Boehringer Ingelheim: Automated and Agile Sales Planning

This video provides an in-depth testimonial from Boehringer Ingelheim regarding the successful transformation of their commercial operations, specifically focusing on sales planning and field force alignment, through the implementation of a unified technology solution. The core motivation for this initiative was the recognition that existing technology was slowing down the business rather than supporting it, stemming from a highly fragmented system landscape where individual countries operated in isolation, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of centralized control.

The adoption of Veeva Align was the central mechanism for achieving this operational overhaul, serving as the single core solution for all markets. This consolidation delivered several immediate and tremendous improvements. Firstly, the standardization of the planning process across the organization resulted in significant time savings, recovering valuable hours previously lost to managing disparate systems and manual processes. Secondly, the implementation fostered greater autonomy for local business units. Because the application is highly intuitive and robust, local teams could run the sales planning application independently, reducing their reliance on centralized IT support for day-to-day operations and maintenance.

A critical success factor highlighted was the positive impact on the field force. The solution provided a very simple and intuitive user interface for sales representatives to provide feedback on their sales plans. This ease of use was so effective that the company experienced almost zero change management resistance, a rare achievement in large-scale enterprise software rollouts. Furthermore, the technological shift addressed a major operational roadblock: the inability to conduct planning cycles frequently. Prior to the implementation, sales planning was a painful exercise avoided by many and performed only once a year.

The most strategic outcome of the implementation was the newfound agility. By automating and simplifying the planning process, Boehringer Ingelheim became capable of executing shorter, more frequent planning cycles. This agility is deemed essential, particularly in unpredictable environments like the one created by the COVID-19 pandemic, where long-term planning is unreliable. The ability to pivot quickly and adjust sales plans based on real-time market conditions moved the planning function from a static annual event to a dynamic, continuous process, ensuring the commercial organization remains responsive to evolving market demands.

Key Takeaways:

• Fragmentation as a Business Inhibitor: A highly fragmented system landscape across global markets severely slows down commercial operations, forcing local teams into isolated, inefficient planning processes and preventing enterprise-wide agility.
• Value of a Core Solution (Veeva Align): Implementing a single, centralized platform like Veeva Align for sales planning and territory alignment is crucial for achieving standardization, eliminating redundant efforts, and unlocking substantial time savings across the organization.
• Empowering Business Autonomy: The chosen technology solution must be intuitive enough to allow local business units to manage and run the application independently, thereby reducing their dependence on central IT teams and accelerating local decision-making.
• Minimizing Change Management: A simple and intuitive user interface (UI) is paramount for field force adoption; Boehringer Ingelheim achieved "almost zero" change management resistance by providing an easy way for the field force to interact with and provide feedback on their sales plans.
• Shift to Agile Planning Cycles: The primary strategic benefit is the ability to move away from a single, annual, "painful" planning exercise to shorter, more frequent cycles, which is necessary for modern market responsiveness.
• Pandemic-Driven Agility Requirement: The need for shorter planning cycles is amplified by unpredictable global events (like COVID-19), demonstrating that long-term planning is insufficient and continuous planning capabilities are a competitive necessity.
• Technology as an Enabler, Not a Roadblock: The goal of modern commercial technology implementation should be to transform historically avoided, complex processes into manageable, frequent exercises that support, rather than hinder, business objectives.
• Field Force Feedback Loop: The solution successfully integrated the field force by providing a simple mechanism for them to contribute feedback directly into the sales planning process, ensuring plans are grounded in real-world operational realities.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva Align (referred to as 'viva align'): A core Veeva Systems product used for territory and quota management, field force alignment, and sales planning within the pharmaceutical industry.

Key Concepts:

• Fragmented System Landscape: Refers to an environment where multiple, disparate, and often localized software systems are used to perform the same function (e.g., sales planning), leading to data silos, integration difficulties, and operational inefficiencies.
• Agile Sales Planning: The methodology of conducting sales planning and territory adjustments in frequent, short cycles (e.g., quarterly or monthly) rather than annually, allowing the commercial organization to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, competitive actions, or regulatory shifts.
• Field Force Autonomy: The ability of sales representatives and local commercial operations teams to manage and execute planning tasks within the application without requiring constant intervention or support from central IT or specialized technical teams.