SUCCESSDOESN’T
HAVE TO BE A COIN TOSS

Background:
D3S, in cooperation with the Prague Innovation Institute (Pražský inovační institut, z. ú.) and T-Mobile Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s.), have researched, developed, and implemented a system that predicts, in a scalable form, the probability of the onset or development of neurodegenerative disease. Applying research developed by the Prague Innovation Institute, D3S created a set of native applications for iOS and Android touchscreen devices that detects, through software tests, even subtle variations in a person's reactions, indicating cognitive impairment even at an early stage in disease progression.

The Need:
Backed by the European Union’s Structural and Investment Fund, the project sought to create a user-friendly application that could screen for potential cognitive impairment though a series of interactive tests and games. Th application needed to enable self-testing of a person’s cognitive functions and mental states, as well as provide a diagnostic tool for staff in residential social care facilities to screen their patients. Among the goals of the project was to screen patients in whom Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and risk factors associated with it may be suspected. The project also sought to support differential diagnosis of AN versus other causes of dementia (e.g. FTLD - frontotemporal lobar degeneration, vascular dementia, pseudodementia, possible overlap with affective disorder) through both assisted and self-testing. Beyond diagnosis, the application also needed to support continuous montoring of cognitive and mental health. This included low-threshold monitoring of cognition and mood, prediction of likelihood of transition from CCI to AN, and changes in status of long-term post-covid patients. The application also needed to facilitate communication between the specialists in cognitive impairment and their patients, enabling physicians to continuously, and if needed, remotely, monitor the development of the client/patient's condition and manage their treatments.

The Challenge:
Researchers at the Prague Innovation Institute had designed a battery of tests to quantify actual performance in the several areas: attention and concentration, short and medium term memory, basic executive functions and selective attention (stroop), and pattern recognition ability. D3S’s role was to develop an application that could serve as a user-friendly interface for these tests that patients could use on their own and with the assistance of clinical and residential care staff. The application needed to function offline while enabling online collaboration between patients, doctors, and remote clinics. D3S was also responsible for developing and implementing the tests and games within a software environment. Its aims were both diagnostic and therapeutic. It needed to assist with reliable assessment of disease and enable the monitoring of disease progression. It also needed to support the training and strengthening of cognitive abilities via interactive games. And it needed to serve as a motivational tool for both physical and mental activities as well as encourage regular self-testing by patients.

The Solution:
To meet this challenge, D3S software architects analysed the Institute’s research and methodologies to determine how the app and its interactive elements should behave. As the application needed to run on the widest possible selection of hardware devices and operating systems, D3S selected a cross-platform technology framework from Microsoft. This allowed the application to run on Apple and Android phones and tablets as well as on Windows PCs. D3S’s software architects also designed a robust data model that supported remote collaboration between patients, doctors, and clinics specializing in cognitive disease. Within this framework, D3S software engineers designed and developed four separate applications, along with a battery of cognitive tests and games that can be used by patients for basic testing of their cognitive functions, as well continuous training of cognitive functions and for self-testing of their own performance. These include native tablet apps for iOS and Android used by patients (on their own or with the support of clinical staff) as well as a companion web application that enables doctors to administer tests and monitor patients remotely.

The Result:
By combining diagnostic tests with games designed to improve memory, as well as the ability to perform self-evaluation alongside clinical evaluation by HCPs, D3S has provided an effective diagnostic and clinical treatment tool that covers the widest possible range of medical use cases. Cogni is an efficient and effective tool that allows HCPs to perform purely digital cognitive tests, remotely as well as in person, and manage traditional paper-based cognitive tests (MMSE, MoCA and MiniCog) by providing electronic scales for assessments of depression and anxiety.

Key Takeaway:
As Europe’s population ages, the ability to address neurodegenerative disease and its impact on cognitive health represents an urgent priority for patients, health practitioners, and health care systems alike. Cogni aims to help address these issues issue, and mitigate their impacts, by providing patients and HCPs with an effective, reliable, and easy-to-use tool for identifying, monitoring and treating neurodegenerative diseases before they are typically diagnosed. As a clinical study project, the applications developed by D3S are subject to clinical verification as well as thorough penetration and security testing using the OWASP framework. D3S provides, at the end of each phase of the Innovation Partnership, a complete monitoring report on the status of the project, which is still on-going.

