Novopharm Limited
Business intelligence proves Novopharm’s best medicine
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Company Overview
Since its founding in 1965 by pharmacist Leslie Dan, Toronto-based Novopharm Limited has focused on providing a broad range of quality generic pharmaceutical products to help make health care more affordable for Canadians. For over three decades, Novopharm has flourished, earning a reputation for quality, integrity, ethics and service. This reputation, coupled with the competent and dedicated staff, has Novopharm poised for continued success in the years ahead. In April 2000, Novopharm was acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Jerusalem, Israel, and became part of its worldwide operations. Novopharm’s technical and scientific expertise is first class, and its commitment is strong. Novopharm has the will, the resources and the capabilities to find new ways to make the world a healthier place. Novopharm currently employs approximately 900 staff.
Business Challenge
Until recently, Novopharm’s senior executives, sales managers and sales representatives spent an inordinate amount of time querying a multitude of backend systems to gain a deeper understanding of customers and products. Sales reps often visited 8 to 10 customers a day and rarely found the time to ascertain why certain drugs were selling poorly or how sales in certain pharmacies were adding to the bottom line. Consequently, time spent with busy pharmacists was not productive. If sales were down in a certain territory, it would be days before sales managers figured out whether the fault lay with a particular sales rep, a specific pharmacy, or a back-ordered drug. Given the staggering amount of ever-changing information, data analysis proved an arduous task. To complicate matters further, employees could never be sure if the data they were looking at was complete and up-to-date. They constantly called upon Novopharm’s busy information systems team to source the latest statistics and data. Time-to-knowledge was extremely slow, and sales managers often made decisions based on guesswork because information was incomplete. “If I told a manager to report on all the factors affecting his business by key customers and products, it would have taken him days to complete a number of data runs and specialized reports – and then hopefully come up with the right answer,” recalls Doug Morley, manager, sales administration, at Toronto-based Novopharm Limited. “We had to find a way to pull up accurate and up-to-date data at the front end and put it into a usable, easily accessible and intuitive format so we could understand deficiencies and opportunities.”
Options Explored
Novopharm contacted GHI Technologies Company Ltd., a Toronto-based business intelligence (BI) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider, in its search for the most appropriate solution. Together, they settled on a BI solution based on Microsoft software technology. “GHI Technologies introduced us to this powerful solution,” says Morley. “SQL Server™ proved the best choice given its cost, performance and its virtually seamless integration with the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. It had proven itself to GHI Technologies through past experience and showed itself well during field trials, too.”
Solution
GHI Technologies designed and implemented the BI solution that’s keeping Novopharm on track. A Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider (MCSP), GHI Technologies has more than 10 years of sales and consulting experience in the sales force automation and CRM industries. The company’s team of professionals is dedicated to guiding BI and CRM projects from conception through implementation. GHI Technologies focuses on leading platforms that offer superior business process solutions. GHI developed a solution using the Microsoft platform because it easily integrated with Novopharm’s existing computing infrastructure for greater cost-effectiveness and flexibility. “We chose the Microsoft platform because we found it to be superior to the other analytical tools that were evaluated,” says Graham Hislop, managing director of GHI Technologies.
Deployment Time
The solution, executed by just two people, went live in two short months. Data was compiled in SQL Server, with the business process mapped out to determine the dimensions and measures. Next, data marts were created and data cubes were generated. The data cubes were then loaded onto each client with SQL Server Analytic Services. Users view data using Microsoft Data Analyzer.
Business Benefits
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Co. information Centre at (877) 568-2495.
Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/casestudies
http://www.teva.co.il
http://www.ghitechnologies.com
