09 Aug 11

Opportunity knocks for the pharmaceutical industry

Economic times remain less than bullish and pharmaceutical companies teeter on the edge of the ‘patent cliff’ as a slew of best-selling drug patents expire in 2011/12.

EvaluatePharma’s World Preview 2016 forecasts an estimated $ 250 billion in pharmaceutical sales at risk between now and 2015.

Company acquisitions and price increases combine with hopeful reliance on profit potential for the next blockbuster drug, as antidotes to the gloomy forecast.  The silver lining to this cloud though, is that for the first time the pharmaceutical industry has reason to examine business process and re-engineer for a leaner, more productive future.

Options include setting up onshore or offshore shared service centres for order to cash and procure to pay functions, outsourcing back office processes to a third party specialist or a combination of the two. 

An increasing trend is to outsource to a low cost, low maintenance software-as-a-service provider.  This allows companies to pay for what they use without any worry about the residual costs of up or down-scaling. 

Selecting the right partner is crucial; providers must meet the highest standards for security, technology, technical and business expertise.   The most efficient and technically advanced SaaS companies - and only the most efficient and technically advanced - offer an ROI of within six months and deliver the complete automation of all b2b messaging throughout the supply chain for every member - irrespective of their own technological landscape.

Most importantly, decisions taken today won't hamstring the business of tomorrow.  The SaaS route gives business a refreshing command over technology.   Partial or hybrid outsourcing to a specialist SaaS partner - of a size and scale that suits the pragmatic - can be expanded to a full-blown shared service centre once proven to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve efficiency.

The next blockbusters will come; in the meantime good housekeeping could double the upside when they do.

 

 

 

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