Zuellig Pharma Uses Tableau To Make Healthcare More Accessible

Zuellig Pharma is one of the largest healthcare services groups in Asia and provides world-class distribution, digital, and commercial services to support the growing healthcare needs of the region. In the last 100 years, the company has grown to serve over 350,000 medical facilities and covers 13 markets with over 12,000 employees.

Within Zuellig Pharma is the Digital and Data Solutions team focused on delivering transformational solutions to make healthcare more accessible. With Tableau, the team has been able to provide the company and its customers with actionable insights to better manage supply chain processes, improve patient engagement, and respond to healthcare challenges such as COVID-19.

Turning insight into innovation 

While Zuellig Pharma may be an established company, it approaches digital and data with a nimble attitude, cultivating a focus on data analytics combined with actionable insights and technology such as blockchain. This allows it to develop timely solutions such as eZVax, a vaccine management solution that’s facilitated delivery of over two million COVID-19 vaccinations.

“We will be looking at a very different healthcare landscape in the next five to ten years, and data and digital will be at the forefront. Key to adding value and addressing the pain points in the industry will be the ability to take the wealth of data generated daily, identify what’s important, and apply those insights to optimize solutions and create new ones,” said Daniel Laverick, Vice President and Head of Digital and Data Solutions, Zuellig Pharma.

One way Tableau supports Zuellig Pharma’s mission is by powering ZiP Suite, a real-time data depository offering insights on inventory, pricing, prescriptions and more. The company shares these insights with pharmaceutical customers to help them improve patient engagement and adherence and price their products more competitively.

In addition, Tableau as a tool for guided call scripts has helped improve sales force engagement. In one example, as many as 70% of clients followed up on purchase recommendations and call durations between sales reps and customers doubled, leading to the eventual purchase of goods.

“One of the benefits we’ve experienced using Tableau is the ease and ability to unlock actionable insights. We’re also seeing more of our customers coming to us with different pain points and wanting to co-create solutions. Tableau supports that process by making it easy to visualize the data we need,” said Laverick.

Promoting a data culture

Zuellig Pharma encourages all employees to sharpen their skills and remain relevant by keeping training a key focus. The business has also pivoted to an Agile way of working and within the Digital and Data Solutions team, there are daily standups to refine the way they manage data.

“I personally empower my team to push boundaries and to not be afraid to try new things. Communication is key and if something isn’t working, we learn from it and move on to the next solution,” said Laverick.

The team is also helping equip the future workforce with data skills. In partnership with Singapore universities and other educational institutions, Zuellig Pharma has delivered training programmes in which it works with students to solve real-world problems using Tableau visualisations.

Asked to share the vision for Zuellig Pharma’s data journey, Laverick shared the team’s focus on building an integrated digital platform that serves as a single source of truth for customers’ growing needs across the region.

“Trying to collect, connect and understand data in its multiple forms will continue to drive the business. Whether it’s AI, analytics, or the metaverse, there’s a growing demand for data analytics, which continues to be a key engine to drive future innovations across the Digital & Data team,” said Laverick.