09.05.2012

Development of informational technologies, and active engagement of all, without exception, into all-out globalization, substantial accelerated productivity and value of work. This affected all spheres, and pharmaceutical is no exception. To be and keep in touch always - is a fact of life and work. Scientists and business leaders say that the main driver of economic growth will become increasing of productivity by implementing IT technologies. According to the McKinsey pharmaceutical industry will not be able to keep the current "closed model" that is characterized by poor access to information. The growth of public information, including the profile database, the impact of social networking and mobile medicine (compact medical devices connected with physicians via the Internet, for example, to measure the blood sugar control of the heart, etc.) will transform the pharmaceutical industry in an open model "of integrated health care system". The new model will be based on evidence-based safety and efficiency, lower impact suppliers of products and services, the declining profitability of the pharmaceutical business and the rapid development of the software, including "cloud services." An important component of an open model - economic evaluation of drugs and their effect on the economy of the therapy.

Change of the behavioral model of pharmaceutical industry will change traditional marketing approaches, which, as a rule, includes the steps of awareness - Awareness - Review - Purchase - Loyalty. The new marketing model with open information for physicians, pharmacists, and patients, will change the task of medical representatives. Revolutionary changes will affect phases of "Dating" and "Consideration" of the product, that in the new model will be replaced by phase "Active Measurement". The main objective of the marketing and madical representative will be the task to provide consumers with quality and complete information on the advantages and disadvantages of products under promotion. The trend of personalization and choice of drugs for treatment, better and faster monitoring of the drugs and the wide availability of information will contribute to the rapid flow of information in the channel: Producer - Medical Representative - Physician / Pharmacist - The patient in any direction. All participants will receive benefit from a new model of informational flow.

"In a constant informational flow, which sets an active pace and which we have already been accustomed to, medical representative would be effective only having constant access to the Internet and having a mobile device to receive and input the data - tablet or smartphone. This device, alone or in combination with GPS navigation, provides employees of pharmaceutical companies with office integration gateway access to the corporate program of customer relationship management (CRM), - Igor Vovkodav, director of "Farm-ROST" tells about the IT-trends in the work of medical representatives – CRM as an informational system, improve management of external service, marketing, sales, and is a tool for the early diagnosis of efficiency of employee work. Automated analysis of CRM data base allows managers to anticipate possible scenarios of deviation from the plan of sales, to see the picture in on-line mode, and respond to the situation. "

In the new model of "integrated healthcare system" biopharmaceuticals will retain the traditional strategy: innovative Rx drugs, original products and "generics", health services, with a focus on three developing strategies:

• intelligent medicine,
• personalized care,
• integrated product solutions.

Intellectual Medicine, which precedes the taking of drugs - is the hardware, software, information, tools and medical devices for the selection and use of a specific treatment protocol for an individual patient or group of patients.

Personalized care, begins after taking drugs - it is devices and instruments to observe patients in order to achieve the best results of treatment within the planned budget.

Integrated product solutions for customers of biopharmaceutical products – this is services that will ensure the desired result for the taxpayers, employers and patients.

At this stage of the external service informational technologies were introduced to:

1. Create and maintain of databases of health facilities, doctors, pharmacies, drugs, etc.

2. Monitoring of employees, for example, through the introduction of GPS-navigation service vehicle. GPS monitors control using of the car, which allows, on average, reduce costs by 15 ÷ 30%.

3. Improve the quality of work with doctors and pharmacists, for example, by improving the quality of conveying information through presentations, including video materials, and through the implementation of CRM systems that improve the efficiency of the Foreign Service, marketing management, sales management.

The opinion of Jaroslav Gonchar, director of the company Alliance Optimal Solutions: "The introduction of CRM systems and GPS in cars started in parallel, but they are not integrated with each other due to technical limitations. With the development of technologies has become possible integration. Leaders on the implementation of the integrated technology has become companies with a staff of more than 15 ÷ 20 people who had a need for effective management and control of staff and worked on the whole territory of Ukraine."  

The main factor of the rapid implementation of CRM technologies was presence of a stable Internet access. With the advent of tablet computers and smartphones started a period of implementing GPS-navigation of medical representative on the basis of these devices. At the same time, it should be noted that such devices are of the professional applications because of the high performance requirements for transceiver module and battery pack, which improves the quality and accuracy of monitoring locations of employee.

This solution allows to control all employees and generate reports automatically in real-time. This innovation has helped many companies to get rid of "ballast" (≥ 10 ÷ 15%), which was inefficient and could be controlled only over the phone. In the opinion of an external service managers, leaving of  "pseudo-experts" did not reduce the sales figures, and often increased the effectiveness in terms of one employee. Another important advantage of this solution is the speed factor:

1. In reporting of an external service. For example, using a tablet device, the employee can make a report to remove the remains, while he is in the hospital or in pharmacy, and the main office will receive quality information without delay in time.

2. Head of Foreign Service and regional managers with the increasing of the speed of obtaining and processing information get a set of tools of management analytics.

The system further provides the opportunity to make an early diagnosis of employees through the analysis of key targets, such as the sales plan and visits, as well as the analysis of the time for: work, road, etc. Investment into arrangement of telematics service (car GPS module) for pharmaceutical companies is approximately 1500 ÷ 1800 UAH. per field worker plus the cost of installation of the equipment and monthly service. 

Costs for equipment and software pay off for 6 ÷ 12 months by improving the performance targets and reduce the costs of non-target vehicles. The cost of the Tablet PC or Smartphone 4000 ÷ 8000 UAH, with a payback period of 12 ÷ 24 months.

According to the reference of management of external service that actively use the technology, investment in technical equipment allow to perform a smaller number of targets, to have more contact with co-workers and more accurately focus on the work of his colleagues, who need the support of the leaders.

Analytical service of "Farm-ROST"