May 4, 2015 | Brandon Underwood Using Big Data Technologies to Drive the Evolution of Collaborative Channel Management As IntegriChain looks to the future evolution of its product development to build a collaborative, data driven healthcare channel, new big data technologies are constantly analyzed and evaluated to create a modern data architecture. Read More
April 14, 2015 | Kevin Leininger Insights from Phorum Philadelphia 2015: Using Big Data to Improve the Customer Experience The cost and quality of healthcare impacts each and every one of us. Big data is playing an increasing role in making healthcare more data driven, thereby reducing costs and improving execution in the healthcare channel. Read More Tags: big data, channel collaboration, Distribution Agreement Scorecarding, Forecast Accuracy
April 8, 2015 | Dave Weiss Best Practices for Next-Generation Distribution Contract Automation Whether you are a small, medium, or large company, the amount you invest in the channel is significant. Regardless of your size, however, there are ways to equalize the distribution battlefield. A key is to get access to your channel data and put it to use to drive business value. Read More
April 6, 2015 | Josh Halpern We’re Back! The IntegriChain Blog Is Relaunched and New Website Is All Systems Go The IntegriChain blog is back and alive and well. With the launch of our new website, we are relaunching our blog as well with the promise to continue to provide regular data-driven insights for building the healthcare channel. Check back in the next couple of days as we dive deeper into best practices for next-generation distribution contract automation by subject-matter expert Dave Weiss, and as we announce the keynote of the IntegriChain User Conference scheduled for this fall. Read More
June 3, 2014 | Brandon Underwood Dr. Adam Fein to Keynote IntegriChain’s 6th Annual Innovation Summit The IntegriChain team is very excited to announce that Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., will be the keynote at this year's IntegriChain Innovation Summit, being held September 8th - September 10th at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA! As the keynote speaker, Dr. Fein will be the cherry on top of our content-rich agenda. Dr. Fein is the President of Pembroke Consulting and CEO of Drug Channels Institute and is one of the country's foremost experts on pharmaceutical economics and the drug distribution system. Top manufacturers call on Dr. Fein's insights and judgement to create successful commercial strategies and make better strategic decisions in the evolving healthcare environment. Dr. Fein excels at unlocking and explaining complex business and economics issues with humor and an accessible, straightforward style, and has thus become a popular and authoritative figure in the industry. Read More Tags: 2014 DNA Innovation Summit
April 29, 2014 | Jason Bogroff Guest Blog Post: Jason Bogroff of Blue Fin Group on Specialty Data The IntegriChain team will be attending the Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit & Expo next week in Las Vegas, NV. With specialty pharmacy at the forefront of our minds, we have asked Jason Bogroff, Principal Consultant at Blue Fin Group, to share with us his insights into specialty pharmacy, including emerging pharmacy models and implications of specialty data. Jason is a sought after expert in translating technical complexity and ambiguity into innovative tactics and executable plans. He is recognized for his creative excellence in applying his combination of business and technical acumen to client needs that span the breadth of Healthcare commerce. Blue Fin Group clients have mined significant value as Jason applies his outstanding project management skills and deep methodology understanding across the areas of channel and customer operations, forecasting, planning and replenishment, channel data and analytics, enterprise technology, logistics and engineering, product and service design and development, and business process design and optimization. Read More Tags: Specialty Pharmacy
April 22, 2014 | Brandon Underwood A Product Manager’s Thoughts on Customer Experience & Relationships I was reading Supply & Demand Chain Executive today and came across an article from Bruce Temkin entitled, "2014 is the Year of Empathy." The article caught my eye because I was just talking with a colleague the other day discussing an article stating that compassion was one of the biggest tools that an organization can use to increase employee satisfaction. As a Product Manager, there is nothing more important in my job than understanding how other people think, act, and feel. To my delight, I opened up the article and found that it was all about customer experience. Read More Tags: Customer Relationships, Product Management
April 15, 2014 | Brandon Underwood Join us on May 14th for Our Free Webinar: Benchmark Findings for Pharmaceutical Channel, Inventory & Service Level Trends Every year, IntegriChain releases benchmark data on pharmaceutical channel, inventory and service level trends. This April, IntegriChain will be releasing our latest version of the Benchmark Study on Pharmacy Stocking & Inventory Trends in Wholesale & Retail, with data going through Q4 2013. To officially unveil the results of this study, our team of subject matter experts will be hosting a FREE webinar: Benchmark Findings for Pharmaceutical Channel, Inventory & Service Level Trends on Wednesday, May 14th from 1pm to 2pm EST. Read More Tags: 2014 Benchmark Study Webinar
April 8, 2014 | Brandon Underwood Empty Shelves – Amazon’s Best Friend The other day on my lunch break I popped into a national cosmetic retailer well known and much loved by many women for its seemingly endless rows of shelves displaying little tubes and vials of potions that promise youth and attractiveness. For many shoppers this beauty oasis elicits full sensory overload ultimately culminating in more than one impulse purchase. Despite the fact that at first glance the shelves usually appear full of products, I have more than once walked away empty-handed due to that item being out of stock, and this particular trip was no exception. Sure enough, after the beauty consultant made her pitch and recommended a high-end eye primer (by the label Dior no less), imagine her embarrassment and my disappointment when we discovered that the product was actually out of stock. She checked multiple hidden drawers hunting for a stray potted primer - all without luck. And so I was faced with a choice. I could get an alternative product, or I could go online and order it on Amazon for less moeny and with free shipping (thank you, Amazon Prime!). Read More Tags: Out of Stocks
April 1, 2014 | Josh Halpern Can Pharma Do VMI or CPFR Over the past fifteen years, concepts like Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) have become commonplace in many verticals. But propose VMI or CPFR at a Life Sciences channel management brainstorming session and you will get some interesting looks. The order management/supply chain folks in the room chuckle. Trade shakes its head from side to side, as if to say, "Not in my lifetime..." Pretty much everyone else wonders what VMI and CPFR mean. So I'll ask the provocative question - why not VMI and/or CPFR in Life Sciences? Life Science companies sell through demand networks, just like the many consumer product companies who have made VMI and CPFR well-honed business processes. In this post, I'd like to examine what I think the reason is - and ask whether the logic still applies. Read More Tags: Channel Management, CPFR, Life Sciences, Pay for Performance, Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI)
