The world of pharmaceuticals needs to be more actively engaged in the digital health movement, which likely represents a significant opportunity for new levels of engagement and marketing that isn’t being realized, according to a survey from Accenture.
“The pharma industry is in a period of rapid and deep change, adapting to a changing health consumer, massive advances in digital and a more dominant payer and reimbursement for outcomes environment,” the survey notes. “This is creating an urgent need and opportunity for CMOs and CIOs to collaborate to better meet new customer expectations in a digital world.”
Industry CIOs view three areas as the biggest, yet still unrealized area for potential: analytics, big data and spending on technology, according to the survey. Yet interestingly, but perhaps not surprising, 91 percent of pharma CIOs have a “strong desire” to align with the marketing side, but only 58 percent of CMOs expressed the same desire, while only 33 percent see IT as a “strategic partners.” In particular, 52 percent of CIOs view analytics as a top driver in integration; only 13 percent of the marketing execs said the same.
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The gulf with anaytics in pharma is a bigger divide than other industries like banking and retail, which have a gap of 16 percent and 19 percentage points, respectively, compared to 33 percent in pharma.
On technology spend, the marketing side has focused the bulk of its efforts on customer experience, at 54 percent, compared to 14 percent for the CIO. Meanwhile, CIOs have focused largely on mobile-enabled sales force, at 43 percent, versus 17 percent marketers. On big data, 62 percent of CIOS saw managing it as a key priority, compared to 42 percent of marketers.
That suggests the industry has a ways to go before realizing the potential of the digital health movement, according to Accenture.
“The reasons for the difference are steeped in traditional structures, cultures and sales representative-led commercial models,” said Anne O’Riordan, senior managing director of Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group.
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The two side are divided on a number of matters:
— A majority of pharmaceutical CMOs, at 54 percent, want to focus on customer experience, while just 14 percent of CIOs cited customer experience as a priority.
— Equipping a mobile-enabled sales force was cited as a priority by only 17 percent of pharmaceutical CMOs, compared to 43 percent of pharmaceutical CIOs.
— Just 13 percent of pharmaceutical CMOs said they want to invest in multichannel analytics, compared to 43 percent of pharmaceutical CIOs.
On a general level, the two sides are seemingly talking past each other – two-thirds, or 67 percent, of the CMO respondents do not view IT as a strategic partner, compared to 50 percent of CMOs surveyed in all industries, who share that view. Additionally, while 80 percent of pharmaceutical CIOs see the need for greater alignment with CMOs, just 44 percent of pharmaceutical CMOs feel that way.
CIOs and CMOs in pharma also have differing attitudes on how to make alignment work between the two functions: Nearly four out of 10 CIOs, or 38 percent, would favor co-locating IT and marketing staff, an option favored by only 13 percent of CMOs. On the flip side, nearly four out of 10 pharmaceutical CMOs, or 38 percent, said they would support creating an IT lead within the marketing function, and a marketing lead within IT, a solution that only 19 percent of pharmaceutical CIOs favored.
“We suggest key steps to closing the gap between pharma CIOs and CMOs,” O’Riordan said.
Images from Accenture.