Kyowa Kirin International (KKI) is a global specialty pharmaceutical company delivering life-changing value for people impacted by under-diagnosed and under-served diseases. As a pharmaceutical leader, KKI is committed to the robust management and governance of data to ensure ethical and compliant practice.

Accenture, alongside Avanade – a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft – partnered with KKI to modernize its data infrastructure using Microsoft Azure, enabling modern data integration and empowering employees with reliable insights. The initiative improved data literacy and fostered a culture of trust in data across KKI. With this robust foundation, the company is ready to explore more data-driven efforts toward better patient outcomes.

KKI strives to improve global health and wellbeing by delivering life-changing value to patients with unmet needs. Its team of professionals believes that innovation means doing everything they can to improve the quality of life for people around the world. This commitment to innovation through improvement extends to the company’s operations. Previously, KKI was faced with a fragmented landscape of siloed, unstructured data that impacted employees’ ability to harness its full value.

“Because the data was disparate and didn’t have the robust governance structure in place, users started fulfilling their data requirements in ad hoc and tactical ways, creating many reports to track necessary metrics,” explains Sudeep Gupta, director of data at KKI. “The problem was that the contents, definitions and understanding of similar reports didn’t always align. This led to inconsistencies in reporting, and if you don’t have consistent data, any business decision-making is affected. Time and effort were expended in resolving inconsistencies, slowing decision making. It became difficult to know how we should focus our next steps.”

Recognizing the issue, leaders set out to modernize KKI’s data infrastructure in the cloud and empower its employees with reliable insights — all with the proper governance, security, compliance and architecture framework in place. Ultimately, it was about creating trust: “We wanted to become a data-led organization,” says Gupta. “And we knew that the power of data starts with trust. Once you start believing in your data, the sky’s the limit.”

KKI worked together with Accenture and Avanade on an ambitious, multi-year transformation journey with a goal to set up a best-in-class, scalable data foundation. Having made the strategic decision to use Microsoft Azure as the primary cloud for data due to its scalability and security, our joint team first wanted to ensure proper standards and architecture were in place.

“We started by setting up the managed services, development, standards and governance processes,” says Gupta. “This included creating the framework for how the data would be adopted and communicated across the business.”

The full data transformation began with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP implementation and migration of KKI’s data from on-prem to a centralized data Lakehouse infrastructure on Azure Databricks: “Access to data is crucial for making informed business decisions, and it’s key that the solution build is not only robust, but scalable,” says Mina Al-Khudairy, Avanade client account lead. “This will enable KKI to effectively manage and utilize their data, and ensure they best serve their internal and external customers.”

This infrastructure supports real-time data feeds, providing one platform for seamless data integration and analysis, including a new commercial data model, a regional Power BI dashboard and self-service reporting platform. Reports that previously had to be manually created using Excel are now generated automatically for groups across the company.

“By empowering users to generate their own reports and insights with consistent KPIs, the commercial business across KKI has a much more accurate view of operations,” says Anthony Levesanos, Accenture engagement project sponsor.

Our approach was deeply rooted in employee empowerment. A new, comprehensive reporting system was created to provide consistent key performance indicators (KPIs) and measurement standards, enabling employees to take ownership of their data. Extensive support was provided through ongoing engagement activities, equipping users with the skills and confidence to compile meaningful insights independently.

The long-term partnership between KKI, Accenture and Avanade has transformed the company’s data outlook. By leveraging Databricks technology and focusing on employee engagement, KKI has achieved a business-led transformation powered by data-driven decision-making, enabling the team to realize a much faster time to deployment.

“Separate from data insights and data models, we have now created this level of trust and new ways of working,” says Gupta. “We trust our data and we trust our KPIs. Our data-culture literacy has also jumped. People see the long-term vision and are embracing data training to scale up in their own understanding.”

What comes next in KKI’s transformation journey? “Up until this point, most of our investment and our strategy with Accenture and Avanade has been creating that trust and delivering something that’s very operational,” Gupta says. “Now, we’ve started thinking about what we can build with all this data, apart from reports and insights. We’re looking at the art of the possible and how we can use the data to continue innovating and improving patient outcomes.”

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