collaboration across the pharma enterprise

Winning strategies for effective collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry

Charles Rowlands and Amy Morgan are founding partners of RM Consulting, an international business consultancy focused on providing management support services to the

global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical and healthcare sectors. Jointly they have more than three decades' experience and have

worked on numerous strategy development and market assessment projects in both developed and developing economies.

Gary Hawksworth

is BTs head of marketing for the pharmaceutical sector. He has 25 years' experience of communications technologies with 7 years exclusive

experience in supplying solutions to the pharmaceutical industry.

Keywords collaboration, collaborative tools, communication, e-tools,

information technology, pharmaceutical industry

Abstract This paper examines key success factors for effective collaboration in the

pharmaceutical industry. In an industry where speed to market is critical and where informed

and timely decisions can have large financial implications, collaboration is a key factor to

ensure value is delivered. Consequently, considerable investment is being made by

pharmaceutical companies to enable project teams to work more effectively together across

departmental, functional, company and geographic boundaries. Investment in collaboration has

varied tremendously across companies - both in the level of investment and in the degree of

success. It is against this background that British Telecom (BT) commissioned RM Consulting

(RM) to research the key strategies for effective collaboration. A major finding of the research

was that while technology is a strong enabler to better collaboration it must be intuitive, easy to

use and enable natural people interaction for widespread adoption. The correct technology can

allow richer social collaboration and more intuitive usability. Journal of Medical Marketing (2006)

6, 83-93. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jmm.5050027

INTRODUCTION

As a leading provider of collaborative

solutions for many years, BT has

developed a deep understanding of

the particular collaboration issues

faced by the pharmaceutical industry

— and how they may be overcome to

generate business improvements,

improve cost management and deliver

increased shareholder value. BT are

acutely aware that the answer to

improved collaboration not only lies

in technological solutions but also

in areas including corporate

culture, social networks and trust

between individuals.

The objective of the research

conducted by RM was to review how

well collaborative practice is

embedded in today's pharmaceutical

industry. The study focused on the use

of tools in normal working practice

and their relation to the culture and

behaviour within the

© 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1745-7904 Vol. 6, 2 83-93 Journal of Medical Marketing www.palgrave-journals.com/jmm

Rowlands et al.

organisation. Research was based on

30 in-depth interviews conducted with

a representative sample of executives

from a wide range of functional areas

across 11 of the top 20 pharmaceutical

companies.

WHAT IS COLLABORATION?

The definition of collaborative working

varies greatly from person to person

and from company to company, but in

its simplest form, secure collaborative

working uses information systems to

enable individuals or groups of

individuals to work concurrently on

information, no matter whether they

are dispersed or co-located. The result

is that the working environment

behaves in the same way regardless of

geographical location, communication

channel or device.

Collaboration is already integral to

corporate life in the pharmaceutical

industry — employees rely on e-mail,

telephone and videoconferencing; they

are also leveraging the capabilities of

the digital workplace to share

knowledge and information with people

across the enterprise and with external

networks. Despite heavy technology

investment in this area however, not all

pharmaceutical companies have

realised the true potential of their

collaborative tools — much money has

been spent but crucially, many

companies have omitted to invest in

encouraging personal interaction, the

result being poor uptake and severe

limitations on true collaborative

working.

WHY COLLABORATE?

In an environment of rising costs and

increasing demands on productivity

and innovation, the challenge for

today's pharmaceutical company is to

do more with less. Having sought

economies of scale and product

pipeline boosts through mergers and

acquisitions, pharmaceutical

companies are being forced to look

internally to seek the improvements

needed to meet the expectations of

financial investors. Productivity gains at

each phase, however small, have an

amplifying effect — they do not just add

up, they multiply.

Companies have invested heavily in

new discovery technologies

characterised by the convergence of

life sciences and information

technology. We are entering a period

where the promise of these 'new

sciences' will begin to deliver, but the

application of new technology has

created an added problem in terms of

the vast amounts of new data that

now need to be organised and

managed.