Background:
One of the leading pharmaceutical wholesalers in Europe, with multiple distribution centres across the Czech Republic, through which hundreds of their employees provide timely deliveries of health products to pharmacies and hospitals, approached D3S to implement a CRM project.

The Need:
This leading pharmaceutical wholesaler was looking for a CRM solution that would allow their sales representatives to execute their sales plans, report their progress, track sales plan fulfillment, and monitor all relevant business conditions. A key requirement was the ability to create and send orders for goods, monitor stock status, and manage the entire ordering process. To that end, the solution needed to enable the company to track the status of deliveries, monitor problems with transport, and manage customer complaints.

The Challenge:
The client required a system based on their own internal database, using their own customer codes, that would be updated daily from their central master data. Due to the specialized nature of the client’s business, D3S needed to adapt the end user interface to support their specific information needs and make these data available to end users. Another challenge was the requirement to enable access by end users to the client’s internal BI systems and file repositories from Inception CRM without direct exchange of data. As the client wanted to maintain exclusive control over these information sets, remote access needed to be embedded into the user interface. This required seamless user authorization from Inception CRM as well as a high degree of security for remote access.

The Solution:
The solution required a complete reconfiguration of Inception CRM’s end user interface, as well as key modules, along with the development of an integrated online server platform that ensured seamless synchronization of master data and customer profile data. Additional development work focused on linking and integrating with commercial applications used for file management (M-Files) and business intelligence (Quik). In the Projects module, we programmatically expanded the options for consent management under GDPR, in compliance with EU data privacy legislation.

The Result:
The result was a customized version of Inception CRM, fully integrated with key back-office systems and working on the client’s master data, with highly secure interfaces to the client’s internal file systems and business intelligence. Inception CRM provided the client with:

Key Takeaway:
This project represented the client’s third attempt at implementing a CRM solution. As a large company with many distributed functions and stakeholders, we needed to be able to bring a large (and largely uncoordinated) management to the table, identify their separate as well as common needs, and propose solutions that worked for all of them. Where prior vendors had failed to adequately identify the client’s needs and propose workable solutions, we were able to bring fresh ideas and formulate an implementation plan that inspired confidence, trust, and the active support of every stakeholder. By committing the time and resources needed to fully understand our client, we were able to leverage our decades of experience in the life science CRM business to deliver what the stakeholders needed: the ability to maintain exclusive control over their data and processes; the ability to record a wide range of customer interactions across the organization; and the ability to adapt the system to new scenarios without vendor support. What they received was a unified platform that supports the work of commercial teams across the organization. It has unified key management functions, streamlined operations, and simplified change management, so that the client can respond to market changes with speed, flexibility, and a high degree of independence. Following our successful implementation, our client has improved the quality of their customer engagements and the performance of their representatives in each division – pharmacy, medical, and key accounts.

Background:
Optimal-Powerenergy is a member of the Czech Photovoltaic Association and one of the leading providers of solar energy systems installation for business and private use in the Czech Republic.

The Need:
This newly emerging solar energy assembly company required a system for receiving and recording signed contracts from their contractual business partners and monitoring the status of their deliverables.

The Challenge:
D3S was asked to prepare a flexible, adaptable CRM solution that could be fully integrated with the client’s back-office systems. The system needed to be able to address not only the status of each implementation project, but also track the removal of goods and control of the delivery of goods at each installation site. The system also needed to provide dashboards that would allow the client to track the status of each customer project and monitor compliance with internal as well as contractual deadlines. The client needed, in effect, a CRM system that could combine elements of multiple systems into one powerful and comprehensive solution.

The Solution:
D3S addressed this challenge by developing a new module within Inception CRM called “Projects.” This module supports end-to-end project management within Inception CRM. It is connected to an integrated online server platform, which ensures the synchronization of client contracts and keeps stakeholders up to date on the status of all deliverables. The Projects module contains all the functions that an assembly company needs to manage the implementation of a project, including contract and project documentation, assembly material, installation plans, and registrations at the installation site. Automatic notifications in response to status changes ensure the client is always informed about current project progress as well upcoming dates of the next implementation, with up-to-date contact information for the assembly team personnel responsible for the implementation.

