Pharmacy systems analysis

Pharmacy systems analysis

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  Opportunity This Fortune 50retailer has a solid track record of delivering extraordinary customer experiences that lead to strong financial performance and create new opportunities for profitable growth. The company had reached a critical juncture with its custom developed Pharmacy Management System.Their pilot system, the culmination of four years of effort for development and rollout and an expenditure of more than $160 million, had been deployed to only about 14% of the retail chain’s in-store pharmacies.The system’s features and functionality evolved considerably during its overlong development process, yet still lacked parity with Pharmacy applications used by leading pharmacy chains. The company’s Board halted further development of the in-house solution pending an objective evaluation of its capabilities and cost. Should the company continue investing in its custom solution, or look at alternatives in the marketplace? What would be the cost and timeline to implement the chosen solution? The Board put together a combined business and IT development team and gave them three months to make these determinations. Approach The client’s Technology Services division asked WGroup to serve as an experienced, objective third party to organize and lead the evaluation process and to serve as an honest broker to help the company choose their Pharmacy Systems implementation path.Time to value was an important consideration throughout the engagement, driving an aggressive schedule of deliverables and concurrent work among interrelated tasks. Within two weeks, WGroup prepared a survey of 25 to 30 vendors that provide Pharmacy software. At the same time, WGroup consultants interviewed the client’s business and IT executives to understand their economic priorities and decision criteria. WGroup’s team narrowed the field to six vendors that had the wherewithal to support the client’s large chain of stores. Based on interviews with stakeholders and industry experience, WGroup put together a list of features and functionality the client required, created an RFP that spelled out these requirements in detail, and sent it to the pre-qualified list of prospective vendors. In this first pass of the evaluation process, WGroup helped the client score the solutions against a list of 500 requirements that clarified how each vendor’s package would support both routine and strategic business requirements, accelerate deployment, maintain compliance with complex and ever-changing pharmacy regulations, and operate within an enterprise- wide IT architecture that could be sustained going forward. Based on the vendors’ responses to the RFP and analysis aided by a scorecard created by WGroup, the evaluation team selected two vendors to participate in detailed Drive Your Business Pharmacy Systems Analysis WGroup helps Fortune 50 retailer find right prescription for its Pharmacy Management System Retail | Systems Analysis 1 WGroup collaborated with business and IT stakeholders to build and compare business scenarios to evaluate in-house and third-party Pharmacy applications to support the client’s strategic, operational, and technical objectives, which resulted in estimated savings of $80M over 5 years.
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  due diligence, thesecond pass through the evaluation process. For the client’s final vendor selection, WGroup tailored a rigorous decision model in which the client could vary decision parameters. If the focus is on cost effectiveness, which solution prevails? If the priority is time to value, which solution is optimal? If technology or features and functionality are paramount, how do the packages compare? The model allowed the evaluation team to run different scenarios based on scores attributed to different decision criteria in order to create a stable selection point. In each of these scenarios the client’s internal solution lost to the vendors’ applications.The evaluation team now had a clear and compelling business case to cease development of their custom-built solution and move to a third-party Pharmacy application. Besides developing the design principles upon which Pharmacy solutions would be evaluated and a package selected, WGroup contributed to the implementation and rollout phase of the project, devising the implementation plan and governance mechanisms. WGroup defined in detail the steering procedures, leadership requirements, team responsibilities, and decision-making hierarchies to guide the project. Insights and Advice Dispensing pharmacies are not the client’s core business. Focused, candid conversations with client executives revealed that in-store pharmacies, while an important part of the customer experience, are more of a customer convenience than a revenue generator. WGroup consultants quickly honed in on the fact that the client wasn’t seeking a Pharmacy application that could differentiate its stores in the marketplace. With no will proceed with thoroughly researched and well-defined design criteria, the right governance structure, and a clear view of the desired end-state. WGroup’s business case compared the cost of a vendor-supplied Pharmacy application to the cost of completing the client’s custom application.The cost savings, which comprise both development and run-time (support) costs, amount to $80 million over five years. The ongoing effort to keep pharmacy systems current with evolving regulations can be burdensome for custom-built systems. With a vendor package, this cost is spread over a large customer base. WGroup also estimates a gross margin improvement of about $20 million per year from new business opportunities supported by the new Pharmacy solution. need for differentiating capabilities and the extensive customization it entails, the evaluation team developed corresponding guiding principles that emphasized patient safety and regulatory compliance, rapid deployment, and efficient dispensing of drugs.The minute level of customization the client was building into its custom application was costly, time-intensive, and added little or no value to the business.This cost/benefit analysis helped steer the client toward a third-party Pharmacy application. Value Delivered WGroup helped the client work through a complex analysis and evaluation process in just a few months. The client’s commercial Pharmacy package will return value in a much shorter time than could be achieved by continuing with their internal solution development. Moreover, the new Pharmacy package’s implementation Contact Us WGroup 301 Lindenwood Drive, Suite 301 Malvern, PA 19355 610-854-2700 Copyright © 2012 WGroup. All Rights Reserved.2 008_PSAPMCS_102912 About WGroup Founded in 1995, WGroup is a boutique management consulting firm that provides Strategy, Management and Execution Services to optimize business performance, minimize cost and create value. Our consultants have years of experience, both as industry executives and trusted advisors, to help clients think through complicated and pressing challenges to drive their business forward. For more information on WGroup, visit http://thinkwgroup.com