Smarter marketing insights for the pharma industry

The client

A globally diversified healthcare company with a central purpose to help people live their healthiest possible lives. The organization offers a broad portfolio of market-leading products that align with favourable long-term healthcare trends in both developed and developing markets. With more than 115 000 employees and 4000+ FLMs in 160+ countries discovering new ways to make life better.

The challenge

In today’s data-driven business landscape, the ability to consolidate and analyze marketing interactions across multiple channels and regions is critical for strategic decision-making. Our client faced a similar challenge, needing to unify and consolidate a vast array of marketing activities across multiple countries and channels.

The company communicates exclusively with healthcare professionals (HCPs) through channels such as email campaigns, SMS messages, and in-person meetings, generating a vast amount of interaction data every day. Each activity carries a cost, must demonstrate measurable value, and ultimately needs to be comparable across markets.

To ensure consistent and effective marketing reporting, several key requirements were defined:

• Unified dashboard that merges the two existing Power BI dashboards into one, presenting marketing activities across all countries in a consistent and standardized format.
• Robust foundation for future expansion, enabling the addition of new communication channels such as SMS and WhatsApp messages.
• Standardized KPI definitions and calculation methodologies to ensure comparability and analytical integrity.
• Removing underused views based on their actual value.
• New dashboard views requested by marketing personnel to better support evolving operational needs.

The solution

The project focused on transforming fragmented reporting into a single, future-ready analytics platform. Our goal was twofold: to consolidate existing fragmented reports into a unified, standardized dashboard and to enhance them with new capabilities driven by evolving business needs. Our approach balanced careful clean-up with forward-looking improvements. As a result, we ensured that the solution not only addresses immediate issues but also creates a scalable foundation for future growth.

Data consolidation and standardization

The primary objective was to establish a single source of truth that replaced fragmented reporting with one coherent view of marketing performance. Marketing teams across 160+ countries gained access to unified dashboards, with KPIs defined consistently and data models aligned. Key improvements included:

• Standardized KPIs and calculation methods, ensuring consistency and comparability across dashboards.
• Unified data model, redesigned for clarity, performance, and the removal of technical debt.
• Consistent naming conventions, applied across KPIs, tables, charts, and axes.
• Integration of additional data, linking marketing actions to specific products and brands for deeper analysis.
• Data insights such as the number of emails sent per country, per period, available for each marketing campaign.

This shift allowed decision-makers to focus on data insights rather than reconciling discrepancies. By doing so, we significantly improved the speed and confidence of daily operations. Beyond technical consolidation, the streamlined setup brought measurable business impact. Teams could now compare campaign results across countries without questioning the validity of metrics, enabling fair performance benchmarking and more effective resource allocation.

Finally, comprehensive user acceptance testing was conducted, involving over 200 test cases across multiple markets. This process ensured that the new solution was fully aligned with the way marketing teams work. As a result, trust in data increased substantially. Dashboards were no longer a source of confusion but a reliable foundation for strategy and execution.

Actionable insights and future scalability

Building on the consolidated foundation, we expanded the dashboard with new views and metrics that provided marketing teams with deeper, more actionable insights. Instead of static reporting, the solution now supports ongoing evaluation of campaign effectiveness. Consequently, the organization can adjust its strategies in real-time.

Key enhancements included the creation of two entirely new Power BI views:

• TOP 15 Summary – highlights the top 15 countries in terms of unique customers (HCPs) reached through various marketing actions, including direct meetings and digital communication channels. The information is displayed both globally and on a per-country basis, providing a clear comparison of market reach.
• Content Performance – provides detailed insights into the performance of individual digital marketing campaigns. Metrics include the number of messages sent (emails and SMS), email open rates, and other key indicators. Such improvement enables the business to assess campaign effectiveness and pinpoint areas for improvement.

These improvements not only provided richer analysis but also ensured the dashboard remains scalable. As the business expands into new markets and channels, the solution can grow with it. Consequently, it eliminates the need for rework or duplication. For leadership, this means a long-term tool that not only reflects current performance but also evolves alongside strategic priorities.

To reach our goal, we used the following tech stack:

• Power BI
• DWH
• Amazon Redshift
• AWS Glue