The Result:
The result was a single, easy-to-use, online/offline customer relationship and project management platform that includes all the tools needed by the client’s back office, branch offices, and assembly teams, to manage their customer contracts, implementation projects, goods and materials, and personnel. For this client, Inception CRM provides:

Key Takeaway:
For a company to thrive, it needs to be able to evolve, and the technologies that support it need to evolve alongside it. At a time when immediate access to information is a must, clients demand total awareness of their customers and the ability to respond quickly to changes, especially in an industry confront a global shortage of key materials and equipment, where demand far outstrips supply. As a technology provider, D3S must constantly be ready to adapt to the sudden and unexpected needs of our clients, as well as evolving needs of the customers they serve.

Background:
In 2020, soon after the start of the pandemic, a procurement manager at F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (“Roche”) approached D3S about an app they wanted to develop for diabetes patients in Iran. Due to US sanctions, apps already on the market weren’t available to diabetes patients in Iran. As an EU company with no US business interests, we didn’t have such barriers. We liked the idea of developing an app that would help patients in an underserved market and developed a proposal for Roche, which they accepted. After a rigorous security and privacy assessment (needed to approve D3S as a new vendor), an export controls audit (to ensure compliance with US laws), and a thorough data privacy impact assessment (to ensure the protection of patient data), we signed a contract and got to work. The project was delivered in early 2021 with a commercial launch later that year.

The Need:
The goal of the project was to develop apps for iOS and Android, dubbed “Asan-Chek”, that would sync with Roche medical devices (glucometers) via Bluetooth. The app would store data about a person’s blood glucose levels on the patient’s smartphone and use it to track the history of their blood sugar in a series of charts, graphs, and timelines, which they could then share with their doctors. Patients would be able to supplement the data synced from their glucometers with information about their eating habits, indicating whether the blood reading was taken pre- or post-meal, as well as their insulin levels. The app needed tell patients, via gauges, whether their results indicated a normal range of blood sugar or whether they were hyper- or hypoglycemic. These charts, along with the detailed timeline of readings and patient annotations, would help patients and their HCPs monitor a patient’s blood sugar levels and identify the triggers that cause spikes or drops in blood glucose levels, enabling better management of the disease. The app needed to be able to compile the results, including charts and graphs, in exportable and sharable PDF documents and image files, which the patient could configure (depending on the scope of information they wanted to share) and share with their doctor via email, text message, or a social messaging app like WhatsApp.

The Challenge:
There were numerous challenges to the design and implementation of this app, beyond those common to any such project. First, the app needed to run on iOS and Android devices, and due to budget limits, this meant selecting a cross-platform framework. Second, it needed to be in Farsi as well as English, a language none of us knew, which meant supporting two distinct languages, alphabets, numeral systems, writing orientations, and date calendars, in parallel in the same application on the same device. And third, it needed to communicate with Roche medical devices, of which there were several models, using a highly complex Bluetooth protocol, which we were not familiar with.

The Solution:
To build these apps, we used Xamarin Forms, a cross-platform framework from Microsoft, to establish a common code base for iOS and Android versions of the app. It was on top of this that we built the data layer, data services, and user interfaces. For the charts and gauges, we used Syncfusion components, which we could customize to build charts, graphs, gauges, calendars, date pickers and time pickers in both English and Farsi. This allowed us to make sure the apps had a similar look and feel in both languages. MS App Center was used to monitor app performance via anonymous logs that ensure patient confidentiality while maintaining proper performance of the applications in the field. D3S worked with a cross-functional team of Roche stakeholders from multiple countries (Iran, UAE, Lebanon, Switzerland) who advised on their requirements and provided feedback at key review stages. Following an agile methodology, we prepared numerous proposals and prototypes in response to Roche’s change requests, factoring in new requirements and scope changes, until everyone was happy with the result. D3S provided complete management throughout, creating and maintaining all project documentation (GAMP5) and documenting changes to ensure the end result was a fully validated software product that could be used as a medical device.

