CUSTOMER STORY

Introduction

“How did we do?” is the opening line from your customers’ farm managers every time one of your field reps completes an evaluation. “Better than last time” is what the manager wants to hear. But did the results of the previous evaluation make it to the manager with actionable insights they could apply to improve performance?

On-farm evaluations are an untapped opportunity for animal health pharmaceutical manufacturers to drive continuous product improvement and deepen their customer relationships. Evaluations can also highlight when poor performance is not product-based, but on-farm process and delivery based. This enables further opportunities to improve performance and answers the farm manager’s question constructively. Drill deeper, and the lessons can provide lessons on delivery and efficacy, even across species.     

However, this opportunity can only be exploited if evaluations are recorded and shared with the right stakeholders and decision makers. In this case study, we explain how our Evaluation Manager solution enabled an animal health industry-leader to exploit this opportunity using a data-driven solution.

Making available, and making sense of, the right data

Evaluations are standard operating procedures that should help farmers and pharmaceutical manufacturers to improve. So, if the desire to improve is already there, what is stopping manufacturers and farmers from leveraging the data?

The challenge is recording on-farm evaluations systematically, then getting the results to the right people so they can make better high-level decisions. This was what our customer – a global pharmaceutical manufacturer – faced with one of its largest customers, a production animal corporation headquartered in North America and operating across hundreds of sites globally.

The thousands of evaluations every year should help the manufacturer understand the efficacy and effectiveness of its products. These results can be used for compliance purposes and play a key role in advancing the manufacturer’s research and development initiatives to improve performance.

However, the evaluations were completed using a tool that was not fit-for-purpose, meaning the data is not captured, analyzed and distributed efficiently. This was the position our customer was in: the tool they were using did not help them make better decisions. Sure, it recorded evaluations and provided some results. But the evaluations were not configured to the needs of a specific species. They underlined this by saying:

The data was there, but it was invisible. It could not be evaluated, reported and interrogated efficiently. Something needed to change.

Enabling faster decisions through a user-centric solution.

After positive experiences of working with Proagrica in the past, the manufacturer approached us for help. They knew we had both the animal health and the technical expertise to improve their evaluation analysis and deliver added value to their customers. After explaining their challenges and objectives in late 2019, they simply asked, “could we do it better?”.

From those initial conversations, our priority became developing a solution that satisfied both the business and the end-user needs – or else it would either be misused or underused. To achieve this, we chaired small focus group meetings with different users and stakeholders to understand the specific pain points associated with the previous tool and how they could be fixed.

The application was built iteratively over the following eight months through development sprints. This way of working meant the minimum valuable product (MVP) could be delivered faster. It enabled us to test and validate the effectiveness and usability of the application throughout the entire development process, including learning from all-important user insight. It also helped users become familiar with the core features of the solution before some of the more advanced functionality was added on an ongoing basis.

What does Evaluation Manager offer?

Evaluation Manager is an easy-to-use web solution that enables users to capture, report and interrogate species-specific evaluation data; fast. The solution’s seamless and user-centric design helps field reps collect data more efficiently and helps analysts digest and interrogate complex data more easily.   

Utilizing our Evaluation Manager tool, the manufacturer connected and unlocked the silos within their evaluations and used the data to understand how they could make better decisions about the products being used on each site. By analyzing the results of each evaluation holistically, the manufacturer can expedite the decision-making process and see greater return-on-investment from their on-farm recommendations. This will ultimately lead to greater customer loyalty and futureproof revenue streams. 

What differentiates Evaluation Manager from other software applications?

• Our solution makes it easier to collect, report and analyze data through its optimized user experience. The solutions reporting mechanism is easy-to-use and comes with sophisticated features that enable users to interrogate data in a way that suits their personal preference and departmental objectives.

• Our application saves you time by allowing you to conduct your audits flexibly. Unlike other pharmaceutical assessment tools, Evaluation Manager has been designed for use in several different on-site scenarios. This means you are not restricted by having to complete the audit in one session or in a certain order or timeframe. Instead, you have the freedom to focus in on the specific part of the evaluation that matters most to your business – and to do it whichever way you want.

• Our technology eliminates workload duplication by capturing data more efficiently. Its online and offline functionality means the application can work in even the most remote locations on-site. Don’t worry about the wasted efforts associated with lost work – all the data is cached on the application and automatically saves and syncs up to a master data set when you regain connectivity. 

Evaluation Manager turns invisible data into actionable insights. By using our tool to make faster and more comprehensive decisions, you can develop your relationships and become a trusted service-led partner to your customers.

So, in future, whenever a Farm Manager asks your team: “How did we do?”, don’t tell them. Show them.

What can Evaluation Manager do for you?

• Reduce the compliance burden by capturing all the data about your pharmaceuticals and their usage in real-time.
• Optimize product performance with research and development initiatives derived from evaluation data.
• Gain an integrated and holistic view of farm activity through current and historical data and use it to drive impactful change in line with business objectives.