BI Insight

Background

In this case study you would see how a leading wholesale drug distribution company achieved improved operational efficiency through Systech’s innovative and cost effective solution and analysis.

The client had to consolidate data from multiple transactional systems into a single enterprise data warehouse. The data consolidation would provide a single view across the entire enterprise and permit Integrated Reporting, Analysis and Decision-making, across the organization. This would provide a single Customer view/definition across the enterprise – eliminating the disconnect in processes such as sales, fulfillment and customer service & satisfaction.

The Challenge in the Details

The client had disparate source systems and multiple decision support systems where data could not be merged or consolidated. These data sources/elements did not map to the definitions in the financial systems either. They were able to generate reports at an invoice level and the reports were taking exceedingly long execution times. The challenges for Systech were:

• To build a single repository for information – integrating data from the disparate systems.
• To design a cost effective solution utilizing the existing hardware and software.
• To deliver within the extremely tight timelines defined by the customer(s).
• To enable flexible & detailed data analysis.
• To implement the front-end application such that it could support existing requirements and possible future developments.
• To provide visibility and insights into costs, revenues, capacity and assets, providing insight into past, present and future information.
• To measure historical performance, profits of incoming orders, initiate trend analysis, predict and optimize costs, profit, capacity; for return on invested capital of your future business.
• To ensure the delivery of undeniably accurate, actionable and widely accessible cost (direct and indirect), resource and capacity information enabling the client to operate more efficiently and in turn reduce cost.

The Solution

At the very beginning, it was determined that the sheer size of the workload combined with the complexity of the organizational and data issues would require a project team with strong leadership & high level executive sponsorship from the client. The tight schedule and budget constraints worked against the traditional approach of organizing a big onsite project team with the resources necessary to accomplish those goals.

Systech team decided to split the project into manageable parts – each of which would be tackled by a small team split into an On-site project lead and an Off-site project team. The Onsite-Offshore teams adopted a fast, responsive and iterative approach to fashion a solution for their part of the puzzle. Iterations of model-build-test-fix-retest resulted in a better componentized build for the Data Warehouse.

Systech teams worked in collaboration with the client to engage, understand the business requirements, craft the technical components and deliver a cost effective analysis for key business areas including:

• CUSTOMER
  • Customer & Channel Profitability
  • Segmentation profitability
  • Sales Optimization
  • Strategic Cross-Sell
• OPERATIONS
  • Distribution Optimization
  • Reducing Operating Expenses
  • Reengineering & Process Redesign
  • Supply Chain Measurement and Optimization
  • Resource & Capacity Planning & Utilization
• PRODUCT
  • Product Profitability
  • Line of Business/Segment
  • SKU Rationalization
  • Brand Analysis
• CORPORATE
  • Corporate Performance Management
  • Business Process Measurement & Analysis
  • Optimized Return on Capital
  • Continuous Improvement Monitoring

Result

• The solution delivered by Systech not only addressed the pain areas but also provided additional benefits to the client.
• Datawarehouse delivered to the client resulted in improved process efficiencies, faster query response times, reduced data load windows, a flexible data model to permit a wide range of analysis.
• Systech’s solution empowered decision makers by allowing them to drill down into their data for detailed analysis.
• Additional types of analysis facilitated by the solution include profitability analysis based on segment, insight into wholesale acquisition cost and better insights of the historical data.
• Forecasting was a key functionality in the delivered solution. This function provided the scoring and tracking tools for business operations.
• Systech helped pinpoint client’s unprofitable products, customers and vendors that might require renegotiation, re-pricing or obsolescence
• Systech’s solution identified profitable products and customers and helped identify opportunities for profit improvement

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A primer on collaborative strategies and technology solutions in Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain solutions are becoming increasingly popular in the recent trend of cost-cutting and corporate optimization.  Across the board, organizations are rushing to implement supply chain management solutions, but what options exist, and what conditions make the difference between incredible efficiencies and unnecessary expenditures? First of all, it may be worthwhile to understand the solution that an organization seeks for its supply chain.

Supply chains exist in every organization and therefore, any solution that is being contemplated should only increase the efficiencies in the supply chain.

To begin with, there are three key areas that need to be understood:

1. Business Partners in the supply chain
   1. Who are they?
   2. What role do they play in the overall chain?
   3. What is the value that they provide?
   4. What level of cooperation can I get from them in improving efficiencies in my supply chain?
2. Business Process for the supply chain
   1. What are the inefficiencies in my current business process?
   2. What opportunities do I have to remove these inefficiencies?
   3. Where do I need cooperation from my business partners?
   4. What bargaining power do I have to demand this cooperation?
3. Application of Technology
   1. How can I best leverage commonly available technology to improve by business process?
   2. What applications should I use?
   3. Do I make or buy these applications?

Business Partners in the Supply Chain

Increasingly organizations have started involving all the business partners in crafting a coordinated supply chain solution. The Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) initiative of the Voluntary Inter industry Commerce Standards (VICS) is a case in point. CPFR outlines processes, guidelines and standards for member organizations (also the business partners) that can reduce the complexity of the collaboration.