The Result:
The result was a pair of sleek, intuitive native applications for iOS and Android that sync seamlessly with Roche glucometers (Accu-Chek and Accu-Chek Instant). These apps give patients an easy way to record and track their blood sugar and insulin levels, along with meals, and provide a visual overview of their health status and history. A complete timeline, along with charts and gauges that warn patients of potentially dangerous health conditions, can be easily shared with doctors, supporting remote disease monitoring and patient management by HCPs – a need that became more urgent as the covid-19 pandemic wore on.

Key Takeaway:
Regardless of geopolitics, people everywhere get sick. They need access to medicines and medical devices to help diagnose and manage their treatments. Medical exemptions to US export bans acknowledge these needs. D3S was willing to take on a difficult project that challenged the limits of its current knowhow and capabilities to deliver a modern technological solution to a key health issue in cooperation with one of the world’s leading pharma companies to patients in one of the world’s largest underserved markets.

The Need:
Small and medium-sized financial consulting companies needed a comprehensive, user-friendly system that supports the work of financial services teams while complying with the increasing demands of regulators.

The Challenge:
Several of our clients, predominantly SMEs within the financial services space, asked us to prepare a new system that would be flexible enough to respond to evolving demands of both consumers and regulators, while secure enough to be integrated with existing platforms, including those used by the authorities for financial reporting. To make the best system possible, we invited experienced financial advisors to participate in each phase of the design and development process.

The Solution:
A new modular system (https://finadvisor.cz), designed by financial advisors for financial advisors, that contains all of the tools financial advisors and financial services companies need to securely and compliantly capture customer data, prepare offers and maintain relationships with their clients.

The Result:
A new system designed by financial advisors for financial advisors. With FinAdvisor, financial services providers and financial advisors have the tools they need to:

Key Takeaway:
When you build a solution for a group of professionals whose needs are not just specific, but require highly specialized knowledge to understand and accommodate, make sure they're part of the design and development process.

The Need:
A leading investment trading company needed a comprehensive user system that could address the needs of traders as well as their clients. Available systems were only able to serve the needs of one group at a time, and not very well.

The Challenge:
D3S was asked to prepare a modular system that could be easily integrated with various customer systems, and was flexible enough to respond to changing legal requirements as well as customer demands. Our client needed a system that would combine the elements of several systems into one powerful, comprehensive solution. It would need to help users manage documents, products, and portfolios. It would need to calculate commissions and bonuses. And it would need to provide complete reporting, from dashboard analytics to alerts notifying users of changes in stocks and closures.

The Solution:
The solution was a new system: JoyInvest, an integrated online platform that unifies trader activities and client needs within a sleek, user-friendly digital interface. JoyInvest contains all of the features trading investment trading companies need to optimize their data management, manage documents, improve client communications, streamline workflows, and gain critical feedback on their activities. For their clients, JoyInvest offers an easy way to track their investment portfolios and access important documents.

The Result:
A unified, easy-to-use platform containing all the tools relationship managers, brokers and their clients needed to manage their investment portfolios, including:

Key Takeaway:
To grow and succeed, businesses need to evolve, and so do the digital solutions that support them. In an era when consumers expect instant access to critical information, seamless communication with clients is a must. That means digital platforms must be better integrated, more unified, and fully-tailored to the needs of each of their users.

The Need:
With a product range that includes prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, and consumer beauty products, NAOS needed a pharma CRM system that would also support direct sales by their retail beauty team. Such features were not available in leading pharma CRM systems.

The Challenge:
As NAOS’s preferred solution provider, our challenge was extend our pharma CRM platform to accommodate the needs of “Beauty Advisors,” sales reps who promote beauty products directly to end consumers at various retail shops. Since Beauty Advisors work on commission, capturing the sales they generate at each POS is crucial. But since Beauty Advisors do not ring up their own purchases (a job that falls instead to shop cashiers) the system needed to be able to verify as well as capture their contributions.

