PCI Pharma Services – (PAQT) Proposal & Quoting Tool

Overview

PCI Pharma Services is a global, integrated Contract Development & Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) delivering a comprehensive range of pharmaceutical services from the earliest stages of development through to commercial launch and beyond.

Situation

Due to an increase in the demand for Clinical Trial Supplies over the past eight years, PCI’s Clinical Services business has looked to scale with, or in some cases ahead of, their clients’ needs. Proposals, quoting and costing has been one key area where improvements have been made. In an effort to both unify and simplify the front-end of the client on-boarding experience, PCI looked to automate the quoting process. Ensuring that all nine of their Global Clinical Supply sites had access to a single source costing data was imperative.

Solution

The Mint team ran a series of workshops across all PCI’s global clinical business sites to review the quoting templates and methodologies in each region. This was then rationalised into one global process with central agreement on costings and prices. Using these definitions, the Mint team developed a new custom App called PCI Proposal and Quoting Tool (PAQT) that operates within the company’s Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and can be accessed via desktop or mobile. The quoting process is driven through a series of questions to access information on costings, calculations etc – information which already sits within the Salesforce system.

And recognising that first impressions count, the app also automatically inserts the proposal into a high end professional looking document that is on brand and has all the relevant terms and conditions etc.

As Tim Roberts, PCI’s Chief Commercial Officer explains: ‘It is complex, and there are a lot of variables (drug details, delivery mechanisms, packaging, storage and distribution etc,) but with logic you can start to pare down the permutations very quickly and give ballpark quotes in a day, even if there are more refinements to do further down the line.’

Results

PCI can now create clinical trial proposals far more rapidly and the task can be completed by just one person instead of 10. There are also additional benefits, Tim explains: ’Using PAQT also means we are now streamlining information coming in, which is better for us and better for clients. From our point of view, we are also capturing valuable data during the sales process, which can enhance processes such as S&OP and demand planning. So, the next stage for PAQT will be to develop a mechanism for accessing that data and using it to build algorithms that will help us with future business planning.

‘Our clients place a huge amount of trust in us. We play a vital role in the pharmaceutical supply chain and help our clients bring life-changing therapies to millions of patients around the world. The Team at Mint have played a pivotal part in our success in achieving this and have helped guide our thinking and drive for innovation.’

“Mint have played a pivotal part in our success and have helped guide our thinking and drive for innovation!”

Tim Roberts
Chief Commercial Officer