INDUSTRY:

Pharmaceutical

SERVICES:

Specialty Distribution

COMPANY SIZE:

76,000+ Employees

OPERATING BUDGET:

$198.5 billion (2017)

HEADQUARTERS:

San Francisco, CA

PROJECT OUTCOME:

• Significant increase in process flow & production
• User-friendly application that provides vital decision support data in real-time
• Phoenix is an application that is currently used across every Business Unit within the Gererics team

OUR CLIENT’S CHALLENGE

McKesson utilized a variety of stand-alone applications and off-system tools to accomplish both buy-side and sell-side price-setting and pricing implementation for the 5000+ Generics items across their OneStop Generics programs. The dispersal of activities across multiple platforms resulted in disrupted work flow, a lack of visibility between business units, and expensive data discrepancies.

McKesson partnered with Ten2Eleven to develop business processes and to design and implement an application to support all key Generics pricing activities for this $4BB/year line of business.

TEN2ELEVEN’S APPROACH

Ten2Eleven designed and implemented an enterprise-wide application – Phoenix – that provides pricing functionality for all business units within Generics. Phoenix grants all users access to real-time data, improving throughput, accuracy, and internal and external stakeholder satisfaction.

Phase 1 – Requirements and Design: Working closely with the Generics Senior Management teams, Ten2Eleven elicited detailed requirements and developed a design vision which included a canonical data model, interfaces with SAP, workflow conventions, and user roles, along with a phasing plan to implement business capabilities at a pace which McKesson business users could accommodate.

The application abstracts away multiple underlying data sources (SAP, Oracle, DB2, and vendor-sourced files) so that Generics Pricing staff can focus on the relevant pricing and product information.

Phase 2 –Development and Deployment: Based on the approved design, Ten2Eleven’s architects and developers implemented five discreet pricing modules, using an agile methodology. Between each sprint, a selected team of business users conducted User Acceptance Testing and became familiarized with the new application, serving as power-users and adoption champions for the broader user base. Utilizing this project management and development strategy not only ensured timely completion but also provided users with a short feedback loop and improved overall adoption.

Phase 3 – Production Release: Ten2Eleven deployed each Phoenix module into production, following a detailed plan for data migration, cutover of in-flight transactions, and sunsetting of obsolete standalone systems and spreadsheets.

THE SOLUTION

Ten2Eleven built Phoenix, an application that:

• Normalizes and abstracts several data sources so that Pricing Analysts can focus on optimizing and implementing price changes
• Incorporates proprietary pricing algorithms and calculates rebates, custom formularies, and both buy-side and sell-side price components