The Solution:
The solution was an entirely new “Direct Sales" module for iOS and Android that uses the device camera to scan the unique matrix codes printed on each product pack to capture complete identifying information, from product SKU and package expiry to the unique ID of each item. Scanning these codes before each sale allows reps to verify each good they sell, even if the transaction is completed by a another cashier. Direct Sales also tracks sales progress in real time, with sales targets based on the brand goals for each POS. Beauty Advisors and their managers can easily monitor their goal fulfilment by user, location and brand as they occur, as well as manage product returns. Smart planning features automatically balance each user's sales targets according to the number of users stationed at a POS, or the number of POS a user is responsible for on a given day. Validation controls prevent multiple users from adding the same items, while GPS monitoring allows managers to control where products are sold, ensuring the reliability of results.

The Result:
A dynamic sales tool that supports the full scope of NAOS's field sales operations: - a robust pharma CRM system that supports the work of primary care and pharmacy sales teams, from physician and pharmacist detailing to sample reporting and cycle planning - a complete solution for direct sales that allows beauty advisors to scan goods quickly and without errors, even when labels were scratched and damaged or affixed to curved surfaces such as bottles, - a comprehensive reporting system that provides real-time business intelligence and operational feedback to users and managers across the sales organization

Key Takeaway:
When it comes to the software that your business relies on, chose a vendor who is willing to adapt their tools to the needs your business, not the other way around. No two companies are the same, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for all of them. Chose a vendor like D3S who will tailor their software for you.

The Need:
INTERACTIVE TOUCH SYSTEMS s.r.o. (http://its-czech.cz/en) is a company that provides interactive solutions for both seniors and children. They needed a new digital platform for touch screens that would cater to the needs of both groups of users. For seniors, the solution needed to provide entertainment and comfort, with easy access to games and media, as well as a way to communicate with loved ones. For children, it needed to facilitate social integration and educational development as well as entertain.

The Challenge:
Our challenge was to create a new multimedia platform that would satisfy the needs of both groups of users within one, unified system. Our client planned to embed the touch screens within specially-designed furniture. For seniors, this meant interactive tables that could be positioned over a hospital bed ("SenTable"), while for children it meant sturdy low tables that groups of kids could huddle around ("KidTable"). The system needed to be smooth, bug-free, and easy to navigate without training or prior instruction. It also needed to contain the kinds of games and apps that seniors and children would appreciate, according to their different needs, and needed to be easy to update and administer, with easy access to content libraries and set up features that could configured remotely.

The Solution:
The solution was to develop a new interactive entertainment and communication system that allowed Interactive Touch Systems to distribute a wide range of games, apps and multimedia content, including both licensed as well as custom-developed content, to their end users entirely through the internet. As soon as the tables were unpacked and turned on and connected the local WIFI, ITS administrators could get them up and running in no time.

The Result:
The result was the successful deployment of interactive tables to more than 250 locations, including senior's homes, primary schools and so-called "children's corners" located in various businesses and retail spaces, reaching nearly 12,000 unique users daily.

Key Takeaway:
Satisfying the needs of different stakeholder groups doesn't require developing completely different solutions that need to be managed separately. A single, smarter system can funnel the right content to the right users according to their particular needs -- all within one, unified, and easy-to-manage platform.

The Need:
Sandoz, a global pharmaceutical company, needed a CRM solution for one of its key markets that would harmonize local operations according to its global policies, while supporting highly specific regional needs at the same time. They also needed a customer database that was reliable and up-to-date in a market where such data was hard to come by.

The Challenge:
As the selected solution provider, D3S had two key challenges. The first challenge was to prepare a reliable master list of Sandoz customers that could form the basis of a customer database. The second challenge was to replicate the reporting global standards in a way that would allow local managers to implement market-specific strategies while complying with global policies.

The Solution:
The solution to the first challenge was a new database that we prepared by cleaning and consolidating all of the customer lists Sandoz business users were already using. These came mostly in the form of flat files, each of which had its own structure and format. Once the data was prepared, a customized iPad app was built on top of it that incorporated all of the tools and workflows the field sales teams needed to prepare and execute their cycle sales plans. Connected to the CRM app was a battery of reports and dashboards that simultaneously satisfy corporate reporting requirements while supporting local information needs.