Enterprises that fail to use modern

communication technologies and who

do not leverage their intellectual capital

and knowledge-base of their workers,

limit the potential for collaboration and

run the very real risk of falling behind

the competition. The knowledge-

intensive nature of pharmaceutical

R&D makes the ability to capture,

communicate and exploit knowledge a

key determinant for success.

INCREASING COMPLEXITY

The research-based pharmaceutical

industry has long been one of the

most complex and resource-intensive

in the world — but complexity is now

increasing at a spectacular rate. In

order to maximise the quality and

speed of the discovery and

development process, companies are

dramatically increasing the

collaboration within the different parts

of R&D as well as their reliance on

external partners.

This collaborative approach is the

right way to do business, but it adds a

level of complexity to both intra- and

inter-functional interactions. Multiple

units within an organisation must

collaborate across the extended

enterprise, ie not only with each other,

but also with external partners.

Winning strategies for effective collaboration

Exacerbating these complexities is

the challenge of size. Consolidation

within the industry as well as organic

growth, have created extremely large,

global and decentralised organisations.

Consequently, infrastructures are

stretched to the limits, inefficiencies are

amplified and simple tasks such as

access to data, become cumbersome.

Paradoxically, these very large

organisations still rely on high-

innovation work and intensive small

group collaboration. A serious and

growing challenge for today's

pharmaceutical company is therefore

to re-create a small-company

environment within the larger

organisation without harbouring

'knowledge silos'.

THE VIRTUAL TREND

Team working has become the

predominant way of working at all

levels — and teams are becoming

increasingly 'virtual' with members

often dispersed across multiple

geographical locations. Increased

decentralisation has significantly

changed the nature of project working.

Previously, organising and tracking

project work could easily be done by

physically moving around on site to

see all team members — individuals

could simply exchange information and

brainstorm together in the same room.

Nowadays, with team members highly

distributed, managers have to visit

project resources virtually — project

working and management is therefore

becoming increasingly focused around

internet-based collaborative tools.

A virtual project is a collaborative

effort towards a specific goal or

accomplishment which is based on

collective yet remote performance.

This need to work both together and

apart has driven the need for

management tools that enable

communication and coordination at a

distance. The global structure of teams

has grown to support the 'virtual

project concept' that now dominates

the way R&D is progressed on a

worldwide scale.

CURRENT COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

Pharmacos have organised their

collaborative technology platforms

around an intranet and groupware

model. An intranet offers the best and

fastest solution for information to be

dispersed and permits workers to

interact, connecting them and their

ideas across organisational

boundaries. Groupware is software

that groups or teams use together

over computer networks and the

internet. The study examined the use

of collaborative tools in normal

working practice and Table 1

summarises current opinion based on

interview responses.

Study results confirmed the fact

that we are inherently visual beings —

we want to see as much as we want

to hear. Combining verbal and visual

exchange of information was found to

increase the 'richness' and add value

to the collaborative experience (Figure

1).

When it comes to sharing

information, there is much variation

across organisations. Limited

connections between current

asynchronous tools such as e-mail,

shared workspaces and knowledge

portals result in information silos.

Some organisations have carried out

an integration of knowledge bases

and added complex search engines;

however, little attention has been paid

to the user 'front end' creating a

barrier to use.

BARRIERS TO COLLABORATION

As companies grow and as the

amount of information generated

increases, fewer

© 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1745-7904 Vol. 6, 2 83-93 Journal of Medical Marketing

Rowlands et al.

Table 1: Attributes and issues surrounding the use of current collaborative tools

Mode of collaboration

Attributes Issues

Phone/Mobile

Teleconferencing

Instant messaging

E-mail

Shared workspace/

E-Rooms

Data repositories

Intranet

Net meeting

Videoconferencing

Face-to-face

Telephone has become the gold standard by which other communication services are measured Most common form of conferencing Easy access - no dedicated room required Real time messages Bridges the gap between voice and e-mail Affords users the ability to communicate, coordinate activities and share information. Easy access - part of the desktop environment

