Pharmaceuticals Case Study

1. Use Case for Orbis Mobile Platform
for the
Pharmaceutical Sector

2. Key Issues
These are some of the key issues:
 A Sales representative has a daily routine of clearly defined geographical territories, so
they have a list of customers that they need to visit. Pharma distributors face a variety
of problems in the order booking process for these customers.
o Due to intense competition, some distributors want orders to be logged into
their system immediately so that product can be delivered to the pharmacist
right away.
o In the current scenario of phone-call-based data-entry, there are high chances
that the data called in over the phone to data entry operators is error-prone and
not timely.
o Most distributors would like to cut down on the manpower cost of data entry
operators and redeploy that money in salespeople or better infrastructure.
o The time taken in the repetitive activity of booking an order in the field and then
logging them again in the office can be used more productively by salespeople in
meeting more customers.
o Predicting shelf-life and replenishment of non-perishable products becomes
difficult.
o The products themselves are of huge variety and makes tracking, particularly
those moving fast is complicated.
o The distributors see a major loss of field sales representative productivity in the
waiting time between meeting customers.
 Since inventory status is dynamic, the field sales representative does not have access to
up-to-date information unless s/he calls the office. The product list is large and runs into
thousands, so it is difficult to accommodate that amount of data on a mobile or a PDA,
for that matter.

3.  Payment collection is another major issue. In some cases, sales representatives collect
cash from the chemists but do not deposit it with the distributor for some days. In other
cases, the sales representative collects the money from chemists and disappears with
the cash collected.
 Some distributors would like a mechanism of sending payment reminders to chemists
that owe money, so collection becomes easier and more efficient.
 Since field representatives are on the field most of the time, it is difficult to inform them
of situations like bounced cheques from customers. This again causes a serious delay in
collecting payments from chemists.
Solution
 Field sales representatives can key in data from their phones whenever necessary - for
example, when they are at an outlet and need to check the inventory status in real time.
Based on that, they can give an accurate log of the orders to the system and move on to
the next outlet.
 The data received from the field is current and accurate, there is more transparency
between field force and the head office in terms of data
 Delays in the processes can now be avoided, and also have the ability to analyze the
data and act upon the same in a timely manner. This leads to improvement in the
efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of the field force with respect to response time
to market needs, and has also brings improvement in CRM activities
 Collections can be entered online and, both in cases of a cash and non-cash entry
 Time log for field sales people can be generated based on the number of times they log
in from the field (which will be at every call or at regular intervals)