The Result:
As soon as the CRM system was deployed, Sandoz users began canvasing their territories, using the iPad app to detail their customers, building profiles and segmentation data with each call report they completed. Field sales teams were also able to use the app to request the addition of new customers as well as update information on current customers, rapidly building up an extensive and reliable database of customers. Regional and corporate managers were able to track the progress of the sales teams through their customized dashboards and reports, gaining a broader, more granular view of one of their key markets. The result was a more effective sales force delivering improved sales based on strategies backed by reliable data from the field.

Key Takeaway:
Information is power. Empower your sales teams with a CRM system designed to improve your customer data so that the strategic decisions you make are based on reality, not wishful thinking.

The Need:
To unify and streamline the workflows of key roles involved in the creation and approval of bids so that the company can respond more quickly and efficiently to tenders, and with a greater chance of success.

The Challenge:
Preparing bid responses to hospital and government tenders is a complex process that involves the participation of many roles. Typically, Key Account Managers, who responsible for preparing bids, email their proposals to various other roles for their approval: first to supply chain managers, who need to verify product availability; then to pricing managers, who need to make sure price offers don’t conflict with other business; and finally to business managers, who need to assess the value of the business being sought. This leads to countless emails being sent back and forth, numerous excel sheets containing multiple revisions – all of which are communicated with a complete lack of traceability of the process or it’s results.

The Solution:
D3S created for Allergan an easily accessible, role-based online platform that allows individuals and groups collaborate on the preparation of tender packages as well as individual offers in real time. It supports structured workflows and approval processes so that KAMs, supply chain managers, pricing manager, and general managers can quickly prepare and approve successful bids and build a repository of knowledge for increased win rates as the system learns.

The Result:
An elegant yet powerful platform that supports bid preparation based on real business intelligence and streamlines internal processes so that competitive bids can be prepared quickly and submitted early with the highest probability of success. Tender teams can now leverage accurate and complete information sharing; faster approvals; a decision-making audit trail; and an ability to build business intelligence based on accurate historical data. All of this is contained in a system that provides not only an efficient collaborative workspace, but functions as a single source of truth for the entire process, from important documents to final results.

Key Takeaway:
Companies don’t have to stick to inefficient processes just because that’s how it’s always been done. Innovation starts with a basic question: Can we do it better?

The Need:
To give embargo markets, like Iran, a way to participate in Novartis’ information exchange practices so that their data is available across the global organization, following corporate standards. In practical terms, it meant finding a way to equip embargo-market sales forces (Reps, FLMs, and senior managers) with advanced technologies that would allow them to streamline their workflows and reporting, structure and harmonize their customer databases, and generally gain from the efficiencies and many benefits of a modern CRM platform.

The Challenge:
Because of the US embargo, a unique solution was required. Firstly, it couldn’t run on US technologies (iPads) or come from a US vendor (Veeva). The challenge was to find suitable alternative technologies with the same capabilities, and a vendor who could deliver the job. That vendor was D3S. Following a successful workshop at D3S offices in Prague, attended by senior Commercial IT, MENA IT, Africa IT, and Corporate SFE managers from Novartis, a project roadmap was defined.

The Solution:
Over the next few months, “Inception CRM”, a new Android CRM app based on the iOS version previously built by D3S, was designed, developed and piloted in “high need” countries in the Middle East and Africa. The new Android app included several key enhancements built specially for Novartis based on identified “gaps” with Veeva in order to provide complete workflow and reporting compliance in support of Novartis’ goal of a fully harmonized approach.

The Result:
The newly-minted Inception CRM app was rolled out in Novartis in September 2015. In January 2016, Inception CRM won Novartis’ IT and MSO Cross Functional Excellence Award. Based on the success of the “pilot” programs in Iran and East Africa, as well the positive IT/Security audit results of Data3s (independently conducted by Ernst & Young), D3S was named a Novartis Global Supplier, making Inception available not only to additional countries but to other Novartis affiliates in Sandoz and Alcon as well.