A mechanism to share and distribute information, documents and/or objects. Promotes concurrent team working and facilitates decision-making. Access can be controlled. Can be extended to third party users

Forces information and knowledge to be captured in standardised format -'future proofing Can be mined, visualised and the results published for others to use Data suitable for validation purposes

Highly effective for sharing information and knowledge with a large, dispersed audience Best place to house tools Portals provide a single point of access and can be tailored to audience requirements Allows users to work from the same document in real-time Easy access - users sit at own workstations Multiple party participation Commonly used in conjunction with videoconferencing Excellent vehicle for bringing geographically dispersed teams together. Ability to share both verbal and non-verbal cues Visual cues allow foreign language speakers to be better understood Participants on camera cannot multitask or leave the room

Technical tools cannot substitute the traditional human face-to-face way of sharing information around a table Best way to build relationships and team moral Full range of communication skills

Mobile phones make individuals too accessible and impact negatively on the 'life-work' balance. Participants multitask during audio meetings, even leave the room Unable to share non-verbal cues Prior introduction helps build relationships among participants Requires response Lack of archiving facilities on current systems Lack of discipline leads to inappropriate and over-use. E-mail overload. E-mails often 'dumped' without action. Difficult to manage version control Legal ramifications of wording Changes working processes Users need to 'buy-into' concept of sharing information. Information requires management throughout lifecycle to maintain its value Users lack training and confidence to maximise utility M&A activity brings together different technology implementations Conversion of legacy data Fragmented and 'siloed' systems Lack of 'metadata ' Huge amounts of data generated daily in the post genomic era. Relies on proactive user pull - search tools not intuitive Security, sensitivity and confidentiality Most intranets do not yet facilitate the creation of vibrant communities and have not succeeded in decreasing the friction of information transfer between different groups

In the absence of visual link, there is a lack of interpersonal cues for building trust between team members

Language barriers - poor English skills lead to some par-ticipants being hesitant to raise questions

Time wasted in set-up Imperfect visual image Time delays can lead to misinterpretation of verbal

communication and body language Not easily accessible - need to coordinate the booking of

suites across participating sites Expensive - notably higher bandwidth applications Geographical distribution means that face-to-face is

expensive - in cost and in time Co-location required for routine face-to-face Coordination of travel around other commitments

people have time to read the

literature or are able to personally

interact with those outside their

particular programme. This leads to

isolated projects, the inability to stay

current and the repetition of effort.

One study respondent claimed that

despite

all collaborative efforts within their

company, only 10—15 per cent of

intellectual capital has been captured

in any structured format and that the

rest resides on paper, in lab

notebooks and in researcher's heads.


F

Figure 1: Combination of verbal and visual information exchange

Collaborative tools on the market

today make it easy to coordinate large

groups by enabling team members to

post questions, work jointly on

documents, schedule meetings and

track progress toward goals. But not

every company is positioned to take

advantage of these tools. The danger

for many is overspending on

technology implementations without

making the cultural and organisational

adjustments necessary to derive any

benefit from them. Major barriers to

collaborative working embedded in

current behaviour include:

• Inherent dislike of sharing information

- 'knowledge is power'

• Low perceived 'value' in sharing

information

• Mistrust of those who individuals have not

met in person

• Concerns over who will have access to

shared

information

• Geographical distribution of workers

• Resistance to change

• Effort required — an added burden to daily

routine

• Corporate culture leading to competitive

rather than collaborative working styles

• Poor team working skills and lack of

leadership

• Lack of training

Respondents to the study reported

that all too often the selection and

introduction of collaborative tools

failed to take into account the practical

business needs of their work function.

Consequently, there was a mismatch

between expectations and reality. A

further point raised, was that many of

the tools were complicated or

cumbersome requiring users to switch

between multiple applications -

resulting in limited uptake. Finally,

implementation of new packages was

more often than not poorly managed

with little follow-up to initial training

programmes. Unsurprisingly

widespread adoption of collaborative

tools has to date, not met with the

expectations of IT departments or top

management.

