Multinational Pharmaceutical Company Streamlines Drug Portfolio Workflow Processes

Earley Information Science (EIS) collaborated with a multinational pharmaceutical company to address inefficiencies in their workflow processes for evaluating new drug portfolios. The company's existing system relied on out-of-the-box (OOTB) solutions lacking searchability and integration capabilities, leading to manual duplication of efforts and disjointed data maintenance across multiple spreadsheets. These disparate data sources resulted in inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and prolonged reconciliation times for the Maintenance Team. Furthermore, loose taxonomies exacerbated the issue, requiring additional time to reconcile data. EIS aimed to streamline the process by consolidating data sources into a single location and improving user experience through enhanced searchability and document presentation, thereby mitigating the need for executives to navigate entire PDF documents for specific information.

EIS tackled the challenges faced by the Company through a systematic approach, starting with the identification of use cases to understand user interactions with the new application. With involvement from executives, the Maintenance Team, and Drug Development Teams (DDTs), hundreds of use cases were refined to around 150, guiding solution development. EIS collaborated with the Maintenance Team to establish a robust information architecture, refining taxonomies, and metadata strategies to ensure consistency and enhance searchability. Through controlled vocabularies and synonym implementation, discrepancies were minimized, aiding content discoverability and simplifying content remediation.

In parallel, EIS worked with a UI Design Team to develop wireframes for a redesigned application, focusing on improving searchability and document presentation for executives reviewing portfolios. To align with these designs, EIS assessed current content practices and collaborated with the Maintenance Team to create submission templates ensuring proper parsing of PDFs into display components. Leveraging Microsoft PowerApps and SharePoint, EIS developed a customized portfolio evaluation application, providing familiarity for users and simplifying data management for the Maintenance Team. SharePoint's capabilities facilitated centralized information storage, tracking portfolio lifecycles, and applying consistent taxonomies, enhancing search and navigation functionalities.

EIS's solution addressed security concerns by allowing the Maintenance Team to configure access controls, safeguarding sensitive portfolio submissions. By consolidating portfolio workflow processes into a unified system, EIS eliminated reliance on external storage systems and the manual upkeep of multiple spreadsheets. Document linking to portfolio profiles and a componentized view enhanced clarity and efficiency in document presentation, culminating in a streamlined and integrated solution for the Company's portfolio evaluation needs.

The introduction of the new portfolio process and application garnered positive feedback from stakeholders, notably executives who praised the componentized view for its ease of navigation within portfolio submissions. Enhanced searchability and navigation features alleviated the previous challenge of locating specific documents, resulting in improved user experience. EIS's implementation of a comprehensive information architecture streamlined data management by consolidating multiple spreadsheets into a single library, reducing maintenance efforts, and empowering the Maintenance Team with greater control over taxonomies. The integration of multiple spreadsheets into a unified platform enabled additional features such as multi-calendar views and metadata retrieval, fulfilling stakeholders' expectations. Through the implementation of security access groups, EIS ensured the protection of sensitive information while granting the Maintenance Team enhanced control over access privileges. Overall, the new portfolio application effectively addressed the Company's needs by minimizing manual tasks, enhancing user experience, and safeguarding sensitive data.