Teradata

Event-Based Communication (EBC) is based on systematically and continuously studying the detailed behavior of physicians, and that of opt-in consumers, to identify those moments in time when there's an opportunity to enhance a relationship. The goal is to enable communication with physicians and consumers in a timely and relevant fashion to deliver sales, marketing, or educational services designed around specific needs.

The EBC solution from Teradata Corporation leverages the Teradata® Database that was specifically designed to efficiently comb through the physician activity and sales data and opt-in consumer records to select those individuals with the defined event-based triggers. These identified individuals are prioritized based on a predefined set of criteria and are included on lists that are sent to different channels, such as call centers, mail services, and sales field force, for a follow-up call and response. These campaign interactions may be either fully automated or dialogue based. They may range from a single communication to a series of communications or steps.

To continuously improve the EBC effectiveness, there's a loop for the channel to provide feedback about campaigns' success and effectiveness. Campaigns in response to events often result in multi-step communication plans and may be executed across multiple channels. These campaigns may be initiated automatically based on the response to a prior contact. The conversation with a physician or consumer needs to be relevant, and therefore, must take place when and where they're ready and may be prolonged over several interactions through multiple touch points.

The three main building blocks of EBC are triggers, events, and campaigns which are defined as follows:

Trigger – A specific behavior or change in data that can be identified at a point in time.

Event – A specific behavior which, when considered in the context of each individual customer, shows that the trigger is significant to that customer. For example, two customers could be selected based on the same trigger. However, because customer 1 is selected each month, and customer 2 is selected for the first time, it could be a significant event for customer 2 and insignificant for customer 1. The filtering logic drives this distinction.

Campaign – A response to certain events involving a series of interactions with customers to offer relevant and timely services. For example, if a key opinion leader requests certain information via the web, other physicians in the same field of study could be sent similar information. Often, effective campaigns must be designed to run across multiple customer touch points depending on customer preferences and responses.

Teradata has defined events at three different levels. These are simple, standard, and sophisticated.

Progression from one level to the next increases the complexity and associated business value. However, sophisticated events are strategic in nature and focus on finding relevant opportunities to communicate with physicians and consumers. These opportunities become the foundation for fundamental organization change as they shape the way companies do business. Figure 1 depicts the individual triggers against the business value produced and the level of complexity to implement and manage.

Simple events are created and executed by your communications or marketing analysts. Examples include events such as scanning the database to determine which physicians wrote a particular brand and at what frequency. Consequently, you can develop a sales representative message around a specific campaign. These types of trigger events happen every day in the marketing and market research departments. These queries must be automatic and seamless. Upon receipt, campaigns can be devised to promote a certain message to the physician. Simple events can be automated to occur at regular intervals so the analyst doesn't have to remember to execute. However, limitations exist at this level.

Simple events are usually not as time-sensitive and typically aren't performed with an eye to the context of the overall relationship. They're focused on a single point in time.

Standard events are based on marketing responses to changes in customer behavior. Standard events are more complicated to detect. This activity leverages Teradata Database data to understand physician and consumer behavioral trends. An example of this type of event requires anonymous patient level data which is being used by more and more pharmaceutical companies to gain deeper insight into physician prescriber behavior. This data can be used to develop standard triggers for monitoring brand use over time. A brand manager may also use this type of data to detect events, such as changes in therapy, switches to another brand and/or loss of market share early in the product market cycle. Standard events begin with analysis, and are undertaken by building formulas and/or queries to detect overall positive or negative motion. Standard events like these bring behavior directly into the view and can generate higher returns over the relationship.

Standard events can give brand management a better picture of changes based on behavior over time. Standard events are scheduled and executed based on a frequency that the analyst determines. Standard events could feed multiple physician campaigns or communications. While more flexible than simple events, standard events are still based on what has been pre-determined.

Sophisticated events can increase insight into a physician's or patient's individual needs and preferences. This allows for more informed decisions about that individual for improved marketing, communications, sales, as well as educational services. Significance of a sophisticated event is determined by understanding data that represents an exception or deviation from the baseline norm for an individual and takes into account previous communication history.

Sophisticated events focus on one specified consequential moment in an individual's behavior. These moments may represent or lead to a measurable change in behavior or interaction pattern, personal circumstance, or interaction pattern. A prime objective is to proactively identify these events as they occur or anticipate the change beforehand. This is achieved by detecting the events that result from an individual's change in behavior.

A sophisticated event may be one or a combination of various events. These events may be based on internal or external, or a combination.

Significant event rules ensure continuous data scanning for specific changes in an individual's behavior as part of an EBC program. For example, each pharmaceutical company maintains data about products on formulary, physicians, affiliations, managed care influence, key opinion leaders, and many other physician influenced data. Developing a baseline of all data mapped to each physician creates an environment for continuous research. As behavior changes over time, database analysis is done to research and review the reasons why this behavior has happened. Reviewing the results allows the brand manager to:

1. Develop an approach to this physician and all other physicians with the same profile.
2. Develop sophisticated analysis to determine when the next type of event will occur based on current data.
3. Develop a corresponding counter marketing, sales, or education program.

Studies have shown that EBC outperforms traditional forms of physician and consumer behavior based on the degree of relevance described above. At a time when physicians and consumers are being bombarded with marketing and other types of communications, EBC represents a highly effective and efficient way to reach these key individuals exactly at the time when they have the highest need for a product or service and are most likely to be influenced or educated. A strong EBC solution constantly monitors individual interactions across the enterprise for activities that show what programs can provide the most relevant information at the right time. 

When combined with robust modeling and data analytics, EBC can foster physician and consumer loyalty by leveraging deep individual knowledge to deliver personalized and timely educational services.

Teradata is the leading data warehousing company in the world. Our Event-Based Communication solution takes advantage of the power of the underlying data warehouse to very quickly and easily adapt and change as your business grows and changes. The multi-dimensional scalability of a Teradata solution allows companies to accurately predict and maintain performance levels as data volumes grow, number of users increases, or analytic functions become more and more complex. 

Teradata is widely considered global best practice in the Event-Based Communication market. We have strong customer references to support this claim. These can be made available on request. In addition, Teradata has a global pool of resources with extensive business modeling and technical experience with leading institutions from around the world. 

Every client has a different approach to execution and, therefore, each Teradata EBC solution implementation is different, but leverages world-class database performance. Teradata Professional Services consultants have standard practices targeted at enabling you to implement quickly enabling business teams to better understand customer interactions, needs, and the appropriate responses. 

The vast majority of your opportunities to benefit your physicians, consumers, and your organization are based on timely reaction to changes in their behavior. These opportunities evolve very quickly. To leverage them, it's necessary to act promptly, sometimes within hours. An EBC solution from Teradata is comprehensive and innovative, and will be delivered in a phased approach to ensure that you'll realize a business payback throughout the project life. 

Teradata has developed a proven methodology for building and defining events and establishing rules around this strategic communication framework. This methodology supports companies as they establish strategic marketing and sales objectives. 

To align this Event-Based Communication capability to your organization's business objectives, the Teradata methodology begins with an event workshop that helps uncover the business value that you'll achieve during an EBC implementation for your organization. This workshop helps to define which communication methods will be used for which customer type. 

Our commitment is to ensure that you gain valuable insight into your business and that you develop the key strategic and tactical communication plans for moving your business forward.

To learn more about Teradata in the Life Sciences industry and how we can help you build a better business for tomorrow, request a contact from one of our industry representatives.