The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines was a remarkable feat. It showed us that with the right focus and investment, rapid and important progress can be made in the medical sector. It’s one of the factors that are putting pressure on the medtech sector to operate and deliver solutions faster — but it’s definitely not the only one.
For starters, business cycles are moving faster than ever before. Instead of planning and reviewing budgets on an annual basis, these conversations are happening quarterly, leaving teams to think more strategically about when and how they want to spend their allocated funds. Because of this shift, each quarter needs to represent some form of value, and for an industry that’s used to taking a steady approach, that’s a lot of pressure to deliver.
Customer expectations are also a big influence. We live in a world where things happen instantly — whether it’s sharing information or ordering groceries online or setting up a meeting to talk about a potential deal. Technology has made it so that we’re constantly connected, and that’s shaping what people expect from the companies they work with. Today, the phrase “I’ll get back to you in a week” is often met with resistance, because it’s hard to believe that anything could take that long.
The need to keep up
The good news is that medtech companies can keep up. While technology and digital transformation are big drivers behind this need for speed, they’re also enablers. Processes that used to take medtech companies a long time — like establishing your customer base, communicating with your prospects, and figuring out which marketing messages work best — are now streamlined with the help of data-rich platforms.
For instance, the process of gathering customer feedback (and making a decision based on it) could take up to a year’s effort – in any industry. You’d have to hire people to go talk to your customers, have them collect all the inputs, or work with a third party to pull out the key insights and themes. Then, and only then, would leaders be able to discuss those themes and determine what business decisions to make from them.
The same is true for marketers in the medtech sector. Any time they got new products in their purview, they would have to travel to different hospitals in their region, determine which surgeons might be interested and available for a conversation, and then create advisory boards, before spending time talking to them about the product. They’d also have to determine which marketing messages were most effective — or work with an agency that could help them do that.
Now, thankfully, this long-winded process has changed. When it comes to data analytics solutions, these tools can gather, parse, and analyse information extremely quickly, cutting down the time it takes to make informed decisions about what to do or where to go next. Not only that, with the right analytics and business intelligence (BI) platforms gathering data on a consistent basis, companies are also much more agile. They can plan and replan quickly to address any relevant changes.
It’s that agility that’s bound to mark the next generation of leaders in the medtech sector — and we’re excited to see it in practice.
For information on how Toxeos can help you and your business embrace speed, get in touch.
