De datapunten verbinden

"Analytics komt voort uit luisteren", zegt Karl Erickson, Vice President IT bij ICS. "Door in de loop der jaren hand in hand met fabrikanten te werken, hebben we geleerd wat echt belangrijk voor hen is - specifiek voor hun medicijnprogramma's. Onze klanten vertrouwen op onze raad en vragen vaak om onze hulp bij het samenstellen van aangepaste analyses voor hen. Het is een natuurlijke ontwikkeling in onze rol als hun zakelijke en externe logistieke partner."

Het is dat zeldzame begrip van zowel IT als het bedrijf dat ICS positioneerde als een adviseur van onschatbare waarde voor zijn fabrikantklanten. Het is niet ongebruikelijk dat de IT-experts van het bedrijf het business development-team vergezellen op klantvergaderingen om de unieke behoeften van de fabrikant te bespreken en hoe ICS Analytics daarop kan worden afgestemd. En bij elke vergadering leert het team iets nieuws, waardoor het begrip van de klant wordt ontwikkeld en de mogelijkheden van ICS Analytics worden uitgebreid.

"We geven onze productieklanten de mogelijkheid om ICS Analytics te bouwen zoals zij dat willen", zegt Cory Isom, Business Intelligence Manager bij ICS. "We hadden bijvoorbeeld klanten die wilden weten wanneer hun producten werden geleverd. Daarom hebben we een manier bedacht om toegang te krijgen tot UPS-gegevens en hebben we een Proof of Delivery (POD)-rapport gemaakt dat precies liet zien wanneer het product arriveerde en wie ervoor tekende op basis van het bestelnummer. Hoe onze klanten hun analyses ook moeten zien, wij gaan dat mogelijk maken."

It is important to note that it goes beyond tailoring analytics — it helps manufacturers uncover which data to integrate and why. For instance, by connecting chargeback data to 867 data, manufacturers can forecast chargeback costs, gain visibility into chargeback accruals, and track utilization by product and distributor. We also deliver critical analytics that allow manufacturers to identify their top customers, understand purchasing behaviors, and analyze trends by state and ZIP code. Additionally, we help clients integrate unique data points, such as invoice fees and discounts. For one client, we created a dashboard that provided a rolling inventory by week, enabling visibility into stock levels at each distributor. During this project, the team also developed functionality to analyze data by salesperson, offering insights into individual and territory-level performance.

Some of the most innovative features of our analytics have been inspired by client feedback. For example, one manufacturer requested custom alerts for key metrics and business rules to better manage customer behaviors. In one case, a manufacturer with a service-level agreement (SLA) limiting a customer’s monthly orders to 10,000 units wanted to be alerted if the limit was exceeded. The tool was programmed to notify the manufacturer and hold the order until next steps could be determined. This unique capability is possible because we serve as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for its clients, enabling real-time analytics that optimize performance and support better business decisions.

“[the tools] are designed to be proactive rather than reactive,” says Erickson. “It’s not just about gaining visibility into inventory levels and sales trending, it’s about cross-referencing them to forecast restocking needs. We deliver actionable intelligence, so when a client has inventory about to expire, they can quickly decide if they should destroy it, put it in quarantine or push it out. Or, if a client’s sales have dropped over the past few months, they can very easily determine whether the decrease is product-specific or central to a particular area, related to sales efforts or community need.”

Connecting cause and effect is the essence of analytics, and we deliver this seamlessly to clients. The company’s approach goes beyond simply showing manufacturers what has happened; it provides insights into what will happen, why it will happen, and how to respond. This tailored approach ensures that analytics meet the unique needs of each manufacturer.

Erickson illustrates this point when he says, “Many in the industry tout ‘analytics packages.’ That’s not analytics, that is a reporting package. People might brag about how good it looks, but what about the content? If it hasn’t had that human touch, that understanding of the relationship between a manufacturer and its customers, the knowledge of their unique program, then it’s just extracted data wrapped in a colorful bar chart. That’s why [we] will never have one analytics solution for our clients.”

This commitment to collaboration ensures that our analytics capabilities continue to evolve. By sharing what has worked—and what hasn’t—with its clients, we are redefining what it means to be a trusted third-party logistics partner.