Revenue management professionals in the life sciences industry certainly understand the strategic importance of data when trying to optimize revenue. They know their organizations accrue vast volumes of data through R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and sales operations, as well as from transactions with customers and channel partners and various other interactions with the marketplace. They also know that if they could get their hands on this data in useable form, they would reap extraordinarily valuable benefits by gaining actionable insights, cost-effectively. So what is stopping them from doing this?
The key phrases here are useable form, actionable insights, and cost-effectively.
Because raw data extracted from enterprise systems like ERP, CRM, and enterprise data warehouses and data lakes – both on-premises and in the cloud – falls short of meeting the needs of revenue professionals. They need such data to be integrated, analyzed, and put into an easily digestible format that is meaningful from a business perspective.
Although life science companies have made substantial investments in data technologies, they’re not driving intelligence from their revenue data back to their business units in a timely manner. The challenges lie in translating these investments into actionable intelligence for business units where timely access to relevant insights is a critical factor in workflow. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to make data-driven revenue optimization decisions.
Data needed for life sciences revenue optimization
Revenue optimization in life sciences requires maximizing sales and profits from drugs and devices while simultaneously delivering value to patients and other stakeholders. An intricate balance is needed between pricing, market access, product positioning, and supply-chain management, R&D, among other factors.
Here are some of the types of data that needs to be transformed into insights that can enable revenue optimization.
- Pricing data: Competitive landscape, health technology assessments (HTA), payer preferences, historical sales data, and market research.
- Sales and marketing data: Prescription trends, physician preferences, marketing campaign analytics, digital analytics – website visits, click-through rates – patient demographics, disease incidence, sales force optimization and performance data, and both local and regional performance analytics.
- Supply chain management data: Demand forecasts, inventory levels, manufacturing capacities, logistics and distribution data, and lead times.
- R&D data: Clinical trial design and outcomes, Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approvals, risk evaluation and mediation strategies (REMS), patient feedback, target patient populations, and pipeline strategies of competitors.
- Portfolio management data: Lifecycle of the current product portfolio, patent expiry dates, potential for new indications, and future R&D investments.
- Contract management data: Contract terms with distributors, hospitals, or pharmacies, volume discounts and rebates, expected versus actual discounting, gross-to-net trends, free goods, and patient assistance costs.
- Post-market surveillance data: Adverse-event reports, patient feedback, and real-world evidence studies.
Benefits of data-driven life sciences revenue optimization
The convergence of all these diverse data sources creates a rich tapestry of information that can be harnessed to gain deep insights into everything from sales performance to customer behavior. Here are some of the benefits:
Enhance decision-making
Access to comprehensive data-driven insights drives better decisions. You can make pricing decisions, allocate resources, and formulate marketing strategies with a better understanding of the market, customer preferences, and the competitive landscape, leading to more efficient and effective operations.
Improve understanding of your customers
When you combine data from your ERP systems, sales transactions, and customer segmentation databases, you gain a 360-degree view of your customers. This allows you to tailor your approach to individual customer needs, improve customer satisfaction, and build stronger, lasting relationships.
Optimize contract management
With access to contract data, pricing terms, and rebate information, you can streamline contract management. This not only helps you avoid duplication and ensure compliance but also optimizes pricing strategies and cost management.
Maximize profitability
By analyzing data on market share, Medicaid utilization, and more, you can identify the most profitable segments and products. This can guide you to allocate resources and adjust pricing to maximize revenue.
Efficient operations
Data also has potential to improve efficiency. From tracking expiration dates to managing administration fees, centralizing data management streamlines operations, reduces errors, and ensures that resources are used more effectively.
Improve compliance and mitigate risk
Access to comprehensive data is essential for compliance and risk management. You can monitor adherence to contracts, track payments, and ensure that all regulatory requirements are met. This reduces the risk of legal issues and financial penalties.
Grow strategically
Ultimately, the power of data integration and analysis can drive strategic growth and enhance competitiveness. It equips your team with the insights and tools needed to expand into new markets, develop innovative products and practices, and stay ahead of industry trends.
Looking ahead
Achieving revenue optimization in the life sciences industry requires sophisticated data analytics capabilities. Although advances in big data, AI, and machine learning have made it possible to synthesize and analyze vast amounts of information to drive decision-making, achieving revenue optimization is still challenging.
Because it’s not just about collecting or accessing the raw data. By connecting the dots between diverse datasets, life sciences businesses can uncover hidden trends, identify growth opportunities, and make smarter – and faster – decisions. This data-centric approach leads to higher growth, enhanced decision-making, and long-term success, positioning your organization as a leader in the industry. Third-party vendors can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between accessing internal data and IT platforms and meeting the timely demands for meaningful insights, further enhancing your ability to optimize revenue.
Learn more
Join us for the webinar “Unlock Life Sciences Revenue Potential: Bridging the Data Gap,” and learn how integrating data and analytics can help you realize revenue growth and efficiency – and successfully transition to revenue optimization. Save your seat today.
