From a fully outsourced IT service, mostly focused on commodities and operational duties to a global, highly skilled internal force of 16. From clinical studies to quality processes, transitioning from off-line to digital, and embracing the cloud across 3 Countries to leverage the potential of AI. Dompé has transformed in just five years from a mostly regional pharmaceutical company to an international biopharmaceutical company with offices in the United States, Albania and China.

The IT department has been a critical part of this huge change, bringing in state-of-the-art technologies and tools to better serve staff members and patients. Daniele Rizzo was brought in as Chief Information Officer & Digital Transformation in 2021 to spearhead this evolution, keeping both patients and Dompé employees at the center of every decision. Here’s where he focuses his efforts.

 Creating a top teami,

As Dompé transitioned to become a truly global and highly dynamic business, Rizzo set up what he refers to as “a brilliant team where new, fresh energies have integrated the historical know-how of a few expert members”. Knowing the importance of digital, “we hired high-potential professionals. “Most of the team is recruited from top consulting companies or listed companies”, he explains. With career development key to these talented employees, Dompé invested in them, offering roles that would grow and stretch them.

Clear priorities

Rizzo and his team have streamlined business processes, making information easily accessible across different countries and cultures. IT needed to seamlessly connect supply chains and provide market access, but more than that, “Digital proved to be a real cultural glue”, says Rizzo. There was a clear plan, based on different pillars, incorporating modernization of the infrastructure, improving cybersecurity, reinforcing security and risk management, simplifying digital access, and streamlining workflows.

Updating processes

When Rizzo arrived, many processes were still run offline. The number of documents signed electronically has increased by 40% over the last year alone; clinical studies, which were held in a paper archive, are now provided with a digital, first-in class infrastructure – improving access. HR, again previously offline, is now run over a global digital platform.

You might assume IT is all about adding digital tools, but as Rizzo points out, “part of the journey is to take technology out of the picture”. He gives an example: “We had 14 different applications just to manage the purchase to pay process, which makes things difficult to support, share and access so part of our commitment was also to lower the number of application technologies, adopting more strategic platforms.”

Investing in people

Investing in technology is key, but so too is making sure everyone is on board with changes. “Part of the investment was providing all employees with state of the art tools, mobiles, tablets, a new software workplace infrastructure, conferencing rooms, and easier access”, says Rizzo. There have been vast improvements to the IT service itself, which Rizzo says has created a bridge between IT and users. “We have invested into educational programmes, training courses, and we have established a personal, trusting relationship between the IT team and employees. We consider that a fundamental step”. He cites what a huge change it has been for employees to move from keeping their own core resources to moving them into a wider, more accessible digital space. “We worked hard at creating a high level of trust to make people comfortable”, he says. “We’re still very much committed to providing such trust and credibility.”

Exploring the potential of AI

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic, and Rizzo and his team are exploring AI’s potential at Dompé. “We have provided 50 users with some AI capabilities, to let them understand what the potential of this new technology is. We’re going to promote more investment into knowledge sharing and definition of use cases around AI.” 

AI is already proving to be hugely helpful in the medical space, so how could it help a biopharmaceutical company? For Rizzo, the drug development process involves a huge amount of data and information, so he believes the right use of AI could speed that up, ultimately bringing new drugs to patients sooner. “From project management to product delivery, AI can benefit all the processes. In a pharma company, faster processes mean treatments are delivered faster.  We need to be prudent about changes, but we are accelerating our learning to then agree on a path forward”, he says.

Using data to help patients

Data is crucial, too. “The real core of our business is about information”, says Rizzo. “Information of how molecules interact with the human body, drug development, adverse reactions. Our product is not a piece of complex machinery. What is complex is the information, so data.” By streamlining dataflows, whichever specialist needs information about drug correlations, interactions or potentials can access it with ease. Effectively, “the value of data is its potential to get novel drugs to market quicker for patients.”

Rizzo also states that data will help us have a better understanding about drug potential, sometimes in unexpected ways. “Many antibiotics in their early stages were developed for something else”, he says. “A better understanding of the biological impact of medical principles is something that we can improve through better data management.” This has a direct impact on patients, “we can reach patients requiring our care”, says Rizzo.  

Keeping data secure

Of course cyber security and data protection are key, when fully scaling digital capabilities including data governance, data privacy, data classification, data protection and so on. Rizzo has a clear litmus test, “if we’ve got enough trust in our capability to treat the cyber threat, we will move part of our business into digital. If not, we won’t.”  When it comes to data level of access rights to data, Rizzo describes the approach as “rightly very conservative. We are building the foundational capabilities in order to move to the next stage.”

Embracing unique challenges

Rizzo joined the company having led the IT  for various companies, including some listed ones, in the space of retail and food services. In terms of challenges, he explains how “it’s a truly different context working in a pharmaceutical company. It’s much more information and skills intensive. There is also a strong medical culture, which doesn’t always match with the digital one.” He threw himself into getting a full understanding of those differences, one of which is the value and the relevance of data. “If you’re in a food company, yes you have a lot of data, but a recipe for a panini is not comparable to the complexity and sensitivity of the information we manage here.”

Choosing the right tools to meet goals

Rizzo and his team have integrated in Dompé specialized software solutions for the pharmaceutical industry and  a tool to set up their IT infrastructure and IT management processes as well as handle relationships with users. Meanwhile the Cloud adoption has been key. “Using Cloud is not just a technology change, it’s also going to change financial investment and cost profiles, it’s going to change organizational IT skills”, says Rizzo. The cloud system used at Dompé is “a top level, professional Cloud provided for hyper-scalers, which makes things secure and accessible.” 

Looking to the future 

So what’s next for this talented IT team? “It’s about changing IT governance, bringing IT to the boardroom, taking business decisions considering technology, and making AI part of that eventually”, says Rizzo. Having driven such a transformation, Rizzo also still keeps people and patients at the center of his work, “it’s about looking at the human dimension of this change. We are investing into changing the IT governance process, so business leaders take part in product decisions, strategic technology decisions. Will AI be part of that? Surely. I don't know how, but that’s part of the next phase.”