IMPACT OF CORPORATE

CULTURE

Corporate culture plays a critical role

in ensuring greater collaboration, yet

the fact remains that in today's large

pharmacos, there are too many

people, too much information and too

little time devoted to overcoming the

barriers to information sharing in

order to create a true collaborative

environment. Compounding


“R

ich

ness”

Connectivity

Audio

telephone,

mobile

Web

email, instant

messaging, e-rooms,

white boards,

discussion groups

Audio + Web

net meetings

Face-to-Face

Audio + Video

video streaming

video conferencing

Audio + Video + Web

video conferencing +

web meeting

Rowlands et al.

this issue has been M&A activity which

often brings together two culturally

diverse organisations with conflicting

working practices and different

technology implementations.

The typical hierarchical nature of

pharmaceutical companies also hinders

collaborative efforts. Senior executives

can be territorial, defensive and even

closed — team collaboration can

therefore become difficult as individuals

have to work around managerial 'egos'

and sensitivities. In addition,

information hoarders will always exist

and with a lack of incentives that

encourage joint working, personnel

often feel that it is not within their

interests to collaborate — they become

economical \vith information, thus

impeding collaborative efforts.

In many cases, collaboration is at

odds with the company's corporate

culture so implementation will be

disruptive. Shifting a corporate culture

from being competitive to being

cooperative is not easy, it requires

leadership from top management and

changes at all levels of the

organisation. This remains a big leap

for many companies where individuals

are still rewarded for controlling

knowledge and highlighting their own

achievements, rather than for sharing

knowledge and focusing on team

accomplishments.

FUTURE COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

Since the 1990s, collaboration

strategies have revolved around tools

with little attention being paid to user

needs and behaviour. Simply giving

users the perfect tool for each situation

is not always the correct strategy —

this just leads to the proliferation of

tools for each situation and results in

higher levels of IT complexity (and

costs). Today the focus is on how

people work within processes — it is no

longer a personal productivity

endeavour (e.g. saving time or making

individual

tasks more efficient), the goal now is

to enable processes to perform at a

higher level.

We are in the midst of a fundamental

paradigm shift as new technologies

bring integrated voice, video and web

solutions to the pharmaceutical

desktop. Emerging collaborative

solutions now offer the user the ability to

coordinate seamlessly between tools

without the need to switch between

systems. Information can be shared in

an integrated and synchronised manner

allowing decisions to be made on the

most up-to-date information (Figure 2).

This so-called 'contextual

collaboration' represents an integration

of tools into a unified interface -

allowing teams to communicate

quickly and instantly from a single

environment. The goal of contextual

collaboration is to make online

collaboration as simple and as intuitive

as possible allowing more proactive

goal management and more focused

work processes. The technological key

will be the adoption of a converged

infrastructure which delivers the ability

for voice and other collaborative tools

to work seamlessly together.

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE STUDY?

Study findings highlighted the fact that

collaboration is primarily about

behaviour and not technology.

Collaboration strategists must

overcome organisational, cultural and

behavioural issues such as persuading

people to work differently, establishing

incentives and performance measures

that foster greater information sharing

and cooperation. Additionally,

community building efforts are valuable

to create synergies across processes

and functions. This approach provides

users with peripheral vision of what

else is going on that might influence

their own work practices. In this

respect,


Figure 2: Unification of tools

collaboration becomes a

cornerstone of knowledge

management and enterprise

learning strategies.

re-distributes the information.

Effective collaboration requires the

right mix of both synchronous and

asynchronous tools used in an

appropriate and linked manner.

