Roche Unifies Global Customer Data by Dismantling Fragmented Systems

Data accumulates relentlessly within large enterprises, and after decades of growth, even carefully managed repositories become difficult to leverage effectively. At Roche, a 130-year-old pharmaceutical corporation operating worldwide, incompatible legacy systems blocked the path to extracting meaningful insights from customer information. Overhauling infrastructure spanning more than 100 countries would simultaneously clear the way for broader artificial intelligence deployment.

"The transactional systems were all different," explained Joao Antunes, lead engineer of platforms and data strategy at Roche. "Point to any technology and there would be a country using that technology." Multiple customer relationship management platforms scattered across the global footprint were receiving customer data when Antunes' group launched an ambitious cloud transformation initiative spanning four years.

The objective centered on creating infrastructure capable of delivering sales personnel a comprehensive profile of every healthcare professional in Roche's customer base. By bringing these systems together, Roche established the foundation for a machine learning recommendation tool that Antunes likened to Netflix's suggestion algorithm. The consolidation also enabled rollout of a generative AI-powered tool combining text summarization with conversational chat functionality.

"With a heterogeneous landscape, it's very hard to scale any analytics solution," Antunes stated. "It's virtually impossible to have a holistic view of the customer." Across industries, enterprises confront comparable obstacles when attempting to modernize aging data infrastructure, according to Gartner research. In a February report, the analyst firm found that nearly two-thirds of organizations either lack sufficient data management capabilities for AI implementation or cannot confirm their processes meet requirements. More than one-third of chief data and analytics officers surveyed by Gartner in the prior year had data architecture upgrades on their roadmap.

For Roche, the advantages of data modernization have become evident in routine operations and the broader goal of simplifying system complexity. "As of today, we only have one CRM system that gives us one view of the customer — it's the same in Switzerland and in France and in Brazil and Canada," Antunes said. "You will see the profile and you will also know that this customer is the same person that is writing scientific publications, or is a trend-setter on Twitter. All of these things we didn't have before."

Consolidating platforms delivered additional financial benefits. "For a company the size of Roche, it would be very difficult to have the same platform across the board and not necessarily beneficial," Antunes noted. "But if you are ingesting the same customer data multiple times in multiple places through multiple vendors, you can save a lot of money just by moving to a common platform."

Enterprisewide buy-in

Significant achievements emerge from incremental progress, especially within an organization as sprawling as Roche. Enhancing customer analytics capabilities required a step-by-step approach supported by leadership commitment and grassroots engagement.

In January, Roche brought on Chief Digital Technology Officer Wafaa Mamilli to oversee worldwide IT direction. Mamilli, who previously held senior technology roles at Zoetis and Eli Lilly, assumed responsibility for the company's Informatics division from Alan Hippe, who had served as both CIO and CFO. Mamilli identified leveraging data and AI to "prevent, stop and cure diseases" as a priority in her appointment announcement.

"The appointment is a sign that we are putting more emphasis on data as one of the key pillars for the strategy moving forward," Antunes observed.

Roche's customer analytics transformation unfolded methodically as Antunes' group concentrated on concrete applications to generate organization-wide momentum for a multiyear undertaking. "We didn't try to take over the world all at once — we were learning while we were scaling," Antunes explained. The data organization expanded from five personnel to more than 100 engineers while concentrating on deploying the content recommendation system, which underwent testing in Brazil and Canada before wider rollout.

"We migrated their local solutions to our platform, decommissioned things that were no longer needed and added things where there was value to be added and then we started to gain traction," Antunes said. The initial tool demonstrated a larger principle regarding the advantages of a streamlined, more responsive data infrastructure.

"This was never only about the content recommendation system," Antunes emphasized. "For us, it was more about setting the building blocks for many other analytics products." Obstacles emerged as workflows shifted to align with the new data architecture. The unified platform, which uses AWS Redshift cloud data warehouse technology and Salesforce CRM, had to serve audiences across regions with differing technical capabilities and distinct operational procedures.

"Implementation goes way beyond the technology," Antunes stressed. "It's a lot more about people and processes, getting the alignment, getting the buy-in and pushing back when it's time to push back."

Restricting the breadth of data modernization represented another crucial element of the strategy. Roche maintains historical records spanning decades. The transition focused exclusively on information supporting use cases with demonstrable business impact. "You need to be strategic with your resources," Antunes said, referencing the effort required to transfer and process information.

"If there's 20 years of data, people will tell you they need all of it," he continued. "What are you going to achieve with 20 years of data that you can't achieve with four or five years of data? You have to have that conversation." Modernization initiatives can become trapped in perpetual pursuit of ideal technology solutions. Though certain platforms outperform alternatives, maintaining concentration on particular project specifications offers distinct advantages.

"We stay abreast of the latest technology and try to get the best we can," Antunes said. "At the same time, we're not hostages to selecting the best-in-class tools for everything. Instead, we prioritized building a seamless integration between the systems, which is often overlooked."