Embracing challenges is our thing at Red Argyle. What energizes us are Salesforce development projects that are globally impactful.
When a global pharmaceutical company needed a unified and scalable quality management system to help get medicines to market, in true Red Argyle fashion, we said, “Let’s get started!”
Challenge: Potential Confusion and Inefficiency
Salesforce scalability was the top priority – and an ultimate challenge.
From the first claim that a molecule has therapeutic benefit, through its global marketing, teams and vendor partners rely on Salesforce as an essential quality management system to track work and comply with regulations.
Although the organization’s Salesforce footprint is large, each team – stationed worldwide – had a different way of managing oversight. As a result, each team performed similar tasks and processes differently, and all, with one exception, performed this work manually on paper. The inconsistency created a potential for confusion and inefficiency.
Solution: Customizable and Flexible Salesforce Platform
The Red Argyle team developed a customizable and flexible Salesforce platform that enabled each group in the pharma company (10 units in total) to manage their quality processes in a unified way globally.
One of the most complex undertakings to date for Red Argyle, the project encompassed:
- Initial discovery, architecture, and prototype
- Building the first production version, plus feature enhancements and development
- Project clean-up, deep documentation, and hand-off to the client team
- Industry compliance validation of the solution
- Assistance with scaling and additional team onboards
Our Approach
Our team of Argylers went into the project well-prepared; this included prep meetings, consuming documentation, and researching known challenges. Discovery was delivered quickly, with a total time from the sales process to the completed discovery of about two months. Red Argyle’s subject matter expertise enabled a successful knowledge transfer at the end of the engagement.
The scope of the Salesforce project included:
- Creation of screen flows to enhance the users’ experience and efficiency; for example, automatic field population.
- Integration of MuleSoft with seven other apps.
- Establishment of specified security customization-enabled permissions.
- Major classes of features were defined, named, and documented, along with their sub-features. (Because of this, the client can continue building and adding to each feature.)
A Validated Solution
In the highly regulated world of healthcare, the developed Salesforce tool had to go through validation. The Red Argyle team defined and ensured security and compliance with documentation, rigorous testing and procedures, and risk assessment.
Fast Turnaround
The project was delivered using the Agile methodology and ceremonies throughout its lifecycle. The relationship with the organization was collaborative, fostering rapid feedback, backlog grooming, demos, and agreement on features.
According to the client, a project of this size and scope typically takes up to four years to complete. Some never get off the ground because they’re obsolete when they finally launch. The project was finished in 18 months – beating the historic project length by 266%.
Results: Unified Teams and Data
The Red Argyle team developed a customizable and flexible Salesforce platform that enabled each group to manage their quality processes in a unified way globally.
Increased Visibility and Efficient Vendor Management
Before this project, employees had difficulty viewing work across different projects and stages and their suppliers’ work. Now, they have a global solution that gives them visibility across groups and medicines; they can easily monitor vendors involved in research and marketing.
Orchestrated Tasks
One of the most significant benefits of Salesforce is its ability to unify teams and data. Our team of Argylers ensured Salesforce was configured to help people do the right kind of work at the right time, creating a master schedule that managers can follow. As a result, they know which paperwork to submit by which deadline, how to schedule on-site meetings, and they quickly understand who’s on or off-plan. No more calendar wrangling!
Safety and Compliance Reporting
By building a Salesforce platform that’s consistent across teams and meets their specific needs, the pharma teams have saved time on reporting.
- Handwritten, 20-page documents are created instantly and automatically. Paperwork writes itself based on the data populated in the system.
- All tasks are in logs in the correct format for easy compliance reporting and information sharing.
Salesforce Solution Set Up to Be Successful for Many Years
With extensive documentation and in-depth onboarding and training, the client’s development team of in-house and off-shore third-party resources was set up for success to assume ownership and maintenance of the quality management system. This type of support during transition ensures continued success for many years. The investment in this Salesforce solution will pay significant dividends.
Make the most out of Salesforce
The above pharma company was referred to Red Argyle because of our proven success in the enterprise space and navigating unique challenges at scale. We’re happy to help you, too (we love a good Salesforce challenge!). Contact us to start a conversation.
