Recycling pharma marketing research
pharmafile | November 8, 2010 | Feature | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Insight Marketing Systems, market research, marketing research, pharma marketing research
Recycling is in vogue. Not just in the consumer market, but across business sectors too. But recycling in the market research sector is rare.
For pharmaceutical research teams, the problem is time. Although answers to commercial questions may already exist within a business, time cannot be wasted trying to track them down. It’s easier, less risky, and expected by internal clients that the focus is on generating new information rather than speculatively looking for answers from past research. The result is millions of pounds wasted on research that has already been undertaken.
In smaller organisations, recycling research is relatively easy, but for global pharmaceutical companies, with research filing cabinets and shared drives all over the world, finding and applying past research is practically impossible.
Earlier attempts by enterprise-wide knowledge management systems that made information widely available to everyone in the organisation floundered when it came to research.
These systems required enormous IT investments, and couldn’t cope with:
• the project-centric requirements of research
• the need to easily re-apply past findings to new projects
• the conflicting need to share research findings, while maintaining control over what is highly strategic information.
However, new technology has been developed specifically for the market research function, and is currently being utilised by some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical brands to focus on the specific needs of pharma research teams.
These new technological solutions use cloud-based computing and software-as-a-service (Saas) to provide secure access over the internet, giving research teams the ability to access information anywhere across the globe while meeting the stringent information security requirements of global pharma companies. Cloud-computing means that there is no hardware or software requirement, which results in minimal involvement with the corporate IT department. The Saas model also means that there is no upfront capital cost, just pay-per-use.
The big advantage with these new research-focused systems is that the research team can work directly with providers to mould the system to their specific needs, rather than having to compromise and force-fit systems that were not really designed for research.
One of the interesting side effects from recycling research is that it is actually changing how research is seen within the business. Traditionally seen as an expense with little residual value, these systems can change the perception of research from a series of once-off expenses to a continuing investment in customer knowledge. Research becomes a cumulative strategic asset from which the company can generate a greater return.
While initially focused on providing researchers with access to past research, these systems can also be used to promote the use of research to internal clients, allowing them to directly search for – and even pro-actively alert people to – new research that is relevant to their needs.
Of course, for these systems to be successful it is critical that the information available remains up to date. One of the most successful ways of doing this is to use the technology to help manage the entire project workflow process – from initial project request, to final report presentation.
In addition to ensuring all research findings are added, this means that the system can manage all internal procedures, authorisations and even project costs, whilst automatically creating the management and compliance reports required in a post Sarbanes-Oxley environment.
Cloud-based computing is a new technological option which allows secure integration with other data sources. Users can search not only their own research documents, but access information from other sources, all from the one search box. This allows companies to rationalise their online subscriptions, and track the use and benefits of these external data sources.
Pharma research teams can also give their agencies access, albeit on a limited basis as required. Typically, agencies can only view current projects where they are the chosen supplier, which allows suppliers to directly add project outputs directly to the application, while still restricting access to other research.
Allowing agencies to directly update the application also limits the risks associated with sending files via email, while reducing the administrative tasks for the research team.
While these systems give research teams the ability to re-use and recycle research findings, they can also be used to help plan future research, by providing content maps that help research teams identify gaps in their knowledge of their marketplaces and pro-actively specify research projects to fill those gaps.
The technology is now available for pharmaceutical companies to potentially save millions in wasted time, resources and money whilst positioning the research team as a source of competitive advantage for their organisation.
Recycling has never been so popular.
Chris Forbes is the co-founder of Insight Marketing Systems. www.researchreporter.com
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