Fujitsu Receives Outsourcing Contract from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma

Fujitsu today announced that it has received a contract from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation to provide Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services for the company's sales management activities which accurately monitor information regarding the actual delivery of pharmaceuticals to pharmacies and hospitals through the management of shipment data records, as well as related master files, starting July 2010.

Utilizing roughly 30 years of experience in business activities in the pharmaceutical industry and systems operations as a base, Fujitsu will provide consistent support, ranging from Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma's sales management activities—the foundation of its sales strategy—to systems operations and maintenance overall. Fujitsu will also contribute to the expansion of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma's business.

Background

Paving the way within the industry in 2000, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma worked in collaboration with Fujitsu to overhaul the sales management system that manages data relating to sales of pharmaceuticals. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma uses this system to pursue on-target marketing related to the sales and distribution of products in the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to promoting efficient sales activities. However in utilizing the system, the burden associated with sales management operations, which handle errors in shipping data records and maintain master files, became very high. As specialized skills and know-how were required to manage sales management activities, it became challenging for employees over the mid- to long-term to train their successors, thereby making it urgent for Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma to revise its operations.

In order to address these challenges, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma analyzed and organized these activities, and by entrusting their full operations, including the sales management activities, to Fujitsu, which currently operates and maintains the sales management system, Tanabe Mitsubishi Pharma is striving to cut costs and ensure the proper transfer of sales management skills to future generations of employees.

In July, Fujitsu established a sales management services center at Fujitsu Kansai Systems Limited that is operated by dedicated personnel equipped with necessary business process skills, and started operations for Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma's sales management activities. At the sales management services center, records for pharmaceutical shipment data, which is managed by Fujitsu's sales management solution, is compared with related master files and past data to determine consistency. By correcting errors while at the same time updating the corrections into the master files, the system can automate the burdensome tasks associated with error checking. In addition, both the enhancement of work efficiency and precision, as well as the accumulation of skills and expertise is realized by employing ICT functions that, automatically or in real time, enable version management of master files and reflect code revisions associated with organizational changes in authorized distributors.

Using the highly accurate and timely data and master files provided by the sales management system, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma can reference shipment data and analyze it, enabling the company to put together sales activity plans and implement them with superior efficiency. Furthermore, with the accurate management of shipment records, the system enables the company to reliably abide by regulations requiring drug safety information to be transmitted with all pharmaceutical shipments.

To address the shared need throughout the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the burden associated with sales management activities, Fujitsu, in cooperation with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, intends to offer its expertise in sales management processes and system operations in full through the sales management service center.

Fujitsu is also committed to contributing to the business of its customers by delivering solutions to address the issues that are essential to the future of the development of the pharmaceutical industry. These issues include compliance; management innovation in dealing with changes in society and the management environment; global collaborations that bring about innovation; highly accurate management support to accelerate the development of new drugs, including clinical trials; and the rapid collection and management support of drug safety and efficacy information that determines the value of new drugs.