Forrester Consulting recently conducted a survey of European pharmaceutical companies commissioned by Hexagon, analysing their priorities and challenges in digital transformation.
One of the most striking, and somewhat paradoxical, findings was that, while pharmaceutical companies are highly data-driven compared to other industries, they still face significant struggles in realising value from that data. More than 7 in 10 respondents say that production or maintenance is data-driven, and a remarkable 78% report that asset management is integrated with real-time monitoring systems.
Yet despite this digital maturity on paper, the results tell another story. Two in three respondents say that data silos hinder their organisation’s full potential. Half consider their digital transformation still in its early stages. Another half cite “collaborating and sharing data within the organisation” as one of their most pressing challenges.
If I were to interpret these findings, I’d say that pharmaceutical companies—like many others in sectors such as oil and gas or chemicals—are grappling with a familiar issue: the gap between digitisation and value from digitisation.
In my experience, the more digitally mature an organisation becomes, the harder it is for new initiatives to close that gap.
Companies starting from a lower standard of digital maturity often find it easier to identify use cases with immediate, high-impact results, as there is simply more low-hanging fruit. Replacing pen-and-paper or reducing non-value-added activity time such as administration, are examples of how value can be unlocked rapidly across the operation and management of assets.
But as organisations climb the operational maturity curve, high-value use cases become harder to identify, and it’s easier to fall into the trap of no-value digitisation.
No-value digitisation can take several forms, including these three common ones:
- Tick-the-box thinking: An initiative that delivered early success is rolled out indiscriminately to lesser-value use cases. Teams prioritise rapid deployment over actual value realisation or user feedback.
- Technology-first thinking: A shiny new tool is selected first, and teams scramble afterwards to justify its value, often without an appreciation of what success even looks like
- Organisational myopia: The organisation struggles to identify valuable opportunities. One example is maturity myopia, where teams pursue advanced capabilities or metrics that are either disconnected from business value or that simply do not have the foundational building blocks (Stakeholder engagement, optimised processes, access to valuable data) in place that would allow them to realise tangible value.
So how do businesses avoid these pitfalls and escape the spiral of no-value digitisation?
1. Start with Value
Adopt practices that help to identify value from the outset. Within Hexagon we recommend and support our clients with a value-driven approach organised into three essential pillars:
- Value Discovery: work together to Identify a transparent, defensible business case that aligns with organisational objectives.
- Value Delivery: Match the business case with the adoption of the right technology solution.
- Value Realisation: Measure and track the actual value created by the technology adopted and measure those results against the expectations created during the value discovery phase.
This approach helps to rapidly identify goals, expected benefits, and the gaps that need to be closed to achieve them.
2. Build Feedback Loops
Top-down, all-or-nothing digital transformation efforts are among the most likely to fail. Executive sponsorship and strategic direction are crucial but they shouldn’t result in digitisation by decree or backseat driving from the top.
In industrial settings especially, input and feedback from the field are critical for successful adoption. A phased approach not only promotes real-world alignment but also enables you to measure value and adjust along the way.
3. Evolve digitisation and mature at a pace that suits your organisation
Finally, invest in tools that are interoperable and built to evolve with your organisation. This is a core principle at Hexagon as we preach a ‘crawl, walk, run approach’ to meeting digitisation goals. Our products and solutions are designed with flexibility and scalability in mind, recognising that clients operate in complex environments with multiple vendors, systems and differing levels of maturity.
Value often emerges in unexpected ways. If you’re locked into a standalone solution, one that requires manual data uploads, doesn’t integrate with other systems, and only works within a closed ecosystem, you might have today’s fix, but you’re also creating tomorrow’s problems.
Article by Edgardo Moreno, CISSP, GICSP, an Executive Industry Consultant at Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division.
