It’s Good to Talk

You need to know who your audience is. People at the top of the organization will have different communication requirements than those at other levels. You also have to be aware of the particular culture of your company, where certain sections may be more technology driven than others.

However, if you try to have a different approach to each individual business requirement you will have a hugely expensive system that is very difficult to maintain. If using new techniques will enable closer collaboration or give more productivity, you have to choose the technology that will satisfy the needs of the majority of your workforce.

Based on this, Boehringer Ingelheim has implemented a plan based on two approaches. We call one ‘push’ technology and the other ‘pull’ technology. Push technology is concerned with feeding information that is going to be useful cross-divisionally and which everyone should have a basic knowledge of. A good example would be electronic messaging.

Portal technology
Pull technology is more specifically designed so that it is useful to a particular group and those other groups they deal with directly. Portal technology is a good example of this. With portal technology you have your own space and you can construct things according to the way that you work. We have focused heavily on portal technology because it allows us to create a flexible environment where collaboration is much simpler. From our point of view, portal technology has really revolutionised the way we handle our communication. We’ve satisfied the requirements of different groups because they can utilise this technology based on their own specific needs. Also, the fact that we have just one underlying infrastructure has helped reduce costs and boost ROI.

As for implementing this technology, the process was actually very smooth. We ensured that our people fully appreciated the usefulness of the measures and much of the impetus for its adoption came from them. It started when one of our product teams became keen to share ideas and collaborate with different marketing and sales organizations. That one community was the seed of the whole idea. Our HR team became interested in it, followed by other divisions and so on. It grew very naturally and this organic development allowed us to implement the technology with no great difficulties.

Mixing it up
Bringing in these communication techniques has had a dramatic effect on the company. It has allowed us to really explore collaborative working on an enterprise-wide scale. Another major benefit has been a newfound ability to mix and match information. Before, if I wanted to examine some HR policies, check sales figures and keep an eye on production levels I might have to go to three separate sources for the information. Now, all I need to do is set up my own information window and get data fed directly from those areas. Mix and match allows employees to effectively build their own information spaces on a modular basis.

What this means in practice is that many of the mundane tasks that can consume numerous work hours may be achieved much more simply. For example, if you are changing your policies, it could involve contacting several different people, sending messages or printing memos. Our way of doing things allows you to make a single change at the source, which is then transmitted across all the different communities and employees instantaneously. This greater efficiency and effectiveness can be seen in our bottom line. By cutting down on administration costs and increasing our profitability, it means that more resources can be focused on the company’s core business. In our case, that means more investment in researching new cures for diseases, so it has a really positive effect on the lives of people.

Reaction from the workforce
Employee response to our communication initiatives has been excellent. We are not only focusing on the head office workforce but right across the company. For example, we have set up kiosks for production staff in their work areas that enable them to have access to our portal site and find information in a matter of seconds. The knowledge that information is accessible when required has helped to create a culture of openness and a willingness to share. This is a tremendously useful thing for a successful growing organization such as ours.

With greater levels of worker mobility and the increasing ubiquity of wireless devices, security is an ever-present concern. The challenge comes in maintaining a balance between risk and agility, which protects your data but does not restrict your employees’ activities. The potential benefits of mobile working are tremendous. For example, if a salesperson has five minutes before a meeting with a customer they can check their emails on their 3G devices rather than waiting until they get back to their computer at home. Being able to take care of small tasks like this while on the move allows our workforce to make much better use of their time.

Mobile technology has also allowed us to explore the opportunities of home working. As an organization, for some of our employees we don’t believe that there needs to be a set physical location for work. Homes can become a network of interconnected virtual workplaces, which brings a whole range of advantages. For our workers, it gives them greater freedom to manage their work activity, lets them have more time with their families and promotes a real feel good factor. For the company, happier workers are more productive and creative, affecting the company from the ground up. Finally, home working cuts down on unnecessary travel and reduces our impact on the environment. These are the reasons why Boehringer Ingelheim has been pursuing home working as part of our long-term strategy.

Information security
Coming back to the security issue, we see a combination of education and sound technology as the key. We take information security very seriously, so we have implemented processes that ensure the right training is given to our people. We have also backed it up with company policies guaranteeing that no misuse of our systems can take place. We believe that if you trust your employees, have given them the right training and made sure they fully understand all the security implications then there is no need to worry. But as a further safeguard we have got the right monitoring system in place that makes sure those security requirements are adhered to.      

Although we have already achieved a great deal in the field of mobile communication and collaboration, it is essential to keep moving forward. We continue to ask ourselves questions such as ‘How will we travel to work 20 years from now?’ or ‘How will you actually be working in 20 years time?’ We consider questions like this proactively and we see that we want to develop the knowledge culture of our company. We want to create an environment where the right information is available to the right people at the right time. Based on that strategy we will follow advances in technology day in day out. We will continue to invest in the right technology for the benefit of our employees and our business.

About Boehringer Ingelheim

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 137 affiliates in 47 countries and 38,400 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

In 2006, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of $15.5 billion while spending one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment, Prescription Medicines, on research and development.

About the author

Dr. Kamy Missaghi received his Ph.D. in Mathematical Modelling of Rheological behaviour from Newcastle University in England, UK. He obtained his MBA from university of Westminster in London in 1991. Missaghi worked as Director of Information Technology with Merck for nine years before moving to Boehringer Ingelheim as the Chief Information Officer for UK & Republic of Ireland operations. Missaghi’s interests are in strategic management, knowledge management and mobility of workforce.