Accenture Life Sciences
Rethink Reshape Restructure...for better patient outcomes
UCB: Innovative and Agile
Analytics Data Lab Helps
Determine Business Insights
and Value
In a fast-evolving healthcare
ecosystem, UCB wanted to use the
diverse, growing range of internal
and external data sources at its
disposal to improve patient care
and business value. It selected
Accenture to help establish
an innovative, cost-effective
analytics “Data Lab” that would
answer key business questions
and identify tangible, untapped
pockets of business value across
the company. Together, Accenture
and UCB established a strategic
council to set the long-term
analytics strategy and roadmap,
as well as guide decision-making.
The Data Lab explored six strategic
business questions, set by the strategic
council, and conducted 50-man-day
analytics “sprints” to assess the value
that could be achieved in each area. For
instance, one sprint identified new ways
to target physicians by leveraging public
data and applying advanced analytics
techniques. By using this approach, UCB
was better able to assess the potential
value before scaling the investment. Based
on the Data Lab’s success, departments
from across UCB are now submitting
new strategic business questions for
exploration in future sprints. The project
was recognized by Data News, Belgium’s
leading IT magazine, as the 2013 winner
of the “ICT Project of the Year—Large
Enterprises” award. The innovative
analytics approach has helped UCB rethink
its business and invest in programs that
will help deliver better patient outcomes,
improve customer service and drive
shareholder returns.
Overview
UCB, with headquarters in Brussels,
Belgium, is a global biopharmaceutical
company focused on transforming the
lives of people with severe diseases of the
immune system and the central nervous
system. It has operations in approximately
40 countries and reported global revenue
of $3.7 billion (€ 3.3 billion) in 2014.
Opportunity
UCB Pharma wanted to use the diverse
range of internal and external data at
its disposal to better focus on patient
needs and adapt to a changing healthcare
ecosystem. It launched an ambitious
advanced analytics program that would
help treat data as an enterprise asset
and encourage collaboration between
IT and business. The program would
require UCB to transcend the company’s
organizational boundaries to help create
an open innovation model and capture the
business value behind the growing number
of new data sources, such as real-world
evidence data and machine-to-machine
data. To turn its vision into a reality, UCB
collaborated closely with Accenture on an
innovative analytics Data Lab that helps
generate valuable business insights.
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The project was
recognized by Data
News, Belgium’s leading
IT magazine, as the
2013 winner of the “ICT
Project of the Year—Large
Enterprises” award.
Solution
Together, Accenture and UCB pursued a
cost-efficient, flexible Data Lab approach
to identify pockets of value across the
company quickly and with only a modest
initial investment. They set up a strategic
council, composed of senior UCB leaders
and Accenture analytics specialists. The
council helped define the program’s
vision and road map, conduct innovation
workshops, and guide the analytics
organization and IT architecture decisions.
With the council, UCB could tap into
Accenture analytics thought leadership,
innovation and specialist capabilities
throughout its analytics journey.
The Data Lab team answered key business
questions pertaining to media sentiment
toward UCB, NPS (Net Promoter Score)
measurement, sales resource allocation for
a specific brand, and raw material tracking,
among others. It explored each business
question in time-boxed, 50-man-day
“sprints.” Each “sprint” used a broad range
of internal and external data, applied
advanced analytics and reached an answer.
The approach was flexible, so each “sprint”
delivery team could redirect or fine-tune
its efforts to work with available data
sets and help achieve the best possible
business value. Data discovery and
visualization tools also helped the teams
see, in a concrete way, the business value
that could be achieved from each “sprint.”
Based on the results, UCB could then
decide whether it wanted to set up the
“sprint” as an ongoing analytics service.
The Data Lab team ran many “sprints,” often in parallel.
We have highlighted a few key business challenges
Sales & Marketing Example: How can UCB optimize resource allocation for a specific brand in the U.S. market?
The Approach: Mining a range of internal and external data sources, such as promotional activities and formulary
access data, the team segmented the full healthcare professional base using criteria like sales potential and product
access. The team then analyzed existing promotional effectiveness for each activity, such as calls and samples. From the
analysis, the team created alternative sales resource allocation scenarios to make sales representatives’ efforts more
productive, increasing revenues while lowering costs.
Outcomes: With customer segmentation and more targeted sales efforts, UCB can now better target the right doctors
in the right markets. Ultimately, UCB can better allocate sales resource investments across segments to increase brand
sales.
Business Insight Example: How can UCB better understand HCP relationships through NPS (Net Promoter Score)
and identify root causes?
The Approach: Through Natural Language Processing, the sprint team developed a multi-lingual text mining algorithm
that was able to automatically cluster textual HCP feedback into business relevant categories. In addition, advanced
statistical analyses were conducted to identify and differentiate root causes by country, disease area and HCP segment.
Outcome: The resulting insights can help UCB to increase HCP engagement and the automated process allows for
a world-wide, multi-lingual roll-out with minimal manual intervention.
Results
The agile and flexible Data Lab has helped
turn UCB’s initial analytics vision into
a tangible reality with demonstrable
insights and business value. By making
a small initial investment in a “sprint,”
UCB assessed the value that could be
achieved in each area before paying for a
larger, broader rollout. Tapping into crossfunctional internal and publicly available
external data also helped UCB bridge
strategic knowledge gaps.
As a result of the program’s success,
business leaders from across the
organization have submitted new business
questions to the Data Lab, encompassing
market access, competitive intelligence,
legal, market research and HR.
The innovative approach to assessing
analytics value has helped UCB rethink
its business to deliver better patient
outcomes, improve patient service and
drive shareholder returns.
The project has also generated broader
acclaim. It was recognized by Data News,
Belgium’s leading IT magazine, as the
winner of the “ICT Project of the Year—
Large Enterprises” award in 2013.
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About Accenture Life Sciences About Accenture
Accenture’s Life Sciences group is dedicated
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We have decades of experiences working
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