All across the pharma industry, medical affairs teams are at various stages of insights implementation. While some are just starting to recognize the value of formalized insights reporting processes, others are ready to adopt third-generation insights management technologies capable of supporting their strategies and informing decision-making. Teams in this position have two choices: attempt to build their own insights management solution, or license a prebuilt solution from a third party.
In this article, we define the concept of ‘third generation insights management’, before asking which approach is better: BYO or prebuilt?
What is third-generation insights management?
The third generation of insights management represents the pinnacle of insights implementation. Over the past few years, technology and processes have developed through the ‘spreadsheet age’ and the early days of AI-powered insights dashboards, to the point where medical affairs teams are using generative AI to surface actionable insights in near-real time.
The third generation of insights management is powered by generative AI. These systems ‘speak pharma’, and are capable of ‘understanding’ medical affairs strategies to deliver insights capable of informing decision-making. Users can input queries in real human language, and receive results the same way – making third-generation insights management more intuitive and user-friendly than ever before.
“This third generation of AI allows users to speak in plain human language with the system, get results in plain human language… and covers everything from how we gather information, all the way through to presenting those findings across the organization and tracking action.”
– Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
Build-your-own versus prebuilt
Medical affairs teams looking to capitalize on the promise of third-generation insights management have two options: build their own solution, or license a third-party insights management platform. Let’s consider the pros and cons of each approach.
Building your own solution
PROS
- Cost-effective? There’s an idea that building your own, in-house insights management solution is more cost-effective than licensing a pre-built solution, as this approach relies on in-house resources and proprietary tech to minimize costs. However, the reality is often quite different – by the time you’ve built your BYO solution, your total spend may be far higher than when licensing a prebuilt insights management platform.
“If the technology is advancing faster than your development timeline, then it’s a questionable proposition to begin with. And when you factor in the costs, then it starts to be even more questionable. However, you’re talking about soft costs versus hard costs, and companies don’t always count those internal dollars the same way.”
– Tony Page, SVP, Insight Analytics, Within3
- Built to your specifications: It’s true that building a solution in-house means you can customize it to your exact specifications – allowing you to address problems specific to your organization, and build for specific use cases.
“Build makes sense when you have a true enterprise need, where you have the same problem that needs to be solved across the enterprise. But that’s rarely the case.”
– Tony Page, SVP, Insight Analytics, Within3
CONS
- Resource-intensive: Building an in-house insights management solution requires significant internal resources – tech and IT teams will be stretched thin, if they’re even capable of executing on your vision at all. Plus, these teams have other responsibilities, so insights management will never be their core focus.
- Time-consuming: these projects take time. It can take years for a homebrewed insights management solution to come to fruition – which is no good if you need results right away.
“The company timeline can be 24 months to build a solution, which may well be obsolete by the time it’s built and may not address the problem of the product team anyway. They don’t have months – they’re going to be launched in 24 months. But because there’s momentum behind building an internal solution, there’s a reluctance to then spend money to buy a solution that’s ready in six weeks, and can solve 90% of your problems.”
– Tony Page, SVP, Insight Analytics, Within3
- Quickly obsolete: Many medical affairs teams find that the technology they’ve used to build their own solutions has become obsolete by the time those solutions are ready. At a recent MAPS roundtable event, some medical affairs participants shared their experiences with build-your-own solutions: “Even something you started doing two years ago is already obsolete.” – MAPS roundtable participant
Licensing a prebuilt solution
PROS
- Works out of the box: Unlike with BYO solutions, licensing a prebuilt solution means you’re getting something that works right out of the box. This allows teams to get up to speed quickly with insights capable of informing strategic decision-making.
- Quick time to value: Prebuilt solutions deliver rapid time to value, helping users quickly stress-test their strategies, and saving them countless hours processing, understanding, and communicating insights across the organization.
- Up-to-the-minute technology: Licensing a prebuilt solution means you’re effectively safeguarding yourself against obsolescence. Insights management providers have the tools and resources to provide the most up-to-the-minute generative AI systems and related technologies – and to keep that tech updated as you renew your license.
“When you buy you’re getting it faster, you’re getting state-of-the-art, you’re getting a company in our case that’s focused on that specific solution. They get a very precise solution to a very precise problem that clearly is going to deliver value. And it’d be very, very hard for an organization to replicate that internally. Nobody’s going to catch up to 10-plus years of work.”
– Tony Page, SVP, Insight Analytics, Within3
CONS
- Customization: A lack of customization can feel like a potential downside of prebuilt solutions – but it doesn’t need to be. When considering insights management providers, make sure their solutions are fully customizable so you can license a solution that’s suited to your specific needs.
“We work with our clients to understand their medical or commercial strategies relative to a particular therapy or compound. Then, we use that strategy to train our AI models.”
– Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
- Support and training: it can take a little time to get to grips with your new insights management solution. Ensure that you approach a provider that offers dedicated support and training to help your team make the most of their technology investment, and get up to speed quickly.
“Our solution is designed to work hand-in-hand with a client’s own ecosystem and data environment to minimize cost and integration work.”
– Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
Conclusion
Medical affairs departments that have embraced third-generation insights management all say the same things: there really is no decision to make between BYO and prebuilt solutions. The pace of technological change effectively makes BYO a nonstarter:
“If the tech is changing faster than your ability to develop, then developing makes no sense.”
– MAPS roundtable participant
Instead, it’s those that have licensed prebuilt insights management solutions that are reaping the benefits. Even the perceived strengths of BYO – like cost – no longer hold much water, with insights management companies streaking ahead as industry pacesetters.
“A lot of organizations are investing, in some cases, millions of dollars to build out internal solutions. Within3 is available now, and far more cost-effective than anything we’ve seen in terms of ‘build your own’ solutions.”
– Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
If you think you might be ready for third-generation insights management, consult our in-depth buyers’ guide to find the right platform to support your strategy. And, you can schedule a demo of the Within3 insights management platform to see generative AI-powered insights reporting in action.