailing is there for five minutes. So in terms of reporting – “OMG, the doctor is worried about the adverse event!” On the one hand, this means that at the start, when the omnichannel system is only maturing, one has to listen to the people who know the customer best – the field force, possibly empowering them to orchestrate the experience. On the other hand, the implication concerns the content: it’s not about pushing the message, one has to interact and listen, so the content is flexible enough to fit into any context conceivable. This is what omnichannel offers as compared with multichannel – the messages do not overlap, neither are they forced. Hence the need for an architecture that closes the loop – and smarter content production approaches. Humanize! Since pharma no longer needs to create the biggest amount of content, or even the most animated and complex content, the trick is really in being simple and reaching exactly the pinpointed needs of the HCP. This means listening to each of them, but who will be doing that? The need to free up the people within the organization and enable them to concentrate on the customer is evident when you consider the complexity of the currently existing digital systems in place. In this respect, one can think of the corporate users as “the internal customer” – the one who uses the CRM, marketing automation system, DAM and CMS system, whatever other tools are used in MLR and IT. There have long been calls for a smoother way to validate content, but the point is more integral: kill the complexity in the processes to free the space for yet another big C – Culture. Rorik van Welij @rikjr of Bristol Myers Squibb @bmsnews on #digitaltransformation in #pharmamktg: it’s really about culture – how to make sure we have the right mindset, and why we are moving from our existing flows into something different. Webinar: pic.twitter.com/Aqqn7dytZ5 — Viseven Digital Content Factory (@viseven_CLM) November 4, 2020 By adopting more agile practices dealing with the hybrid digital/in-the-field paradigm, pharma organizations can leverage the necessary experience to fuse together what tech and human to human interaction can offer – and provide continuous experiences to the HCPs. Get the full webinar recording These are just several spoilers of what points the discussion touched, and the presenters used the friendly yet professional atmosphere of an insider dialogue to deliver much more. The good thing is that virtual events are now captured in recording by default – and that is the case with this webinar. You can easily access the full video recording for free below and find more insights on the topic.
