TRAINING SOLUTIONSwww.indegene.com
IMPROVING ROIIN SALES REPTRAININGPROCESSES
CONTENTS
Introduction ........................................................................................................
Anatomy of Current Challenges...................................................................
The Changing Paradigm .................................................................................
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................
References............................................................................................................
1
1
3
3
7
IMPROVING ROI IN SALES REP TRAINING PROCESSES
1
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
THIS PAPER FOCUSES ON THE REAL-WORLD
CHALLENGES OF SALESFORCE TRAINING ACROSS
MULTIPLE MARKETS AS WELL AS HOW
PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES ARE GRAPPLING
WITH THEM.
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
OF THE SALES REP
TRAINING PROGRAMS
FOR A PRODUCT IS
SIMILAR IN EVERY
COUNTRY, BARRING
A FEW EXCEPTIONS.
%85
2
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
%MOST PHARMA
COMPANIES LACK A
CENTRALIZED
GLOBAL REPOSITORY
OF TRAINING
ASSETS, WHICH
NECESSITATES THE
NEED TO DEVELOP
CUSTOM TRAINING
PROGRAMS FOR
EACH COUNTRY.
3
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
%
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
A GLOBAL DIGITAL
REPOSITORY OF
ASSETS THAT IS
MANAGED AND
UPDATED
REGULARLY IS KEY
TO THE SUCCESS OF
ANY SALES TRAINING
PROCESS ACROSS
MARKETS.
4
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
ANNUALL LOSS, IN
BOTH DIRECT AND
INDIRECT COSTS,
ON INTERNAL
SALES REPS FOR A
SINGLE
MEDIUM-SIZE
PRODUCT ALONE.
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
WHEREVER FEASIBLE, UNLIMITED GLOBAL
COPYRIGHTS SHOULD BE PROCURED FOR ALL
ASSETS. THIS INCLUDES EVERY PHOTOGRAPH,
ILLUSTRATION, ANIMATION, VIDEO, ETC USED
WITHIN THE TRAINING PROGRAM.
10 MN$
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
5
USING CONTENT MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY, THE
EXERCISE OF LOCALIZATION CAN BE SIMPLIFIED SO
THAT THE ENTIRE TRANSLATED CONTENT (TEXT,
GRAPHICS, AND AUDIO) CAN SIMPLY BE “SWAPPED
IN” TO CREATE THE FINAL OUTPUT.
Global Repository (Source Files with
Unlimited Copyrights for all Assets)
Incorporationof Regional
Requirement
PIs/MarketingImperatives
Sign-o�
Sign-o�
Over the last decade, cost pressure, increased need for compliance, and evolving technology have resulted in dramatic restructuring of the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force training is no exception.
Across organizations, training and development teams are constantly evolving and developing their training and educational programs to keep pace with the changing business environment.
Increased focus on emerging markets and patented products demands scalable and replicable training models. Yet, constricted enterprise view and the limited bandwidth/focus of the senior management allow glaring inefficiencies to exist in the system.
This paper focuses on the real-world challenges of salesforce training across multiple markets as well as how pharmaceutical companies are grappling with them.
ANATOMY OF CURRENT CHALLENGES
Our discussions with the senior leadership teams of pharmaceutical companies have
uncovered some common challenges in developing and deploying sales force training programs across multiple markets.
Training managers tend to believe that training material needs to be custom developed for their local market(s). Some of the key factors that drive this belief include the view that the key marketing messages in one country are not necessarily relevant in another, the learning styles of sales reps vary significantly, medico-legal/ regulatory approval processes vary in each country, and translating and localizing content would involve more e�ort than creating new training programs.
However, data indicate that ≈80% to 85% of the sales rep training programs for a product (anatomy and physiology, disease state, product, and objection handling) is similar in every country, barring a few exceptions (competition, epidemiology statistics, treatment guidelines, and indications in certain cases). Customizing these training programs results in significant inefficiencies.
What are the shortcomings associated with the reuse of “one-time developed” globally applicable training content, with
appropriate customization and localization? The inability to access the training material across countries, lack of a centralized global repository of training assets, lack of clear documentation on copyrights of assets (images, illustrations, animations, and videos), and technological challenges are a few of such shortcomings.
