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Follow UsMUMBAI, INDIA: When an enterprise incorporates the ethos - 'Pursuit of Innovation' as part of its culture, the
CMN: How has the year been?
Venkat Iyer: If you look—as a company, we have retained our standing in the industry. We are in the top ten and continue to remain in the top 10. We have brought in patented products in the market and I think we are the first company to introduce patented products in the country after the patent regime. Lots of work in introducing new products in the market and in the longer run--I see this as a step towards the reduction in competition from the generic players.
CMN: If one compares the IT (Information Technology) adoption of pharma industry vis-à-vis other industries namely the automotive industry—it has been very low. How has this changed over the years?VI:: I think the supply chain itself is not IT enabled. If I were to talk on the Indian automotive industry—take the case of the top three players Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto and TVS motors—all these companies have an end-to-end connectivity. The suppliers are connected and the dealers are connected. Also, the top three players constitute about 90 per cent market share while the scenario in the Indian pharma industry is different and is highly fragmented. And because it is so fragmented---—the top 10 would add to less than 30 per cent!
CMN: What happens when such is the case?
VI: See, there are more than 20,000 manufacturers in the country and in motorcycles—you can count on your numbers. and that’s the difference…the stockists are still not connected—they may have systems, they may have computers etc…but you don’t have the end to end visibility-and the supply chain is very long….600000 chemists and more than 20,000 stockists across the nation!
CMN: With such numbers running, how do you monitor it?
VI: Its still not a perfect science and we get data from IMS ORG. Also, we go and randomly check of how the product is performing in the market but it’s a still highly manual process and we hope that next 3-4 years with retail players coming in and changes happening at a rapid …this scenario would change too!
CMN: How do you view investments in every year fiscal? If there is a sudden expenditure that comes up, what is being done?
VI: See, there is a planning that always takes place. You can’t do it, if you don’t plan for it. If it’s a small investment, then we go ahead with it. But if you are making a huge investment such as an ERP implementation, then a lot of planning is involved.
CMN: With dollar prices coming down this year, do you think this is the right time for companies to purchase IT products?
VI: See, more and more multinationals like us are getting into a stage where pricing is based centrally. So we don’t always get the pricing benefit as most of our servers are consolidated either in Singapore or in the United States. So, we may not have too many investments on hardware. Everything from the laptops to business intelligence is getting centralized.
CMN: Mention the critical usage of any three of your major IT implementations over the last fiscal and define their benefits?
VI: Three would be too many! We have been doing a major work on a sales management tool. A company like us would have over 1000 people on the field and it’s important for us to know what they are doing. The way our business works is different. We are working in an environment where the output is crucial. Doctors are our end customers and the sales representative needs to know whom to meet and the output from the discussion. Not just meet 10 people and then go home.
This project is termed the -Efficiency and effectiveness project where we started mapping doctors closely! We questioned--are we in a position to educate him (doctors)? Does the doctor know our products, what is his level of knowledge on Pfizer? Based on this, we start upgrading or downgrading them and this system would generate what is his need—if he needs more information and who should meet him/her etc…
CMN: What was the rationale behind starting this system?
VI: See, things have to be focused today. The sales representative gets hardly 2-3 minutes with the doctor and you need to showcase your offerings and we are at a disadvantage as so many pharma representatives would be meeting the same doctor and when you are given only 2 minutes to speak—what do you speak and convey! All these things are collected and that information needs to be available to both sides!
Also, we are working closely with KOLs (Key opinion leaders). They are the doctors who are very eminent and many identify with their opinions. We work closely with them—sort of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) —to communicate our company products!
CMN: Could you give us the areas where Pfizer outsourced part of its IT implementation needs?
VI: Again, as I mentioned earlier—these things are done centrally. HP (Hewlett Packard) manages things on a global level and here we have 4-5 people in the IT department. With HP or IBM we work globally and other than personal computers and laptops there are no servers in the building. No worries of down-timing, virus attacks etc…
CMN: As a CIO, what are your expectations from the vendors’ next fiscal?
VI: Being a global player, we have engagements on a global scale. We are working with IBM and HP on a global level and I feel they would have to adhere to global norms and commitments and everything is tracked accordingly.
CMN: Could you name technologies that would be your top priority in 2008?
VI: Going forward, we would want to have products which would ensure that it’s not counterfeited. This means that people cannot copy that. We should have products, packaging and technology that would track the product till the end. In fact we have a product that has a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag on it. This is done so that you don’t want inferior or duplicate product to reach the customer and it keeps the customer informed.
The other area would be on hand held devices with prices coming down in India. These devices would go in a long way in aiding the day to day activity of the sales rep---he would show a video of an effect of a drug and the communication is more audio visual in the future to the doctor or the customer. The audio visual are more appealing and effective than other mediums!