Key Takeaway:
Where there’s a will — and the support of a solid, trustworthy partner — there’s always a way to accomplish even the most challenging goals.

The Need:
To know exactly how much of each product their distribution partners have in stock prior to making orders on behalf of retailers; to unify supply chain and sales processes within a single interface (CRM) for the purpose of coordinated, streamlined sales and the elimination of risk to business relationships caused by failing to deliver.

The Challenge:
To interface directly with multiple wholesaler and distributor systems in order to obtain live information about stock levels, process orders, and receive confirmations of both product availability and retail delivery.

The Solution:
D3S worked with the “big four” distributors in the Czech Republic to create direct (server to server) interfaces with their internal stock systems, and to integrate these data into the ordering system used by Apotex (an integrated application within the CRM system provided by D3S). Once those were established, we prepared a new user interface directly in the CRM system that allow users to locate products by distributor and view stock quantities before making orders.

The Result:
Users were able to select the right distributors to process orders directly at each retail outlet (pharmacy), saving their customer’s both time and effort – and guaranteeing their own business by being able to close deals directly at the point of sale.

Key Takeaway:
No matter where the data are stored, they can be made available and useful. All it takes is a little negotiation, effort, and the willingness to put it all together.

The Need:
To make it easier to sell financial products to regular consumers by eliminating the need for time-consuming procedures, wasteful paperwork, multiple meetings and complicated explanations that are more likely to confuse potential clients than convince them.

The Challenge:
To differentiate a small financial services start up from the marquee brands that dominate the market by disrupting the traditional sales process through digital innovation.

The Solution:
D3S worked with Froglet to develop a completely new way to communicating with potential customers. Instead of arming Froglet’s sales reps with stacks of brochures and forms to be filled out, D3S would arm with an interactive iPad app that would not only allow the reps to present their offers, but quickly capture customer information and provide immediate feedback.

The Result:
Froglet grew its customer base at an incredible rate, proving to be a worthy rival to its much larger competitors. The new application gave Froglet’s reps what they needed to present convincing offers and answer questions quickly, allowing them to close deals after a single meeting without the burden and risk of multiple follow up engagements.

Key Takeaway:
Digital solutions aren’t the future, they’re what’s happening right now. Don’t accept the status quo: When your competitors refuse to grow up, grow past them.

The Need:
Novartis needed way to make late-stage clinical trials, non-interventional patient studies and post-marketing studies go faster. Good trials take time, and patient research itself can’t be rushed. But the time it took to collect the paper questionnaires on which the data that had been recorded, collate the results, and prepare statistical analysis, was simply too long. The process was inefficient – and expensive. And there were risks, too: if a doctor failed to report an adverse event; if the event took too long to be reported, the risk was not only to patient safety, but to the company’s commercial standing as well.

The Challenge:
Novartis needed a way to convert slow, inefficient, but long-established paper-based processes into a coherent, secure and user-friendly electronic workflow. They searched the market for a ready solution, but nothing they found satisfied their criteria. The best-in-breed applications were prohibitively expensive. The cheaper ones were inflexible and incomplete. So they came to D3S. Our experts, who had backgrounds in drug development and pharmaceutical marketing practices, analyzed Novartis’ clinical and regulatory requirements, workflows, and questionnaires – every aspect of their clinical trials process – in order to understand all the functions a solution would need to cover.

The Solution:
D3S engineers worked with consultants and medical experts to design, develop and implement a brand new platform that covered all the bases: Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS) with built-in electronic Case Records Forms (eCRF) for rapid report and collection of results, and an automatic Serious Adverse Events notification system (SAE Reporting) that eliminates the possibility of physician oversight in reporting serious events that might require a trial to be halted.

The Result:
An elegant, intuitive, and secure online system that allows Novartis’s clinical staff (Medical Advisors, representatives, and trial administrators) to collaborate seamlessly in real time with participating physicians – shaving weeks, if not months, off the trials process. The new system also considerably lowered Novartis’ risk exposure through an automated SAE reporting system that was able to notify trial administrators by email of any adverse event the as soon as they were recorded.