 Business Process for the Supply Chain

 True supply chain management invariably involves the business processes of diverse business partners. Without commonly understood and adopted business process, any supply chain will fall apart. But to ensure that the business process is uniformly adopted across the supply chain, business partners need to understand the value they will derive in adopting a unified business process.

In many instances, what appears to be a process optimization for one organization may not have an optimizing effect when the entire supply chain is considered. An illustration of this is the improper adoption of Just in Time (JIT) inventory. Some organizations approached JIT by asking suppliers to carry and deliver the inventory as and when needed. This seemed to reduce inventory for these organizations but quickly it became evident that inventory remained a problem, as did the carrying costs associated with it, when you consider the entire supply chain.  Just In Time cost methodologies have proven to be a hopelessly vicious cycle: costs shifted to partners within the supply chain were passed back to the organizations with increased product cost.

 Collaborative planning would mean that all business partners work together, share information and plan each others requirements so that the supply chain is indeed, truly optimized.   For example retailers are now willing to part with POS (Point of Sale) information to their suppliers who can then use it to better understand customer buying patterns and trends. This then leads to better planning on part of the supplier and higher turnover of inventory for the retailer, because the right goods are stocked at the right time.

 Application of Technology

 Any modification to the business process to optimize the supply chain should keep in mind the technology that is currently available. In many instances, tremendous efficiencies can be achieved by merely introducing a new technology to the supply chain, without modifying the business process. In other instances, business process engineers have to work in collaboration with Technologists to understand how commonly available technology can be craftily incorporated into business process to derive competitive advantage. In some other cases, one may have to adopt existing applications, simply because they have become industry standards.

The Role of Technology in Supply Chain Optimization

 There are no universal solutions/applications available off-the-shelf that can manage your supply chain. In almost all the cases, it is a combination of applications that help manage the supply chain. Some of the commonly available applications that are used to manage the supply chain are:

1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: These are designed to centralize all transactions through one core application.  This helps to manage operations and to ensure that there is a 360-degree view of the organization.
2. Demand Planning Solutions: Designed specifically to forecast demand in advance for production/purchasing departments to plan their activities. Work in conjunction with Business Intelligence solutions and feed forecast/planning information to ERP Systems.
3. Business Intelligence Solutions: Facilitate informed decision-making by providing analysis of current and historical information. Provide input for all departments of the business.
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: Provide a 360-degree view of the customer by capturing all client interactions such as products sold, support provided and customer enquiries. This ensures that the customer gets consistent service from the organization. Feeds into CRM Analytics solution and BI Solutions.
5. CRM Analytics Solutions: Helps in understanding customer interactions and consumer behavior. Provide inputs for marketing to understand customer segments and product preferences, which then influences demand planning.
6. Global Distribution Systems: Helps in management and movement of goods and services. A key to ensuring customer satisfaction while helping improve and plan sales and distribution activities.
7. E-Procurement Solutions: Aids in the search for procurement of goods and services. Organizations spend significant amount of resources on procuring direct and indirect materials.  These sourcing and vendor selection issues can be substantially reduced by putting in place a right e-procurement solution.

 As we can see, Supply Chain Solution is not an off-the-shelf product. It is a coordinated consolidation of various applications and solutions that have been seamlessly integrated to perform a variety of functions across the supply chain.

Approaching Supply Chain Optimization

Decision making for better supply chain management is inescapable, no matter how good a technology solution one might have. There are strategic as well as operational decisions to be made for the supply chain. Strategic decisions have an impact in the long term and invariably involve changes to the business process. Operational decisions are more immediate and have an impact on day-to-day operations with little impact on business processes.

 To effectively solve the supply chain optimization issues, an overall strategy needs to be developed.  Involving technology solution providers can be of immense help, since they can bring in their knowledge of currently available technology and its application to business processes.

Typically, the entire strategy cannot be implemented at the same time due to resource limitations and organizational impact.  Therefore, opportunities for improvement need to be ranked based on relative contribution to supply chain efficiency and effort required.  This will provide the road map for implementing the various components for improvement.

 The best place to start would obviously be the area that is most fundamental to the business and will provide the maximum impact to business value. Other solutions can be built around this base solution. Even so, it is important to understand the business partners in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, and collaborate with them in developing and implementing the solution.

Conclusion

 To summarize, Supply Chain Management solutions involve:

1. All Business partners in the supply chain
2. Business processes in the complete supply chain rather than just the individual organization
3. A combination of various technology solutions that are seamlessly integrated to provide complete visibility to the supply chain

 The starting point for implementing Supply Chain Solutions is to develop a high-level strategy that will provide the roadmap for the organization. This should be developed in collaboration with all of the business partners involved in the supply chain. Business areas with the greatest potential for return on investment should be targeted for implementing the appropriate solutions. 

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Background

In this case study we describe how a leading provider of pharmacy benefit management services achieved improved pricing and design strategy through Systech’s comprehensive, cost effective solution and analytics solution.

