How Dashboards Can Drive Deeper Insights

‘Insights’ runs the risk of becoming a massively overused word in the pharma space, having become one of the go-to expressions around any consultancy, marketing, advertising or in fact any businesses boardroom table. An insight can only be drawn if the data from which it was gleaned is accurate, specific, sufficient in volume and digestible. In the pharma industry this has typically been a challenge – which is why the power of the ‘dashboard’ is an important topic.

What do we know about dashboards?

We’re all familiar with dashboards – but in most cases will take their usefulness for granted. Even the most basic of automotive dashboards pulls together data from a number of different sources, such as the fuel tank gauge, mechanical speedometer, radio etc. This dashboard automatically generates insights for the driver such as how many miles we are likely to be able to continue driving until needing to refuel. 

This combination of two accurate metrics to create an ‘insight’ is a simple, but powerful example of how we are all able to make smarter, more informed decisions on a daily basis as a result of a dashboard.

Regardless of the sector, space, input or output, ultimately that is what we are all looking to achieve. In pharma, the technology exists, the next step is the education as to how they can be utilised to drive purposeful, data-led business decisions.

Dashboards in Veeva

There are any number of dashboard providers and solutions out there which all do a pretty good job, the real challenge, and value comes in how well you integrate them with your data sources and ideally your CRM and CLM solutions. In pharma that really only means one thing these days…Veeva. The good news is Veeva already offers a simple, effective and highly customisable dashboard solution, Veeva CRM MyInsights. You can read our guide to getting more from Veeva CRM MyInsights here.

Like any dashboard, the outputs are only as strong as the inputs. In our previous guide, we focused primarily on how medical sales reps out in the field could benefit from having a customisable dashboard of information to hand during a presentation. Opening up data that would previously have been trapped in hefty business intelligence tools or (God forbid) spreadsheets and enabling a sales rep to have present this in person to HCPS through a digital sales aid (DSA) has undeniable benefits when it comes to objection handling and the overall sales process.

However, equally as powerful, is the opportunity to reflect on field data that has been gathered once you’re back at the office. What fresh insights are these sales appointments generating about the motivators and habits of HCPs and how can these insights be used to increase salesforce effectiveness? Also, where dynamic and interactive edetailing solutions have been employed – can the interactions recorded within the appointments be used to better inform design and development decisions?

Essentially it’s a rhetorical question as the answer is ‘absolutely’, however only if content is created in a way that harnesses the power of Veeva analytics.

The power of customised dashboards in Veeva CRM

The ‘out the box’ dashboards in Veeva CRM can be extremely useful. You can view a number of examples in our guide to MyInsights.

Even these pre-existing dashboards can be leveraged to create additional custom insights by working with Veeva Content Partners such as the team here at twentyeightb. However, that’s just where the possibilities start, as with highly customised and interactive edetailing content, comes the opportunity to create additional custom visualizations.

  • Measure the reaction of the HCP to various messages. Test different messaging for different HCPs and gauge the aggregate reaction through a dashboard to implement a test and learn approach.
  • Gather data on the potential use of a drug. Interactive tables and charts allow for data to be collected on the needs of the HCP, that can then be fed through into data visualisations and dashboards.
  • Blended data. There is massive scope to combine data points and ensure that a visualisation is even more striking.

Wondering whether the dashboard in your mind’s eye is possible in Veeva CRM? Get in touch with our team who can provide expert consultancy, combined with Veeva-approved development skills to bring your data visualisation to life.