Customer story: Sanofi
How Sanofi stays ahead of competition with optimized business processes
Sanofi increases the efficiency of global processes, improves collaboration, and cuts costs with QPR ProcessAnalyzer.
QPR goes beyond just being a tool vendor. They work with us as true partners, providing honest feedback and open communication. With QPR, we have a true sense of collaboration and mutual respect.
Barbara Baron
Process Mining Expert at Sanofi
MEET OUR CUSTOMER
Sanofi
Sanofi is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on improving human health. This Fortune Global 500 company employs 93000 people, representing 142 nationalities in 90 countries. Its 21 R&D sites comprise medicines, clinical research, and vaccines.
Let’s start with the highlights
- Processes from 11 SAP systems visualized in one place
- 30,000 fewer monthly late payments
- Faster, accurate, and automated insights
- Global HR process median case duration reduced by 90%
- transparency of global KPI changes
- Improved reporting and collaboration
- Optimized processes and identification of automation opportunities
- Easier implementation of global core process models
- Streamlined and harmonized processes
Sanofi's journey with QPR ProcessAnalyzer
Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company, had been struggling with fragmented KPIs, a lack of visibility into systems and processes, and inadequate tools for improving standardization and identifying areas for improvement.
As they embarked on the implementation of new core business processes globally, they needed a solution to ensure standardization and conformance across all locations.
That's when they discovered QPR ProcessAnalyzer, a process mining solution that enabled them to consolidate and visualize SAP data from 11 different systems onto a single, intuitive, and interactive dashboard.
With QPR, Global Process Teams, from top management to individual analysts and process owners, gained the ability to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their processes. The accuracy of process execution was crucial for improving efficiency and standardizing processes across the global organization.
With the help of QPR, Sanofi was able to compare the actual process execution with the core model and uncover areas where a process did not follow its blueprint as well as identifying areas of improvements in Core Model processes.
Head of Process Intelligence at Sanofi, Christian Mueller, explains:
"We set out to discover the truth about our processes. With the hard work invested into defining the core model of each process, we wanted to see how it translated to reality. We sought to compare the objective data with our core model, rather than relying on subjective perceptions."
Sanofi was finally able to standardize processes, get rid of unwanted variations, and assist employees in navigating changes to their systems. Dynamic KPI analyses became possible, and the management team was able to actively examine both current processes and global KPIs, searching for opportunities to improve their performance.
Root cause analysis helped Sanofi pinpoint the key issues that were affecting efficiency, and the management team could dynamically delve into the details of each KPI. Process mining gave management, process owners, and business analysts a lot of information that they never had in the past.
Nikolay Goldovich, Head of Data, Process and Automation CoE, gives his take on the value of process mining:
"Process mining is going to tell you exactly where the problem is. This gives management, process owners, and business analysts a lot of information that they never had in the past. Now, the information is right at their fingertips."
Overall, QPR ProcessAnalyzer enabled Sanofi to transform the way they perceived business process optimization. They were able to gain transparency into KPIs, empower process owners to monitor process conformance, and identify opportunities for increased efficiency. The solution helped them overcome their challenges and achieve key objectives – and continues to do so in different areas and processes.
Let’s take a closer look at the process behind improving efficiency and transparency at Sanofi.
Why QPR ProcessAnalyzer
As your business grows, so does its complexity. We offer an enterprise solution that not just keeps up but expands to better serve your growing needs.
- Flexible, dynamic, and transparent
- Processes billions of complex data rows at an unprecedented speed
- Easy to set up and use
- A modern all-in-one solution that requires no data duplication
- Serves the entire enterprise: no need to upgrade each time you want to analyze another process
- Unique 1-click root cause analysis
- Highly secure and compliant with modern data governance
Transforming Sanofi’s Global Job Change Process
Sanofi was experiencing difficulties with its global Job Change Process. This process is about a Sanofian moving from one job to another his/her manager needs to initiate the change in Workday.
Due to the considerable number of country specifics and stakeholders, the process involved 6 Steps, covered by 8 actors. All these steps caused delays and Sanofi experienced a decrease in employee satisfaction.
The prominent pharmaceutical company partnered with QPR Software to simplify the process, boost efficiency, and introduce the Manager Self-Service, allowing managers to handle job change requests directly.
How QPR Software's Four-Step Methodology Boosted Efficiency and User Experience
QPR Software's approach to improving Sanofi's Job Change Process involved a four-step process, each critical to the project's success.
The four-step methodology helped Sanofi to improve the efficiency and user experience of the Job Change Process while implementing the Manager Self-Service. The project aligned with Sanofi's play-to-win strategy, which focuses on growth, innovation, efficiency, and reinventing how the company works.