We attempt to look into these factors before analyzing their impacts, which necessitates novel approaches in developing and deploying salesforce training programs across markets.
Inability to Access Training Material Across Countries
Most pharma companies lack a centralized global repository of training assets, which necessitates the need to develop custom training programs for each country. Even if such a repository exists, there is no global organizational system, which ensures that this repository is up-to-date. Moreover, there are no strong communication channels/forums to keep the local affiliates informed about such repositories.
Compliance to Copyright Laws
Recent reports on lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies for using photographs and other copyrighted material without adequate permission have put the focus back on the importance of global copyrights for all internal and external assets—training material is no exception.
Local marketing companies are either not sure of the copyright requirements of their training assets, or do not use the assets they receive from other countries because of lack of clear documentation on copyrights surrounding reuse.
This results in not only legal infringements but also in redundancy by having to recreate the same assets.
Technology Incompatibilities Across Markets
The technology used for deployment of training can sometimes be a deterrent for reuse. Even top pharma companies lack uniformity of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Some smaller markets are unable to a�ord the license fees associated with LMS, while in others, the use may be restricted to certain departments (eg, HR for Compliance training only). As a result, there are training assets with di�ering standards and technical requirements.
Di�ering levels of infrastructure (internet bandwidth, lack of company-provided computers) as well as internal skill sets (absence of LMS administrators) also hamper the rollout of uniform training content.
With the rapid proliferation of tablet devices (iOS and Android), there is an added complexity of ensuring that the content is compatible across devices, operating systems, and browsers.
Most of the major LMS still do not have native apps to support
housing the training assets and, hence, these still need to be browser-driven.
FAR REACHING IMPACTS
The redundancy and replicated e�orts not only have far reaching cost and time implications but also lead to lack of standardization that adds to the existing challenges.
Customization of training content for di�erent markets is typically a collaboration between local marketing companies and their agency partners. Lack of an integrated approach in managing global training rollouts and local affiliates working with di�erent agencies result in di�erent development standards.
In most cases, this deviation from the global standards results in custom products that pose challenges in being localized by other markets. Although there is no published research data available, Indegene estimates that all these factors result in wastage of ≈10 million USD annually, in both direct and indirect costs, on internal sales reps for a single medium-size product alone.
THE CHANGING PARADIGM
We have seen pharmaceutical companies responding to these challenges in several ways. Some have created a global repository of assets, others have developed global standards for content and technology implementation, and a few others have documented processes to store copyrights of all assets.
In our experience, bringing all these together into a cohesive strategy helps mitigate the challenges in successfully rolling out training plans across multiple markets.
Global Rollout Plan
Creating a detailed global training plan can ensure a head start in this process. All high-level details of the training (global/local budgets, format/ media to be used, schedule to develop core training and localization, consensus on the global training curriculum, abbreviated local approval process, etc), along with specifics of device availability (or planned upgrades) across the world can be brought under a single cohesive plan.
Asset Reuse
A global digital repository of assets that is managed and updated regularly is key to the success of any sales training process across markets. Such a repository catalogs and stores every asset that is generated by the global team or any affiliate across the globe, and allows for each country to access this information.
This can be achieved either within the organization or can be outsourced to an external vendor. A strong medical and compliance knowledge is an important prerequisite. The team entrusted with this responsibility should ensure that the company standards are being followed for all training assets developed by any vendor partner, and new
To summarize, planning in advance, using the right technology, deploying a digital repository of training assets that is regularly updated with training programs across the globe, ensuring copyrights of all assets, using a robust and adaptable content management system, and engaging with vendor partners
who understandthese challenges are critical for driving e�ectiveness in training programs across multiple markets.
Significant benefits include higher productivity, increased speed to market, e�ective monitoring of assets, and better training ROI.
CONCLUSION
standards be created in the absence of such standards.
Defining processes to ensure that copyright information for each component is documented in this repository and metadata information for each asset is updated are critical to success.
A ticketing system and call center capabilities to ensure that queries from every country are resolved quickly, and regular workshops or broadcasting e-mails and newsletters to educate local teams on the existing features and latest updates help in building awareness and driving usage.
