Koble sammen datapunktene

«Analyse kommer fra å lytte», sier Karl Erickson, visepresident for IT hos ICS. «Ved å jobbe hånd i hånd med produsenter gjennom årene har vi lært hva som virkelig betyr noe for dem – spesifikt for legemiddelprogrammene deres. Våre kunder stoler på våre råd og ber ofte om vår hjelp til å kompilere tilpassede analyser for dem. Det er en naturlig progresjon i vår rolle som deres forretnings- og tredjeparts logistikkpartner.»

Det er den sjeldne forståelsen av både IT og virksomheten som posisjonerte ICS som en uvurderlig konsulent for sine produsentkunder. Det er ikke uvanlig at selskapets IT-eksperter følger forretningsutviklingsteamet på kundemøter for å diskutere produsentens unike behov og hvordan ICS Analytics kan skreddersys deretter. Og for hvert møte lærer teamet noe nytt, utvikler forståelsen av klienten og utvider mulighetene til ICS Analytics.

"Vi gir våre produksjonskunder muligheten til å bygge ICS Analytics slik de vil," sier Cory Isom, Business Intelligence Manager hos ICS. «For eksempel hadde vi kunder som ønsket å vite når produktene deres ble levert. Så vi utarbeidet en måte å få tilgang til UPS-data på og opprettet en Proof of Delivery (POD)-rapport som viste nøyaktig når produktet ankom og hvem som signerte for det basert på ordrenummeret. Uansett hvordan kundene våre trenger å se analysene sine, kommer vi til å få det til.»

It’s important to note that ICS is doing more than tailoring its analytics — it’s helping manufacturers uncover what data to integrate and why. As an example, by connecting chargeback data to 867 data, manufacturers can see when a charge back may come and forecast chargeback costs, as well as gain visibility into chargeback accruals and chargeback utilization by product and distributor. In addition to delivering critical analytics that allow manufacturers to instantaneously see their top customers, how they’re buying and in what states and ZIP codes, ICS also reveals to its clients the need to integrate wholly unique data points, such as invoice fees and discounts. For one client, ICS helped create an analytics dashboard that offered a rolling inventory by week, enabling the manufacturer to see what they had at each distributor at any given time. It was during this same client engagement that the ICS team got the idea to add functionality that would analyze data by sales person, giving manufacturers insight into how the sales team was performing at an individual level, as well as by sales territory. 

Of course, not every idea that informed the current ICS Analytics solution came from ICS. Some came from its manufacturer clients, including the idea to create custom alerts based on key metrics and business rules. One manufacturer wanted to better manage its customers’ behaviors by holding suspicious orders. Say, the manufacturer has a service-level agreement (SLA) with a customer that limits them from ordering more than 10,000 units per month. Should that customer exceed said limit, the ICS Analytics solution can be programmed to alert the manufacturer and hold the order until next steps can be agreed upon. This benefit is unique to ICS Analytics because ICS serves as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for its manufacturer clients, which also allows for the solution’s real-time capabilities — a key ingredient to optimizing performance and helping ensure better business decisions.

ICS Analytics are designed to be proactive rather than reactive,” says Isom. “It’s not just about gaining visibility into inventory levels and sales trending, it’s about crossreferencing 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. All the answers are within ICS Analytics.”

Connecting the cause and effect is the very definition of analytics and what ICS delivers to its clients so seamlessly. It’s the difference between showing manufacturers what has happened and what will happen. It’s the bridge between showing them the why and then showing them the way. Taking all that into account, one can hardly imagine an effective analytics solution that’s not tailored to meet the 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 ICS will never have one analytic solution for our clients.”

It’s also why the company will continue to closely collaborate with its manufacturer clients, sharing what has worked (and what hasn’t) to better ensure their success, evolve its analytics capabilities and redefine what it means to be a trusted third-party logistics partner.