Nomadia Case Studies Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan

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	Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan Nomadia

Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan

Nomadia

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization Sensors - Haptic Sensors
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals Pharmaceuticals
Applicable Functions	Facility Management Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Facial Recognition Time Sensitive Networking
Challenge	Pfizer Japan, a branch of the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was faced with the challenge of optimizing its sales force activities. The pharmaceutical industry employs medical representatives (MRs) who are key contacts between the industry and the medical profession. They are responsible for promoting their companies' major products directly to General practitioners (GP) and hospital doctors via face-to-face meetings or medical presentations. These representatives work in assigned territories, the size and geography of which vary according to companies. Most GPs and hospital doctors have an appointment system for seeing medical representatives. With many other companies trying to see the same customers, it was essential for the medical representative to be well organized and plan appointments in advance. Pfizer Japan was looking for a solution to reach a higher number of successful visits while lowering its cost, with the aim to cover almost all medical facilities in Japan. Read More
About Customer	Pfizer was founded by Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849. This pharmaceutical company has remained dedicated to discovering and developing new ways to treat disease and improve health for people around the world. Pfizer is now the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (PFE). Founded in 1953, Pfizer Japan has now more than 5,800 employees. The main activities of Pfizer Japan primarily involve manufacturing and sales of prescription and veterinary drugs for local and international markets. The company has more than 97,000 employees worldwide, 65 production sites, more than 200 research and development partners, and is present in 175 countries. Read More
Solution	Pfizer Japan adopted TourSolver, a Geographical Information Software, based on a successful deployment for Pfizer in Latin America. This software enables Pfizer’s representatives to understand, extract, and use the geographical content of their customer’s data. This allows both managers and sales representatives to visualize their current market coverage and plan their sales deployment. TourSolver provides the best routing and planning for all its medical representatives in Japan to meet a large number of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists every day. For instance, the Tokyo area, which has over 1,000 medical facilities, is covered by less than 10 medical representatives while respecting very restrictive requirements. Each medical visit should occur during a short 30 minutes time slot while also ensuring that the medical representative is knowledgeable of the product in which the medical facility is interested in. TourSolver also allows real configuration of operational costs, enabling Pfizer to balance the overall cost of its sales forces according to their distribution across the territory. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization

Sensors - Haptic Sensors

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Pharmaceuticals

Applicable Functions

Facility Management

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Facial Recognition

Time Sensitive Networking

Challenge

Pfizer Japan, a branch of the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was faced with the challenge of optimizing its sales force activities. The pharmaceutical industry employs medical representatives (MRs) who are key contacts between the industry and the medical profession. They are responsible for promoting their companies' major products directly to General practitioners (GP) and hospital doctors via face-to-face meetings or medical presentations. These representatives work in assigned territories, the size and geography of which vary according to companies. Most GPs and hospital doctors have an appointment system for seeing medical representatives. With many other companies trying to see the same customers, it was essential for the medical representative to be well organized and plan appointments in advance. Pfizer Japan was looking for a solution to reach a higher number of successful visits while lowering its cost, with the aim to cover almost all medical facilities in Japan.

About Customer

Pfizer was founded by Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849. This pharmaceutical company has remained dedicated to discovering and developing new ways to treat disease and improve health for people around the world. Pfizer is now the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (PFE). Founded in 1953, Pfizer Japan has now more than 5,800 employees. The main activities of Pfizer Japan primarily involve manufacturing and sales of prescription and veterinary drugs for local and international markets. The company has more than 97,000 employees worldwide, 65 production sites, more than 200 research and development partners, and is present in 175 countries.

Solution

Pfizer Japan adopted TourSolver, a Geographical Information Software, based on a successful deployment for Pfizer in Latin America. This software enables Pfizer’s representatives to understand, extract, and use the geographical content of their customer’s data. This allows both managers and sales representatives to visualize their current market coverage and plan their sales deployment. TourSolver provides the best routing and planning for all its medical representatives in Japan to meet a large number of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists every day. For instance, the Tokyo area, which has over 1,000 medical facilities, is covered by less than 10 medical representatives while respecting very restrictive requirements. Each medical visit should occur during a short 30 minutes time slot while also ensuring that the medical representative is knowledgeable of the product in which the medical facility is interested in. TourSolver also allows real configuration of operational costs, enabling Pfizer to balance the overall cost of its sales forces according to their distribution across the territory.

Impact #1	The adoption of TourSolver has significantly improved the efficiency of Pfizer's medical delegates. It allows Pfizer to fulfill its medical facilities visiting quota while keeping regular working hours for its sales force. The large amount of optimization constraints within TourSolver, including visiting time windows, possible visit days, customer priority, and punctuality respect, helps Pfizer sales planners to be very flexible in allocating appointments to medical professionals while maintaining the target number of visits every day. Detailed cost calculation provided by TourSolver allows each sales strategist to estimate the overall cost of its sales forces. This gives higher management the opportunity to upsize or downsize the medical representative teams. As a result, Pfizer managed to respect its visits quota, increase its overall sales, and decrease its overall cost.

Impact #1

The adoption of TourSolver has significantly improved the efficiency of Pfizer's medical delegates. It allows Pfizer to fulfill its medical facilities visiting quota while keeping regular working hours for its sales force. The large amount of optimization constraints within TourSolver, including visiting time windows, possible visit days, customer priority, and punctuality respect, helps Pfizer sales planners to be very flexible in allocating appointments to medical professionals while maintaining the target number of visits every day. Detailed cost calculation provided by TourSolver allows each sales strategist to estimate the overall cost of its sales forces. This gives higher management the opportunity to upsize or downsize the medical representative teams. As a result, Pfizer managed to respect its visits quota, increase its overall sales, and decrease its overall cost.

Benefit #1	Reduced travel time for medical delegates
Benefit #2	Increase in daily visits
Benefit #3	Lower transport costs

Benefit #1

Reduced travel time for medical delegates

Benefit #2

Increase in daily visits

Benefit #3

Lower transport costs

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Overview

Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit