In the contemporary digitally connected landscape, a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system serves as the foundation for effective field medical operations. Medical representatives function as a critical liaison between Key Opinion Leaders, Thought Leaders, Insurance Plan Committee members, and pharmaceutical organizations. They occupy a unique position that enables them to acquire a profound understanding of customer needs, to produce profound medical insights, and to address concerns being voiced in the marketplace.

When a medical representative arrives at a physician’s office, prepared to engage their contact, the presence of a high-quality customer relationship management (CRM) system and the data it contains can significantly influence the outcome. Inferior data, or inadequate use of their CRM system, may fail to provide timely and relevant prompts, adversely affecting communication opportunities. Given the exponential increase in data volume, organizations cannot afford to take risks; the necessity to receive and act on trusted, accurate data in real-time has become more critical than ever.

So, what does the future hold?

Engaging with medical representatives reveals that data quality issues are a significant source of frustration, frequently resulting in the premature abandonment of CRM systems. In the absence of an effectively utilized CRM that relies on accurate and reliable data, organizations find it difficult to capitalize on their interactions with customers, and to make informed, data-driven decisions. With the impending mandatory CRM migration efforts—an initiative that nearly 90% of Life Sciences organizations must undertake by 2030—organizations are advised to begin preparations now. This proactive approach can help mitigate both the complexity and cost associated with the forthcoming migration processes.

Case in point

CRM systems facilitate interactions between medical representatives and their contacts. Maintaining accurate customer information, including names, addresses, affiliations, licenses, credentials, and specialties, is essential for data integrity and effective back-office operations. When a medical representative identifies a change in a customer profile or cannot locate a customer in the CRM, they may either add a new record or request an edit, known as a Data Change Request (DCR).

DCRs must be submitted to a Master Data Management (MDM) system for reconciliation with additional data sources before acceptance into the CRM. Traditionally, the exchange of information between CRM and MDM systems has involved multiple steps and various tools, necessitating significant manual effort and approval steps. Data transmission typically requires supplementary software to extract DCR data from the CRM, reformat it for the MDM system, and upload it accordingly. The MDM consolidates data from diverse sources, including sales, claims, customer lists, laboratory data, and more, to establish “golden record” identifiers that serve as the definitive source of truth for each customer. DCRs are compared against these “golden records” through validation checks to match, merge, and update data based on predefined business rules. However, some requested changes remain unresolvable according to these business rules, resulting in “gray” records that require manual review and approval from Data Stewards. When intervention is needed, Data Stewards conduct manual desktop research to determine if DCRs should be accepted or rejected, followed by necessary updates in the MDM system to ensure that changes are reflected in the CRM for use by medical representatives. Additionally, when address changes are requested, further impact on additional stakeholders could occur, potentially impacting incentive compensation for non-medical team members, so a separate and additional round of approvals by Sales Managers may be required. This process has historically been complex and prone to recurring errors, resulting in inefficiencies, frustration, and high failure rates.

The Solution

By strategically selecting tools and partners that offer prebuilt integrations between CRM systems and MDM solutions, organizations can significantly reduce the complexity associated with ensuring the integrity of customer data. Bridgeview identified this necessity, has great experience configuring DCR setup between CRM and MDM where MDM systems offer direct integration with CRM (Veeva network), also developed the DCR Accelerator (integration solution) for MDM systems which do not support direct integration with CRM (like Reltio, Informatica cloud), these options facilitate seamless integration between all prevalent Life Sciences CRM platforms, MDM platforms, as well as various customer data source providers, such as Veeva, IQVIA, and MedPro. The DCR configuration and DCR Accelerator functions by capturing DCRs from the CRM and transmitting them to the associated MDM solution in near real-time.

The MDM system then executes its automated processes and notifies Data Stewards regarding any task assignments. If address changes impact incentive compensation, a separate series of approvals is triggered by an automated workflow task assignment engine to garner the necessary adjudication via the CRM user interface. Once all DCRs have been addressed, the approved and updated information is efficiently routed back to the CRM system, accompanied by comments from the Data Steward, thereby informing CRM users when their requests have been fulfilled. Consequently, CRM users may have increased confidence that their DCRs are managed in a timely manner. Operations team members experience a reduction in the burden of manual monitoring and data management errors. Finally, executives can have assurance in the integrity of their data, thereby enabling them to base their decisions on sound, accurate information.

About the Author:

Somasekhar Punugoti, a seasoned Solutions Architect with over 20 years in Life Sciences IT, has guided global enterprises through complex data integration, CRM, and MDM transformations, enabling scalable commercial operations and stronger business outcomes.