98% of Pharmaceutical Executives Agree on Importance of Omnichannel as Half of Companies Are Not Optimizing Physician Engagement across Touchpoints, Study Finds

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#AI--Aktana, the leader in intelligent customer engagement for the global life sciences industry, today reveals striking results from a new study, “The State of Omnichannel HCP Engagement in Pharma: Where the Industry Stands in 2022.” In DHC Group’s survey of 50 industry executives across digital, brand marketing, field sales, and data analytics, 98% found omnichannel strategy to be “very important” while more than half of these companies say they are not yet optimizing HCP engagement across touchpoints. The gap suggests commercial models are changing, but gradually.

“After decades of a go-to-market approach defined by best-guess strategies and appealing to physicians as a monolithic group, we’re finally flipping the script,” said Derek Choy, president of Aktana. “Today, it’s a strategic imperative for brands to transform the HCP experience into a seamless, cross-channel journey that’s personalized to a segment of one. With so many more options for engagement, organizations also need a scalable way to prioritize actions with the highest impact, refine strategies and focus valuable resources where they’ll deliver the greatest ROI. None of this is possible without AI.”

Survey respondents indicated a few key challenges to omnichannel success. These include:

• Data and Technology Integration – 45% attributed challenges to complexities integrating and managing data
• People, Structure & Culture – 54% noted the inability to influence change management
• Enough Content – content continues to be a significant hurdle in brand marketing as 62% of respondents say they lack personalized content
• Single Platform Aligned with KPIs – nearly two-thirds report an unmet need for a single interface to manage and control omnichannel engagement across the organization

Aktana’s modular solution enables commercial and medical teams from all-sized organizations to rapidly scale AI programs to personalize, optimize, and coordinate HCP engagement across channels and teams – allowing customers to grow sales by up to 15%. It has more than 300 deployments across 50+ use cases. More than half of the world's top-20 pharmaceutical companies – including Novartis, GSK, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Sanofi, and Pfizer – rely on Aktana to coordinate and optimize personalized omnichannel engagement with HCPs. Aktana’s Contextual Intelligence 360 platform is powered by the company’s next-generation Contextual Intelligence Engine, which uses AI-driven optimization to predict the value of all potential customer experiences, then prioritize and recommend Next Best Engagements.

“In three to five years, I would hope that we've suddenly moved as an industry where AI isn't a buzzword. It's actually just baked into the mainstream of our go-to-market strategies because it's so essential,” said Novartis’ Global Director of Field Force AI Enablement Paul Thompson in the DHC report.

In other news, Aktana was named a trailblazer in Everest Group’s assessment report, “Life Sciences Commercial Analytics & AI Trailblazers." The report assessed 47 startups primarily on core capabilities and market impact, looking specifically at domain focus, market buzz, product capabilities, and human capital (talent and leadership). Aktana received the highest overall rating.

For a complete copy of the DHC Group study and to understand organizational readiness for omnichannel, please contact Lisa Barbadora (lbarbadora@barbadoraink.com) or click here.

Additional Information:

• Connect with Aktana on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/aktana
• Follow @aktana_inc on Twitter: twitter.com/aktana_inc
• Like Aktana on Facebook: facebook.com/aktanainc

About Aktana

Aktana is the category creator and leader of intelligent engagement in the global life sciences industry. By ensuring that every customer experience is tailored to individual preferences and needs, Aktana helps life science companies strengthen their relationships with healthcare providers to inspire better patient care. Today, commercial and medical teams from more than 300 brands use Aktana’s AI-enabled Contextual Intelligence Engine to coordinate and optimize personalized omnichannel engagement at scale. More than half of the top-20 global pharmaceutical companies are Aktana customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Aktana has offices in every major biopharma region around the world. For more information, visit www.aktana.com.

Lisa Barbadora
lbarbadora@barbadoraink.com
(610) 420-3413