RxS Case Study:

“Real World” Implementation Plan Keeps Evolving Direct-to-Practitioner Sample Program Launch Date Within Reach.

Summary

A global life science company, holding a portfolio of various prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) products and vaccines, needed to replace their current Direct-to-Practitioner (DTP) sample fulfillment vendor.  The scope of the desired solution included managing the DTP sample fulfillment program.  The manufacturer selected RxS to manage the program and to establish easy access to program success metrics and sample disbursement information.  During the design and early implementation phases, the addition of new integrations and system logic increased the scope of the project.  The RxS agile project management approach addressed and prioritized new requirements and delivered the project in two releases.  The program launched in two and a half months and met all program objectives.

Background

A global life science company, holding a portfolio of various prescription and OTC products and vaccines recognized the need to replace their current DTP sample fulfillment vendor.  The company sought a new and improved solution for managing the DTP sample fulfillment program as well as improving access to reporting and analytics.  They required a partner who could easily navigate and integrate with other value-chain partners while owning project management and solution documentation during the implementation and roll-out of two salesforce automation platforms.  They selected RxS to help.  During the design and early implementation phases, new feature requests and business logic were added to the scope of the project.  The RxS agile project management approach addressed and prioritized new requirements and delivered the project iteratively and in two releases.  This case study examines the integration and start-up of the DTP sample fulfillment program for the client, including the short lead time provided and the approach taken by RxS to obtain results.

Analysis

Upon taking over the program, RxS established a labor-intensive, hyper-care team to temporarily stabilize the operational environment during project discovery and implementation.  During phase one of discovery, business rules and processes were defined.  RxS provided the client with best-practice configuration guidelines and a time-tested implementation plan to work from.  Partway through the analysis, RxS learned of previously undocumented integration requirements with additional systems and vendors.  That is, newly identified marketing data partners for inbound and outbound data feeds, two different versions of the Salesforce Automation (SFA) platform, a sample request, and receipt processing vendor, multiple marketing vendors for telesales, and an outside marketing consultant. Project scope continued to build throughout the discovery phase and the second round of discovery was scheduled to accommodate.  With phase one development and configuration underway, the second phase of discovery began.  The project documentation and delivery were broken into two releases to accommodate the urgent need to replace current high-risk processes while providing time for longer-term program enhancement items.

Program Objectives

The discovery team resulted in the following program objectives:

• Deliver a full-service solution for DTP sample fulfillment with minimal impact to the Healthcare Professional (HCP) by sending outbound requests and receiving and processing shipment acknowledgments in a timely manner.  Ensure the solution complied with all regulatory requirements.
• Integrate full program start-up in conjunction with two simultaneous SFA implementations.
• Provide the consultative and strategic value as embedded subject matter experts on the implementation team working across multiple workstreams in collaboration with client contacts and external vendors.
• Provide a platform for consistent and on-time compliance reporting.  Offer a full 360 view to the client, providing the transparency that the client had previously lacked through comprehensive data analytics and reports for internal stakeholders.

Solution

The RxS team took on two roles during this implementation, accountability for overall project management and coordination, and as embedded subject matter experts on the combined project implementation team.  The combined team worked on data discovery, data interface agreements, and requirements documentation in an accelerated manner to meet the start-up deadline.  RxS identified and resolved conflicts across workstreams.  Because sample management programs are complex, the proposed solution design sought to improve the HCP sampling experience for all stakeholders:

• Client home office teams gained easy-to-read reports and dashboards to support decision-making.
• The RxS sample management team leveraged embedded case management capabilities to ensure they did not miss commitments.
• HCPs had intuitive tools to help them access the various brands and their messaging.

The final program design leveraged LinkedRx, RxS’ complete and consolidated solution for sample management, to link all channels from sales and marketing representatives to warehouse and medical practitioners.  LinkedRx provides transparency by capturing and consolidating transactions from every part of the sampling value chain:

• Order management – Inbound order receipt and validation (SFA/Paper/Portal), data entry, business rule application, exception management, and document error mitigation.
• Compliance – Acknowledgement of Content (AOC)/Acknowledgement of Delivery (AOD) follow up, audit management, and in-transit/lost in transit investigations.
• Exception Management and Oversight – order Life cycle status reporting and exception management, and shipment pending/shipment status.

Program Status Reporting – program success metrics (TRx, Sales Goals), order performance cycle, AOD/AOC management.

The goal was to remove the complexity and administrative burden of managing multi-channel sampling activities so the client could focus on their core competencies.

Results

The project plan called for an initial start-up lead time of 2.5 months.  The program launched on time, and on budget.  Rigorous control reporting provided by RxS confirmed that all program objectives were achieved.  Previously, the client Sales Operations team coordinated all internal efforts and tracked all program tasks, communicating and following up with external stakeholders.  During implementation and post-go-live, RxS gained an understanding of the client’s business processes and day-to-day needs.  As a result, RxS grew to work across all stakeholders, enabling the client Sales Operations team to focus on other business initiatives and tasks.

Conclusion

The consultative approach used by RxS to gather requirements and start-up the DTP sample fulfillment program enabled the client to rely on the compliance expertise provided by RxS.  Having seasoned and well-versed Subject Matter Experts on the RxS team fully benefited the client as well as all internal and external stakeholders.  The RxS team was able to provide visibility to the brand team, sales management, compliance, and legal as well as ensure that a compliant program was in place.