Case Study: Research Insights Lead to Redesign of Pharma Business Intelligence

Challenge 

A pharmaceutical company saw fragmentation in the agriculture industry and an opportunity for technology to help farmers better manage information on their product including nutrition, environmental conditions, genetic data, and  contractual arrangements. 

An existing software product that was being used by large farmers for data collection, management and interpretation was not meeting the needs of some of the large farmers who turned to developing their own information systems. The client sought to develop a competing platform that would provide data transparency for farmers, biochemists and geneticists around the health, treatment and management of their produce.  

Approach 

The pharmaceutical company launched a beta version of their software but was disappointed with the market response and decided to develop a deeper understanding of the needs of this target audience. We were contracted to  provide the client with insights on the journey and pain points of the key players in the agro-ecosystem. 

An interview guide was developed for the customer discovery process. Many of the questions asked were open-ended and nonspecific about the business intelligence software solution. By letting the interviewees lead the conversation, they spoke more freely about their ideal solution.

Process 

Interviews were conducted with farm owners, managers, microbiologists, scientists and engineers. 

The interview data was then synthesized into key categories:  

• What they say (Quotes, Insights) 
• What they  think  
• How they feel (emotions,  pain points)  
• What they see
• What they do 

Some key findings from the interviews fell into the themes of trust and  technology:  

Trust 

• “The agricultural industry is a tight industry and farmers are all in competition.  Farmers are very reserved with regard to sharing information”
• Veterinarians, scientists and geneticists work closely together and are the most  trusted cohort in the eco-system. They can be open about their experiences but  are expected to keep the privacy of their customers “in check”
• “As a consultant you have to hold information in confidence and be extremely  judicial about the information you share” 
• Agriculture producers and processing plants often have a strained relationship.  The producers find there’s a lack of transparency on pricing in the market and it’s  hard to determine whether they are getting a fair deal  

Technology 

• There are several types of individual information systems used by farmers, labs,  microbiologists for collecting data and they are not integrated
• Many producers want someone (e.g. microbiologist) to look at the data outputs  of existing systems to interpret the data and make recommendations as the data  is not readily understood  
• “Existing business intelligence software needs to provide more useful  information about performance management to be useful to farmers” 
• Big farms are creating their own systems developed from scratch to have it exactly tailor-made to their needs” Some of the large integrated farms moved  away from the leading business intelligence (BI) software to create their own  platform because of data redundancy and other challenges. In some cases, these  large integrated farms have spent a couple of years developing their proprietary  systems  
• “One digital platform used by farmers created a problem in that it shared  information that was considered proprietary to individual farms. They stopped  using it” 
• “We want data to provide early warning notices so there can be a quick  response” 

Solution

The feedback from interviewees helped the client understand that there were  concerns around the transparency they were trying to provide around data for farmers. Farmers were concerned about the ability of others using the same platform to glean insights into their specific competitive advantages. Farmers have their own formulas relative to the genetic mix of their product, the nutrients  they provide, the environmental conditions and the use of antibiotics. The what, when and how of all of these factors collectively become a farmer’s “intellectual property” or “secret sauce” and in a competitive market with slim profit margins, this information is closely guarded. For business intelligent software to be adopted, it could not jeopardize competitors deciphering this highly protected  information. 

The farmers were frustrated with the current lack of flexibility and the redundancy of existing platforms. Data from other platforms used for lab results and etc. could not be readily integrated with the existing business intelligence platform. These findings as well as others led the client to explore new solutions that kept the farmers needs and concerns front and center, including a secure, customizable white label platform where business intelligence data could be tailored to the farmers needs.