Overview

pPfizer is a 170-year-old life sciences company with deep domain expertise. One of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer ranked No. 57 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue./p

Supernova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Problem

pAs one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Pfizer’s institutional knowledge is spread across a vast global network. The decentralization made it challenging for data users to understand datasets, impacting transparency and collaboration and leading to duplicated efforts. For Pfizer, data is an advantage from a scientific, commercial and operational standpoint, and with the increasing number of use cases for machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science Pfizer needed to ensure that each part of the business was able to answer questions with data and have access to the vast expertise in the Pfizer network./p

The Solution

pPfizer developed a central platform, the Virtual Analytic Workbench (VAW), to transform its enterprise analytic capabilities and enhance speed and collaboration of its analytical processes on a global scale./p

The results

pFor the first time ever, through the VAW, hundreds of colleagues were able to build workflows and search, analyze and visualize data in a repeatable and consistent way. The VAW also has the ability to bolt-on new best in class tools (e.g., AI solutions) that can quickly be “plugged-in” to the platform for fast deployment and application at scale./p

Metrics

pDue to enhancements in organizational speed and agility, colleagues are able to solve more complex problems on much faster timeframes (e.g., insights to improve pediatric adherence to a course of vaccination from rapid mining of real-world data)./p p AI studies are surfacing predictors that can help accelerate diagnosis and treatment of fatal conditions (e.g., of certain rare disease conditions), benefiting physicians and patients./p

The Technology

pAfter rapid evaluation of possible approaches, the VAW was developed through a novel partnership forged between Alation, Dataiku and Tableau. Pfizer uses Alation’s machine learning data catalog as a key reference source for very large data records used in analyses, helping discover potentially useful information based on how Pfizer analysts had used and trusted data in the past. Pfizer also uses Dataiku for collaborative data science software tools and Tableau for visualization./p

Disruptive Factor

pThis organizational and technological transformation has not only enabled Pfizer to keep pace with rapidly evolving innovations in analytics, but also enhanced collaboration and reduced the time to generate insights. The goal is to drive a competitive advantage from a scientific, commercial and operational standpoint./p

Shining Moment

pNot stopping at the VAW, Pfizer also transformed how colleagues engage with data and with each other through the development of two Interactive Analytics Studios. Here colleagues from all functions (e.g., commercial, scientific, manufacturing, analytics, etc.) can come together in one room leveraging multiple interactive touch-screens to review data and test hypotheses in real-time, as well as leverage the collective expertise of colleagues in the room./p