Reaping the benefits of Digital Transformation: what are we missing
By now, most Life Sciences Companies have made significant investments in the digitisation of their processes to get the most out of the benefits of Digital Transformation. This digitisation is nothing more than the conversion of documentation and materials so they can be processed by computers.
For that purpose, numerous projects and pilots were launched with the goal of creating a structure around digital tools and analytics by creating systems that would generate, connect, process, and then react to data.?
Figure 1 – Overview of implementation of digital projects through departments?(KPMG, 2018)
And, despite the expectation of a?long-term growth supported by the innovation that the people, data, and technology would generate, the outcome has fell short. In fact, almost 50% of the digital transformations underperformed when it came to the expected impact on profit. So, what went wrong?
Figure 2 – Profit generated from implementing Digital Transformation (McKinsey, 2019)
The challenges along the way
Life Sciences companies generate and process data – a lot of data. Data on therapies, stakeholder interactions, patients, and research. Their systems, however, were built in a discrete way without having the larger picture in mind.
As a result, the systems may not scale to be able to make integrated use of the available data. They lack the manageability, flexibility, and the possibilities to?bring together data from different sources for business and operation insights.
This may happen due another roadblock towards digital transformation: the location of the?responsibility for the digitalisation process. For example, research has shown that only 26% of the Pharmaceutical Companies place the responsibility at C-level within their organisation (KPMG, 2018).
This relates to a third issue: the notion that digital transformation is something that you can buy, plug into your organisation and be done with it.?Digital Transformation is an ongoing process of changing the way the business acts. And it’s not only multi-faceted, but it is also diffuse, and it goes beyond the technology itself.
Which takes us to the last challenge: the need to tie the investment to value under a clear strategy of what are the priorities. And then, of course, stick with the strategy on the long-term (Davenport & Westerman, 2018).
It is clear now that, in order to fulfil the promises of digital transformation, four things are necessary:
Why is it important to press on and accomplish the Digital Transformation
Since most companies have already invested substantial resources into the Digitisation and Digitalisation of their processes, there may be a degree of belief that the?work has been done.
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That could not be further from the truth, which is also the reason why true value of Digital Transformation remains unattained.
Figure 3 – The Road to Digital Transformation
In fact, it’s the last step, the one that transforms the way the business operates, that generates most of the gains.
But the need to accomplish the Digital Transformation has taken a more existential dimension considering the trends that have been shaping the Life Sciences landscape.
These trends include a downward pressure on pricing, a move of demand towards prevention, diagnosis, and?real cures, an increase of development costs, more competitive markets, and the growth of patient-centricity.
Figure 4 – Life Science Trends
However, we can transform these trends present challenges into competitive advantages by concluding the process of Digital Transformation.
Reaping the benefits of Digital Transformation
Diagnosing the problem and what do we need to do is the first step towards obtaining value from Digital Transformation.
At?4TE,?we believe in the concept of an?Intelligent Digital Transformation.
What is an Intelligent Digital Transformation? It’s when:
Process digitalisation is not the only topic we have for you!
In our blog, we have written various posts about the most important topics for the Pharma and Biopharma Industry. Take a?quick look at our different categories and enjoy your reading!