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The 5 most common misbeliefs you should consider when choosing a serialization and Track and Trace solution provider.
By its definition, the brand promise is a value or experience a company’s customers can expect to receive every single time they interact with that company. But what happens when these promises are quite far from reality?
#1 THE TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHY: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Idle time. The worst word in the production. The time you are not producing any products or adding value to your business and customers.
One more time the serialization system you’ve paid pots of money is causing many troubles and the production can’t continue. You have recently sent an email to the support center of a Track and Trace solution provider that works with your business. 24 hours and no answer’ later, you are sending a more critical text. And then BINGO, a week later you finally get the reply.
Does this sound like an experience you’ve had, or could it be something that you practice in your company?
This is not the high standard you got as a promise when signing the contract. And even more – this could harm your manufacturing effectiveness.
Living in the digital age, core qualities as trust and respect are still applicable in every aspect of our life. In fact, they matter more, and solution providers and vendors that demonstrate these values, are the ones with whom the pharmaceutical companies want to partner.
The real-time response minimizes the risk of a meaningful production disruption. Besides saving costs and time, it corresponds to the valuable relations between business partners.
# 2 THE INTERFACE: TOUCHPOINT, NOT THE PAIN POINT
When it comes to simplicity, often cited paper by Harvard psychologist George Miller is “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information.” The article refers that people can only hold 5 to 9 things in their short-term memory.
That why it’s only logical that the simpler something is, the easier it is to remember in the short term.
The software’s interface is the touchpoint where the software’s effectiveness and the user comfort are crossing.
In other words, the software interface in pharmaceutical production is important to be limited to the number of things the people working on the production line need to remember to use it efficiently and effectively. That can be facilitated by chunking information not directly related to business processes.
The user interface must be crisp, clear, and intuitive. In fact, this will simplify the process and will ensure an easier production process. Further, it will be easily understood by the newcomers in production.
#3 ALL CLIENTS ARE IMPORTANT*
*BUT LARGE CLIENTS MATTER MORE
If you are 100% sure you’re in the top 5 companies with the biggest revenue for you Track and Trace solution provider, please skip this paragraph.
But If there is an even 1 % percentage chance to not be there, for sure you have this problem.
You like to think that all clients are important… and they are. But the fact is… large clients are more important than the small clients. That is how your current serialization provider thinks.
Take the Big Brand’s typical scenario: If I lose a client that’s generating 0.3% of my revenue, I will likely weather that storm just fine. But what will happen to me if a client generating 6% of my revenue switches suppliers?
And here comes the role of prioritizing.
Don’t be a victim of this perception. It doesn’t matter how preferred the solution provider is within the industry. It’s essential for you as a pharmaceutical company to feel that you are their No. 1 client. Besides many believe the Big Track and Trace Brands are first-rate in the industry if they do not demonstrate that they care about your smooth production and trouble-free business, it doesn’t make any sense to continue working with them.
#4 LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP = ENDLESS NIGHTMARE
Sometimes long could be too long. And it’s concerning the relations between a pharmaceutical company (despite its role within the pharmaceutical industry – Manufacturer, MAH, Parallel Importer, 3PL, Wholesales) and the Track and Trace solution provider.
It’s not all roses. The Big Track and Trace Brand and your company enter a long-term contract without identifying if they are a good fit for the company. That could bring you to end up spending months in hampered data exchange among business networks, for example.
Besides, it can significantly reduce your manufacturing power and become an endless nightmare for your business.
The sticky feel with your current vendor and the 5-year contract you have signed don’t give much flexibility to the production and it is the main point to consider when seeking your perfect match for your serialization needs.
#5 “WE WILL GIVE YOU THE WORLD”
OH, REALLY! WOULD YOU?
Have you been in a situation in which the sales representative promises you to obtain everything you imagine by implementing their track and trace solution? Did he try to understand the purpose of the serialization solution you asked for? Or even to advise you is that really your cup of tea?
Sometimes the Big Track and Trace Brands get stuck in their own trap of promises for customization and full adaptation to the existing processes. In the light of their business capabilities and greatly spread network, the expectations are too high from the customer’s perspective. The price they should pay for a fully adapted serialization solution is not also an exception. The price is not only the amount of money you pay for it. It is related to the time spent in overcoming serialization obstacles which pop up on later stage.
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
Defining these gaps and addressing them have a real reflection on SoftGroup’s approach to the potential partners.
That is why we are recognized as a reliable serialization partner by big pharma leaders with many production lines to small MAH with no real production.
We are not going to convince you with words.
LET US CONVINCE YOU WITH ACTIONS. CHALLENGE US.