Key Takeaway:
When time is money and competition is fierce, no company can afford to waste weeks, or even months, on inefficient processes. But with a little bit of creativity, the right technologies, and a solid partner in place, they don’t have to.

The Need:
To upgrade the company’s supply chain information management systems (logistic solutions) for greater efficiency and more accurate handling of data.

The Challenge:
To create a new portal for distributors (B2B) that would enable Sanofi-aventis’ partners to order products directly from their entire portfolio. 

The Solution:
A system designed by D3S that supported the creation and import of new orders; provided a complete history of orders and export orders in various formats; enabled the administration of users and access rights; automatically integrated changes, including manual changes to the product portfolio for B2B processes; and provided the ability to view product master data as well as customer master data and synchronization history, as well as reports on application usage.

The Result:
With the new system, the provision of data was streamlined, allowing generated orders to be sent, validated, and stored with zero redundancies, duplicates, or missing attributes. The result was a new data warehouse containing clean, validated information from multiple manufacturing sites and distribution centers that allowed the company to gain a unified view of its supply chain across Europe.

Key Takeaway:
With the right partner, even the most difficult puzzle can be put together.

The Need:
To boost Google’s share of a challenging market where home-grown competition owns the vast majority of loyalty in search and online services.

The Challenge:
To build awareness of Google’s online services and make it the go-to website for internet searches in the Czech Republic.

The Concept:
Google wanted to leverage their personalized homepage, “iGoogle”, which could feature content from leading Czech websites (in the form of Google “Gadgets” – embedded applications) in order to attract their visitors. The problem was that Google couldn’t make deals with content providers directly without jumping through major legal hurdles, and couldn’t allocate the internal resources (located in other countries) required to develop the applications.

The Solution:
D3S worked with Google to develop strategic alliances with leading online content providers in the Czech Republic, with the goal of attracting consumers by leveraging their loyalty to other brands. Acting independently, D3S’s sales associates pitched the concept to content providers: Google will pay for the development of the gadgets, and in exchange the content providers will have a presence on the world’s leading search platform for free. After a majority of target brands agreed to participate, D3S put together a team of developers to develop the applications on Google’s API, then worked with the participating brands to promote iGoogle to their users.

The Result:
Google’s market share, which had been stuck in the low double digits at 24%, rose quickly within a few months. By the time the iGoogle platform was discontinued in 2013, Google had surpassed Seznam to become the leader in online search and advertising in the Czech Republic with 71% market share; Seznam, the previous leader, had fallen from 63% when the project started, to 26% when it finished. While D3S’s project was one of several initiatives designed to capture market share, it was considered a success for its rapid impact and positive contribution, earning praise from Google HQ in Mountain View, CA.

Key Takeaway:
Strategic alliances and a flexible, multifaceted partner with a broad range of capabilities can make all the difference between failure and success.

The Need:
To replace failing legacy “big brand” CRM software with a new system that was not only leaner, more cost-effective, and more user-friendly than its predecessor, but flexible enough to fit the needs of a large, multinational generics company supporting a large, distributed sales force broken up into multiple lines and promoting a broad portfolio of brands.

The Challenge:
To create a system that offers a truly global view of both customers and the company itself; that not only integrates information from a variety of internal and external systems and data sources, but provides a cleaner, more user-friendly and better structured method of collecting, organizing and presenting data from the field.

The Solution:
Starting with Zentiva’s organization structure, D3S looked at how various departments (Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, HR, Distribution, Retail) were handling data and determined how their information, if shared efficiently, could boost sales efforts. Based on this, the D3S team designed, developed, and implemented a CRM system that not only provided a wider range of functionality and more complete integration with other systems, but which was also intuitive, easy-to-use, and promoted the company's SFE concepts.

The Result:
A system that seamlessly integrated each user's workflow to a series of interlinked modules within a single, unified interface, connecting activities with KPIs and well-structured reporting services. Branded internally as “eZEN”, the new system was successfully implemented in eight European markets: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Turkey.

Key Takeaway:
Don’t silo your data, leverage it. Company information hold greater power and is more useful and relevant when it is well structured, interconnected, and easily accessible.