WINNING STRATEGIES FOR

EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION

The right tool Selecting the right tool for the right

task is a critical consideration and will

result in a positive collaborative

experience. Important considerations

include the size of the audience, the

intended level of interaction and the

immediacy of the required response

(Tables 2 and 3). Chat and instant

messaging are forms of synchronous

communications where each user

responds to the other in real time. In

contrast, discussion forums and e-mail

for example, are asynchronous

communications. Some amount of

time may pass before a person

responds to a message and/or re-

uses, re-purposes or

Ensure contextual collaboration

The research found virtually no linking

of asynchronous and synchronous

collaboration tools to date — the

convergence of voice, video and data

networks means that technology is no

longer a barrier to prevent this from

happening. The future is 'contextual'

where collaborative tools will exist in a

linked and integrated family allowing

users to switch seamlessly between

systems from a single desktop

environment (Figure 3). This integrated

environment will serve as a managed

repository providing document and

record management combined with

communication tools, e.g. corporate

directories will link to


CONTEXTUAL

COLLABORATION

Conversation

(VoIP)

Presence

Awareness

Object

Sharinge.g. Documents,

Databases

Shared

WorkspaceAggregation of

shared objects

& tools

CONTEXTUAL

COLLABORATION

Conversation

(VoIP)

Presence

Awareness

Object

Sharinge.g. Documents,

Databases

Shared

WorkspaceAggregation of

shared objects

& tools

Rowlands et al.

contact information and with the

additional use of presence information,

individuals can check if people are

available to take calls allowing a strong

link to be forged between data and the

people responsible for creating it.

Contextual collaboration has the

potential to cross the divide between

electronic data and human knowledge

by linking information to people and by

creating an environment for human

interaction. In this respect, contextual

collaboration mimics the richness of

co-located small-team working by

combining process rigour for

compliance

Table 2: Considerations for the selection of collaborative tools

Criteria E-mail Instant Messa-ging

Shared Work-space

Synchronous No Yes No

Asynchronous Yes Potential Yes

Data sharing Medium Low High

Ease-of-use High High Medium

Accessibility High High High

Response required

Yes Yes No

Audience size 1-5

Good Excellent Excellent

Audience size 5-25

Good Medium Excellent

Audience size >25

Good Poor Excellent

with captured ad hoc interaction

and collaboration. The move

towards contextual collaboration

continues to be adopted to improve

productivity, reduce coordination

costs and better connect people to

peers and teams.

Create the culture

Pharmaceutical companies need to

develop and reward a culture of

openness and sharing. Training is

required — users must be familiar with

and comfortable using the tools. Over

time, end-user confidence and

familiarity will evolve and the

sophistication of the workspace will

grow accordingly. With adequate

training and support, the result will be

a constant cycle of positive

reinforcement and continuous

enhancements in productivity.

Employees need an incentive to

contribute to the system; rewards

could be either financial or

psychological (eg peer recognition). In

addition, users must realise a net gain

from the system and the value of

sharing information through

collaboration must be reinforced. A

major failing is that the majority of

pharmaceutical companies do not yet

reward or include collaboration in

personal objectives — and without

incentives, behaviour will not change.

Table 3: Considerations for the selection of collaborative conferencing tools

Criteria Tele-conference

Video-conference Net Meeting Face-to-face

Visual cues No Yes No Yes

Presentation of data No Sometimes Yes Yes

Collaboration environment Low High High High

Ease-of-use High Medium-Low Medium High

Accessibility High Low High Low

Equipment cost Low High Low Zero

Network cost Low High Low Zero

Other expenses (e.g. travel) Low Low Low High

Meeting size 1-5 Good Excellent Good Excellent

Meeting size 5-25 Medium Medium Good Excellent

Meeting size >25 Poor Poor Good Excellent


Figure 3: Potential connectivity from the desktop

Measure the impact Collaborative tools are likely to be

adopted more widely within

pharmaceutical companies and their

use will become more routine if

employees and executives understand

how much time and money can be

saved.

Calculation of a hard savings figure

for the return-on-investment (ROI) on

collaborative tools is hampered by the

multitude of budgets and cost centres

involved. Broad estimates from the

study suggest that by avoiding the

need for four people to travel and

meet face-to-face once a month over

the clinical development period, the

saving in terms of man-hours is in

excess of 1 year and around US$0.4

million in terms of costs (costs

included in the calculation: airfare

estimations, hotels, meals, car services,

taxis, salary downtime costs, sundries,

etc.). Similarly, by improving discovery

productivity by 3 per cent through

easier

access to relevant information and

sources of expertise, could result in 2

months decreased discovery time and

US$6 million saving. One respondent

claimed that researchers within their

company were spending more than

15 per cent of their time searching for

data and information which has led to

bad and slow decision-making.