The four steps of the process:
- First, a temporary team of specialists conducted a data-driven analysis of the process to uncover unknown insights and validate known pain points. This step set the foundation for the subsequent steps.
- The team then showed the improvement opportunities to stakeholders, leading to a redesign of the process from scratch.
- The third step was the user-centric approach with the support of the People Services operational teams. Starting from the user's perspective and considering their journey within the HR Workday system.
- Finally, the new process design was implemented, and training was provided to all stakeholders. The project team conducted post-implementation checks to ensure that the new process was working as intended.
The successful implementation of the new process demonstrates the importance of a user-centric approach, data-driven analysis, and stakeholder engagement in improving different business processes – from HR to Procurement.
QPR contains great functionalities to support the process mining exercise: from the visualization of the process, the KPIs, and the focus on the variations and bottlenecks, to the conformance to the model, the system offers a full end to end support approach to streamline processes.
Christine Van Heertum
Head of Employee and External Life Cycle & Solutions at Sanofi
1. The analysis
A virtual digital twin of the Job Change Process was created to analyze the process to both uncover unknown process insights and validate known pain points.
2. Awareness and change need
The team showed the priority list of improvement opportunities and created a steering committee with experts and sponsors from the whole value chain.
3. The user-centric approach
Lean tools were applied to interview customers and understand their needs when it came to executing a Job Change in the system and the difficulties they had experienced.
4. Implementation
The new process design was implemented, and training was provided to all users. The project team conducted post-implementation checks to ensure that the new process was working as intended.
The end results
The initiative delivered a breakthrough – Sanofi achieved 100% transparency in their processes, which led them to discover a treasure trove of insights.
Sanofi’s team uncovered the root causes of issues that were previously hidden, such as bottlenecks in a workflow, slow process variants with too many review steps, and cases going into loops. They also identified country-specific configurations that were causing lead time issues and different process initiators that were not globally rolled out or respected. Additionally, they found that actors in the process giving their approval too late, and that there were too many data fields to be filled.
“Some of the challenges we were facing were already known, but they were never visualized in KPIs and numbers”, explains Christian Mueller. This used to make it challenging to get all stakeholders aligned on changes and improvements. ”But now, armed with this new approach, we’ve turned our knowledge into actions that are driving our business forward”, he concludes.
Sanofi Achieves Significant Improvements in Efficiency, User Experience, and On-Time Completion Rates
Sanofi's job change process improvement initiative has yielded impressive results in several areas. The company was able to significantly improve the on-time completion rate of job change processes, with the median case duration reduced by 90% and the average case duration reduced by 80%. Additionally, the new lean process design increased efficiency by reducing the number of steps in the process and enhancing the user experience for both employees and managers.
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Improved On-Time Completion Rate
The biggest tangible result achieved through this initiative was the improvement in the On-Time Completion Rate of job change processes. Before the redesign, Sanofi was struggling to ensure the process was completed on time and correctly. However, with the lean process design and the active guidance functionality, the on-time completion rate of job changes increased significantly, ensuring that employee satisfaction was maintained.
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Reduced Case Duration
The median case duration was reduced by 87%: from 7.8.0 to 1 Day, and the average case duration was reduced by 80%: from 33 to 6.5 Days -
Increased Efficiency
The new lean process design reduced the number of steps in the job change process from up to 8 steps to just two. This resulted in a significant reduction in the time required to complete the process, as well as the manual work required to maintain it. This increased efficiency allowed the team to focus on more value-adding activities, such as the improvement initiative itself. -
Enhanced User Experience
By applying a user-centric approach to the redesign of the job change process, Sanofi was able to enhance the user experience for both employees and managers. The active guidance functionality implemented in the new process helped to guide users through the process initiation with explanations for the fields to be filled. This resulted in a more streamlined and intuitive process, which was easier for users to navigate. -
Improved Process Insights
The data-driven as-is analysis conducted during the 12-week analysis phase of the initiative provided Sanofi with valuable insights into the job change process. This enabled the company to identify pain points and prioritize improvement opportunities. The result was a more efficient and effective process, which was better aligned with the company's strategic priorities. -
Better Alignment with Strategic Priorities
The job change process improvement initiative was aligned with Sanofi's play to win strategy, which is focused on leveraging breakthrough science to transform the practice of medicine. By implementing the Manager Self-Service functionality and enhancing the job change process, Sanofi was able to accelerate efficiency, reinvent how they work, and ultimately focus on growth and lead with innovation.
Overall, the job change process improvement initiative was a resounding success for Sanofi, resulting in tangible improvements in efficiency, user experience, and on-time completion rates. By aligning the initiative with the company's strategic priorities, Sanofi was able to achieve significant gains in productivity and lay the groundwork for continued success in the future.
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