The client needed a powerful Business Intelligence system to cut costs to analyze spending patterns across the country. An improvement in physician compliance to utilize and better manage the pharmacy dollar was needed in order to lower healthcare costs and provide better services for customers. They needed to find a cost effective, complete and comprehensive solution which would perform complex analysis quickly and efficiently.

Challenges

The principal challenge was the analysis of claims costs, profits, sales comparisons, product comparisons and overall productivity. The customer wanted a robust system that would be easy for their IT department to maintain after it was implemented and also, one that would be scalable and reliable.

Solution

As a strategic consultant Systech’s first evaluated client’s infrastructure and environment, and recommended a datawarehouse infrastructure for implementing the solution. Systech was responsible for building and maintaining a robust Business Intelligence solution. The data warehouse is used to report on a variety of information for a multitude of clients. This helped to identify the key metrics such as top prescribers, members, and drugs by medical groups among many other functions required for prescription claims analysis and fraudulent claims detection. The data warehouse also enabled accurate forecasts of the industry’s leading trends, utilization trends & patterns. It enhanced the quality and reliability of the information gathered.

Result

The solution helped our client perform accurate forecasts of pharmacy trends leading to improvements in benefit plan design and pricing, resulting in better financial decisions. It helped physicians be better informed and helped provide quality health care for patients. Fraudulent claim detection also helped save revenue leakage for the company.

Featured Article accurate forecasts, analysis, Business Intelligence, Fraudulent claim detection, kpi, pharmacy benefit management services, Prescription Claims, Productivity Analysis, reporting, revenue leakage

Background

In this case study you would see how a leading wholesale drug distribution company achieved improved operational efficiency through Systech’s innovative and cost effective solution and analysis.

The client had to consolidate data from multiple transactional systems into a single enterprise data warehouse. The data consolidation would provide a single view across the entire enterprise and permit Integrated Reporting, Analysis and Decision-making, across the organization. This would provide a single Customer view/definition across the enterprise – eliminating the disconnect in processes such as sales, fulfillment and customer service & satisfaction.

The Challenge in the Details

The client had disparate source systems and multiple decision support systems where data could not be merged or consolidated. These data sources/elements did not map to the definitions in the financial systems either. They were able to generate reports at an invoice level and the reports were taking exceedingly long execution times. The challenges for Systech were:

• To build a single repository for information – integrating data from the disparate systems.
• To design a cost effective solution utilizing the existing hardware and software.
• To deliver within the extremely tight timelines defined by the customer(s).
• To enable flexible & detailed data analysis.
• To implement the front-end application such that it could support existing requirements and possible future developments.
• To provide visibility and insights into costs, revenues, capacity and assets, providing insight into past, present and future information.
• To measure historical performance, profits of incoming orders, initiate trend analysis, predict and optimize costs, profit, capacity; for return on invested capital of your future business.
• To ensure the delivery of undeniably accurate, actionable and widely accessible cost (direct and indirect), resource and capacity information enabling the client to operate more efficiently and in turn reduce cost.

The Solution

At the very beginning, it was determined that the sheer size of the workload combined with the complexity of the organizational and data issues would require a project team with strong leadership & high level executive sponsorship from the client. The tight schedule and budget constraints worked against the traditional approach of organizing a big onsite project team with the resources necessary to accomplish those goals.

Systech team decided to split the project into manageable parts – each of which would be tackled by a small team split into an On-site project lead and an Off-site project team. The Onsite-Offshore teams adopted a fast, responsive and iterative approach to fashion a solution for their part of the puzzle. Iterations of model-build-test-fix-retest resulted in a better componentized build for the Data Warehouse.

Systech teams worked in collaboration with the client to engage, understand the business requirements, craft the technical components and deliver a cost effective analysis for key business areas including:

• CUSTOMER
  • Customer & Channel Profitability
  • Segmentation profitability
  • Sales Optimization
  • Strategic Cross-Sell
• OPERATIONS
  • Distribution Optimization
  • Reducing Operating Expenses
  • Reengineering & Process Redesign
  • Supply Chain Measurement and Optimization
  • Resource & Capacity Planning & Utilization
• PRODUCT
  • Product Profitability
  • Line of Business/Segment
  • SKU Rationalization
  • Brand Analysis
• CORPORATE
  • Corporate Performance Management
  • Business Process Measurement & Analysis
  • Optimized Return on Capital
  • Continuous Improvement Monitoring

Result

• The solution delivered by Systech not only addressed the pain areas but also provided additional benefits to the client.
• Datawarehouse delivered to the client resulted in improved process efficiencies, faster query response times, reduced data load windows, a flexible data model to permit a wide range of analysis.
• Systech’s solution empowered decision makers by allowing them to drill down into their data for detailed analysis.
• Additional types of analysis facilitated by the solution include profitability analysis based on segment, insight into wholesale acquisition cost and better insights of the historical data.
• Forecasting was a key functionality in the delivered solution. This function provided the scoring and tracking tools for business operations.
• Systech helped pinpoint client’s unprofitable products, customers and vendors that might require renegotiation, re-pricing or obsolescence
• Systech’s solution identified profitable products and customers and helped identify opportunities for profit improvement

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