Promote the benefits

Effective collaboration strategies

enable individuals and teams to be

more productive within processes, with

success being measured via

improvements in process outcomes

and more sustained levels of

innovation. Productivity improvements

can be delivered as both hard,

quantifiable benefits (already

discussed) and as soft benefits. Soft

benefits are perhaps always the most

under-appreciated since they are

difficult,


Rowlands et al.

Table 4: Critical factors for successful collaboration

Critical Success Factors for Tools

Simplicity - tools developed for large groups of people need to be easy to learn as well as simple and intuitive to use

Accessibility - tools must fit seamlessly within the desktop environment

Customisation - different groups have different needs for tools and information

Integration - tools should ideally sit within an integrated and linked environment enabling the user to move seamlessly from one tool to the next

Relevance - tools must be relevant to the context of the user’s work as well as meet specific business objectives

Connectivity - tools must afford easy access to others (team members and beyond)

Reliability - tools must work in the manner expected and systems must be maintained

Critical Success Factors for Creating a Collaborative Environment

Culture - a corporate culture f sharing and openness

Rewards - for demonstrating effective team working and collaborative behaviour

Training - appropriate and timely

Leadership - team leaders must provide authority and example on collaborative behaviour

Resource - must be allocated at the team level to direct the use and continuous optimisation of the collaborative workspace

Define roles and responsibilities - at all levels from the implementation team down to project teams themselves

Reinforce benefits - the impact of collaboration needs to be measured while promoting the benefits at the same time

if not impossible, to quantify with precision and include:

diff icult to work in a modern corporate environment without them.

• Enhanced creativity and innovation

• Faster and more informed decision-

making

— 24/7 availability of information means

that

decisions are based on current not

expired

data

• Increased transparency across the

organisation

• Improved management of project teams

• Increased reach — including remote

workers

and multi-geographies

• Minimisation of travel requirements —

improved quality of life for workers

• Elimination of downtime

In short, the soft benefits that accrue

from the use of collaborative tools may

be hard to quantify but they are no

less real than the hard benefits. It

would be difficult to write the business

case for telephone or e-mail systems

but it would be equally

CONCLUSION

Collaborative solutions now represent

a core business tool that global

pharmaceutical companies need to

fully embrace in order to compete in

today's global marketplace. The major

finding of the study was that successful

implementation of collaborative

solutions requires a deep

understanding of user needs

combined with the deployment of the

appropriate intuitive tools (Table 4). In

addition, it is crucial that implementation

is supported by an organisation-wide

'change management' programme to

help employees adapt their working

behaviours and styles to fully exploit the

benefits of collaborative working.


New tools and communication

infrastructures are now on the horizon

that will enable true contextual

collaboration. With the convergence of

voice, video and data networks, more

pharmaceutical companies will realise

increased value through deploying IP

collaborative solutions — including IP

telephony (VoIP), unified messaging,

voice mail and audio, video, and web

conferencing. These personal tools will

enable workers to communicate

anywhere, anytime, with local and

remote colleagues, without leaving the

comfort and efficiency of their

workspace. Individuals will be able to

work with live information

that is relevant, current and fluid.

Online collaboration will make

significant steps towards being as

simple and as intuitive as working \vith

people in the same room.

To truly embed collaborative working

behaviour however, requires a

fundamental change in corporate

culture and working behaviours and

styles — to succeed the benefits of

collaboration and knowledge sharing

must be continually reinforced from the

top down. A successful collaborative

framework is a driver for cultural

change and is a vehicle for

pharmaceutical companies to realise

the full potential of their greatest asset -

their people.

RM Consulting is now part of Parioforma Limited, an independent

business consultancy headquartered in London, UK.

For further information on our services or for an informal discussion on your

information and/or research needs please don't hesitate to contact us:

Either by telephone on +44 (0) 207 225 3538; or by

Email at: [email protected]

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