Most often, vendor partners also need to be provided access to this repository so that they can reuse some of the assets in developing new training programs (eg, an MOA video developed for another country). Managing the access rights for persons within and outside the organization is also a key part of the overall responsibility.
This initiative requires organizational realignment (eg, each country will compulsorily need to publish its training material on the global repository post release), and, hence, this mandate needs to be driven from
the CEO’s office and champions will need to be identified in each country who can spearhead this initiative internally.
It is critical to define the key performance indicators for the success of such a repository and to share the performance metrics with the key stakeholders within the organization at regular intervals.
Copyrights
It is important for all affiliates to ensure that they clearly articulate the copyright status for all the training assets that they develop. Wherever feasible, unlimited global copyrights should be procured for all assets. This includes every photograph, illustration, animation, video, etc used within the training program. Where procurement of global copyrights poses challenges, other alternatives should be evaluated. If the duration of copyrights is restricted to a few years only, this needs to be called out in the metadata sheet.
The format in which the copyright information needs to be stored in the global repository should also be standardized to facilitate easy and correct usage of assets across countries.
In addition, SLAs with every vendor partner should ensure that all source files are submitted at program completion, so that other marketing companies can localize the assets independently.
Compliance to Standards
It is important to publish the global standards for training material and ensure that all regional/local partners adhere to these standards. Some pharmaceutical companies perform regular audits to ensure compliance. A small cohesive set of preferred training partners who are able to meet the global training requirements help ensure minimal investment in educating and managing multiple vendor partners.
Localization
An in-depth analysis of training programs from di�erent countries indicates that, disregarding language di�erences, ≈80% to 85% of the core content in most training material is typically similar, with the major di�erences pertaining to epidemiology and treatment guidelines. This does not take into account products
where the indications are not consistent across countries.
Most pharmaceutical companies do not sufficiently leverage this advantage. Their vendor partners do not always utilize a robust and adaptable content management system to develop training programs, and each program is custom built. As a result, the e�ort involved in localizing the content (changing the language, updating audio, sectional modification, etc) is time consuming and e�ort intensive.
As discussed earlier, this makes the exercise time, e�ort, and cost intensive and is one of the reasons why each country prefers to develop custom training. Using content management technology, the exercise of localization can be simplified so that the entire translated content (text, graphics, and audio) can simply be “swapped in” to create the final output.
To maximize benefits, it is important that this is planned early in the development process when the source content is being created.
6
Model for Localization of Training Content Across Countries
Global Rollout Plan
GlobalTeam
Periodic presentation on productivity and
absolute cost savings due to asset reuse
Development of CoreTraining Material
(Styleguide, Content,Assessments)
Key: R/LM = Regional/Local Market
R/LM-2
R/LM-3
Others
R/LM-1
LibraryServices
Translation IntoRegional
Language
SCORM Packagingand Deployment
on LMS
ProgramManagement
Accesses databases to search for existing
assets that can be repurposed
Provides ideas of repurposing/localization to
each of the regions
Works collaboratively with Sales training
teams to help them reuse assets and
create new assets
Implements/executesrepurposing/localization of
assets
7
IMPROVING ROI IN SALES REP TRAINING PROCESSES
CASE STUDY
ABOUT THE CLIENT
A top-5 pharmaceutical client was driving the mandate of maximizing the
training ROI for the global launch of their new CV product.
procured. The content was
developed using an LCMS to
facilitate easy authoring during
localization. The �nal output was
packaged in an LMS compatible
format per the latest company
standards.
Post this, the training modules
were localized for United Kingdom,
Germany, Spain, France, Belgium,
Portugal, Brazil, Latin America
(Spanish), China, and Japan. The
content, graphics, and audio of
each module were translated and
localized. During this process, the
epidemiology, product regulations,
and treatment guidelines were
updated per the local requirements
and approved through an
abbreviated MLR review process
in each country. The Indegene
in-house native medical language
experts were responsible for not
only ensuring the quality of
content but also for seamless
client communication. Also, the
training content from Spain was
leveraged for Latin America
(Spanish), and the content from
Portugal was leveraged for Brazil
(Portuguese), resulting in
additional cost savings.
