Sobi use Power BI to increase efficiencies & gain better insights into key forecast drivers

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Background

Sobi is a global Biopharmaceutical company, which prides itself on transforming the lives of people with rare diseases. With over 1,600 employees working across 30 countries, Sobi specialises in providing innovative treatments in the areas of haematology, immunology, and specialty care.

The Challenge

Sobi wished to gather more data and insights on key revenue drivers from affiliates during the course of the annual long- range planning exercise, however, the current approach had some challenges, for example: data collected was limited, consistent metrics (for products and countries) were not consolidated, and standardised forecast approaches were not adopted across countries.

Many individual excel files were utilised and to gather / consolidate the required insight using the current approach was highly manual, time consuming and requiring significant discussions, often resulting in additional questions. As Sobi continues to grow, a review of the current approach was required to introduce efficiencies and scalability.

To move forward, Sobi required:

A user-friendly Microsoft- based tool
Aligned data collation / standardised forecast approaches for products and affiliates during the long-range planning process
Simplified and automated report capabilities – With the ability to change the currency during analysis
Easier comparison of key assumptions / output across countries (to enable focused
review discussions)
Ability for forecasters to utilise the forecasting tools off-line
Restricted data access, so users would only see the data relevant to their region / country and / or products

The Solution

Bespoke started by creating a consolidated data tool, which combined the data from various excel forecasts with different structures and formats – once this was established, we were able to create a custom Power BI dashboard for Sobi which detailed 11 key products and
has the ability to add further products when required.

The consolidated dashboard considers layers of specific requirements in the backend, such as specific product / country level views, as well as differing requirements at a regional / global level. Through building in these requirements, and automating the data capture and refreshing, the output is simple, effective, and accurate.

“The process has introduced dynamic Power BI reports for alignment on key outputs / metrics and highlights more insights into key forecast drivers”.

Sobi

Sobi can now benefit from:

Simplified data-capture templates
Various (yet consistent) data-entry methods
Pre-filled data assumptions / forecast logic
10-year forecasting period
Simple export function
Country-level comparisons
Drill-down capabilities into underlying data
Clean, crisp data visualisations detailing; market share, product, volume, and revenue forecasts

”Through the adoption of the solution developed with Bespoke’s support, for Sobi’s long range planning forecast for on-market assets, the process has introduced dynamic Power BI reports for alignment on key outputs / metrics and highlights more insights into key forecast drivers.”

The outcome

Better data and forecast consistency / transparency – creation of a single source of information, which is comparable across regions through the adoption of a consistent forecasting structure for each product
Improved efficiency – data is accessed by many users during the course of the year, a simple Power BI dashboard has decentralised some key data / assumptions allowing business users to identify insights for their own questions (as opposed to requesting data from a small number of central users)