5 classes from biopharma corporations’ knowledge transformation journeys

Recognizing these challenges, main gamers within the business have taken proactive steps to harmonize their knowledge globally.

An information chief in a prime 20 biopharma shares, “With 150 years of historical past, our knowledge is unfold throughout quite a few techniques, making it troublesome to attach the dots and maximize buyer worth. To deal with this, we started harmonizing world reference knowledge to create a single, unified buyer report. Whereas it’s an ongoing course of, we’re laying the muse for future success in over 100 markets.”

In the meantime, one other prime 20 biopharma accomplished a big transformation pushed by a world initiative to centralize governance, highlighting the important want for foundational knowledge. This firm efficiently rolled out a single world knowledge mannequin throughout greater than 50 markets. Each organizations have reported advantages from world knowledge harmonization, together with quicker subject agility, improved reporting, and decreased prices.

Consultants agree that harmonizing knowledge globally delivers important advantages, however taking the primary leap is the toughest half.

From securing buy-in to managing change, they share some key classes that contributed to their transformation’s success.

Earlier than embarking on a world undertaking, measuring current inefficiencies and setting clear benchmarks is crucial. Key metrics—akin to time-to-insight and discount in guide processes—assist display worth to stakeholders and monitor progress over time.

For instance, one firm aimed to create a 360-degree view of HCPs throughout medical, industrial, and medical groups. Unified knowledge allowed them to create this view 90% quicker than beforehand potential, enabling groups to entry all HCP interactions on a single display screen, considerably enhancing time-to-insight.

One other firm has reworked buyer engagement pace, decreasing processes like including new clients, capturing consent, and digital engagement from 3–5 days to mere minutes. Equally, additionally they simplified knowledge provisioning. Earlier than, subscribing to new buyer knowledge took round 3-4 months, and concerned each enterprise and IT. A unified knowledge mannequin enabled a quicker turnaround time for brand new knowledge,

Tying tasks to measurable outcomes—akin to agility, accuracy, and value financial savings—ensures stakeholder buy-in and alignment with firm targets.

Though technical challenges in knowledge harmonization are important, the most important hurdle is usually navigating resistance to alter.

Some corporations prioritized change administration, recognizing {that a} shift to a single world knowledge mannequin meant remodeling established native processes. “We’re altering from a number of completely different suppliers to a brand new means of working, so we wanted a change administration course of that took our clients, customers, and stakeholders via that journey,” says an information chief. Almost two years after implementation, the corporate makes use of this framework to make sure ongoing adoption and success.

Different corporations took a unique method, permitting native markets to make the ultimate name on their knowledge supplier. The rationale is that knowledge high quality and completeness are primarily native tasks, with native groups being the very best outfitted to make these judgments. As an example, understanding and managing knowledge in a market like Korea requires native experience.

A phased rollout technique is crucial for managing complexity and making certain clean adoption.

A number of main corporations have prioritized their bigger, high-impact markets first. This method supplies a structured strategy to scale the initiative. It permits organizations to refine processes and handle challenges in these preliminary markets earlier than increasing to smaller ones. Moreover, it permits smaller markets to look at and be taught from the experiences of the bigger markets, adapting their very own approaches accordingly.

Implementing world knowledge harmonization isn’t nearly expertise—it requires the right organizational construction and processes to assist it. Corporations have needed to rethink how they deal with territory alignments, reporting buildings, and undertaking administration methodologies to make sure a clean transition.

As an example, one firm decoupled its gross sales reporting from territory alignments, a important shift that allowed them to maneuver away from inflexible buildings tied to their earlier knowledge supplier. Historically, many biopharmas base their CRM territory assignments and gross sales reporting on the identical “brick-based” mannequin, which creates dependencies that hinder agility. By separating these components, the corporate gained extra flexibility in managing gross sales knowledge with out disrupting subject operations. Many within the business notice that gross sales reporting and CRM territories are sometimes equally aligned and decoupling them is vital to enhancing world knowledge fashions.

Equally, one other firm adjusted its method by transitioning brick-based to zip-code-based territory assignments, making certain a extra seamless integration with its new knowledge mannequin. Each corporations adopted an agile methodology, rolling out updates in structured sprints to constantly refine their knowledge processes. “Altering a buyer grasp knowledge supplier touches the guts of CRM. If gross sales reps can’t discover buyer data, they’ll’t do their jobs. That’s why structured processes and methodologies are essential for fulfillment,” in accordance with one knowledge chief. 

By defining clear buildings and workflows, organizations can stop disruptions, enhance adaptability, and make sure the long-term scalability of their knowledge harmonization efforts.

International knowledge harmonization just isn’t a one-time undertaking—it’s an ongoing course of. New rules, enterprise shifts, and operational wants will constantly evolve, requiring corporations to adapt their knowledge fashions and practices.

For instance, a brand new VAT and tax ID requirement was launched in Italy after one firm had already carried out its world knowledge mannequin. This necessitated enriching their knowledge ecosystem to accommodate the brand new regulation.

Steady collaboration with regional groups, knowledge stewards, and regulatory our bodies ensures that the info mannequin stays related and compliant over time.

The street to AI-ready knowledge

As biopharmas increase globally, knowledge complexity will solely develop, nevertheless it doesn’t need to change into a barrier. Main corporations display that organizations can future-proof their knowledge techniques to stay adaptable, environment friendly, and AI-ready with the right governance, structured processes, and an agile mindset.

By investing in harmonized, scalable knowledge fashions, corporations can cut back inefficiencies, streamline compliance, and allow real-time insights that drive extra clever decision-making. Extra importantly, constructing a robust knowledge basis immediately ensures that as new applied sciences emerge, organizations are able to leverage them, relatively than being held again by outdated techniques.

The important thing takeaway? Harmonization isn’t nearly fixing immediately’s challenges, it’s about getting ready for tomorrow’s alternatives.