On a 5-point scale (5 being “far
exceeding expectation” and 1
being “far below expectation”),
the training program scored an
average of 4 on the following
parameters for all countries.
The pharmaceutical company
involved Indegene from the
internal release of phase 3 trial
results of the product.
The launch was planned such that
the �rst region to receive
marketing approval was North
America, followed by the
European Union and Latin
America, and �nally Asia. The
global training rollout plan
included global budgets, training
curriculum (for both virtual
e-learning modules and
workshops), and timelines. While
building out the detailed plan,
the iPad compatibility
requirement for some of the
countries was discussed and
documented. Allowance was
made for a central MLR process
and local abbreviated reviews.
Virtual training modules
(revolving around disease,
treatment, product, competition,
and objection handling) and
content for live workshops were
developed in collaboration with
US training managers. The
content development process
was expedited because Indegene
was already trained on the
company MLR review guidelines.
Post content approval, training
content was developed in HTML
(rather than Flash or a native app
format) due to cross-compatibility
with iPads and PCs. Unlimited
global copyrights for each
graphic (image, illustration,
animation, and photograph) was
THE METHODOLOGY
procured. The content was
developed using an LCMS to
facilitate easy authoring during
localization. The �nal output was
packaged in an LMS compatible
format per the latest company
standards.
Post this, the training modules
were localized for United Kingdom,
Germany, Spain, France, Belgium,
Portugal, Brazil, Latin America
(Spanish), China, and Japan. The
content, graphics, and audio of
each module were translated and
localized. During this process, the
epidemiology, product regulations,
and treatment guidelines were
updated per the local requirements
and approved through an
abbreviated MLR review process
in each country. The Indegene
in-house native medical language
experts were responsible for not
only ensuring the quality of
content but also for seamless
client communication. Also, the
training content from Spain was
leveraged for Latin America
(Spanish), and the content from
Portugal was leveraged for Brazil
(Portuguese), resulting in
additional cost savings.
On a 5-point scale (5 being “far
exceeding expectation” and 1
being “far below expectation”),
the training program scored an
average of 4 on the following
parameters for all countries.
THE QUALITY PARAMETERS
Overall quality of the �nal product delivered
Number and complexity of modi�cations required
Language and content localization accuracy
Number of iterations Response timeOverall process adherence
Quality of source code and metadata supplied back to the
digital asset management system
Quality of adherence to global technical
standards
Quality of communication with
local brand teams
The pharmaceutical company
involved Indegene from the
internal release of phase 3 trial
results of the product.
The launch was planned such that
the �rst region to receive
marketing approval was North
America, followed by the
European Union and Latin
America, and �nally Asia. The
global training rollout plan
included global budgets, training
curriculum (for both virtual
e-learning modules and
workshops), and timelines. While
building out the detailed plan,
the iPad compatibility
requirement for some of the
countries was discussed and
documented. Allowance was
made for a central MLR process
and local abbreviated reviews.
Virtual training modules
(revolving around disease,
treatment, product, competition,
and objection handling) and
content for live workshops were
developed in collaboration with
US training managers. The
content development process
was expedited because Indegene
was already trained on the
company MLR review guidelines.
Post content approval, training
content was developed in HTML
(rather than Flash or a native app
format) due to cross-compatibility
with iPads and PCs. Unlimited
global copyrights for each
graphic (image, illustration,
animation, and photograph) was
8
The US training program was developed in 7 months at a cost of $650K.
The cost of localizing the training program for each marketing company
was $50K on average with a turnaround time of 3 months.
THE TIMELINES
Cost of each repurpose/translation
Resourcing costs
THE COST
Time to market
Indegene brie�ng time required
Total number of Indegene hours per course
Access to and timing of translation capabilities
Time saved by repurposing content versus developing new content
Time involvement by local brand teams to supervise execution
THE OVERALL ESTIMATED
SAVINGS FROM REUSE
AND REPURPOSE ALONE.6 MN$
Cost of initial build
9
[email protected] E W www.indegene.com +1 732 750 2901P +1 732 750 7990FIndegene, 485B Route 1 South, Suite 300, Iselin, NJ 08830.