Botox maker IT head says mobility is healthy for employees

Mobility is driving a change of culture for pharmaceutical leaders Allergan and its IT team led in EMEA by IT Director Wei Wang.

Allerganis a US based pharmaceutical maker that was acquired by rival Actavis in March 2015 in a deal worth $66 billion.

Actavis has acquired a major maker of ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, dermatology, neuroscience, urology and cosmetics in the deal. Botox, made famous by celebrities worried about laughter lines and aging is an Allergan product. Although famed as a cosmetic, Botox is also used to treat muscle over activity and other debilitating disorders.  Allergan has a number of manufacturing facilities in the US, as well as Ireland and Costa Rica.

As IT Director for Allergan in EMEA since September 2013 Wang has concentrated his strategy on helping the company move to greater customer service, including its digital marketing strategy.

At the heart of this business wide strategy is Project Boston, which Allergan has been using to decentralise decision-making to that local decision makers in the country markets are empowered and have all the information they need to make the right business decision.

Wang’s major contribution to Project Boston has been to deliver a Salesforce effectiveness strategy to ensure increased access to information and collaboration. Wang told this title’s CIO 100 that this strategy ensures increased multi-channel customer engagement and for organisation to see Salesforce and IT at Allergan as “moving from a system of records to a system of engagements” which he says will support new digital business models.

To deliver this change Wang has worked on realigning the IT team at Allergan in EMEA so that it has a structure that maps to and support the overall commercial structure of the organisation, he told the 2015 CIO 100. In remapping the IT team Wang has been using external benchmarking to ensure the change management and to ensure it gains the maximum output from its existing IT investments.

Wang told the CIO 100 that: “Mobile has enabled any time anywhere, which has unleashed the operational efficiency in the organisation and diversified ways of engaging customers and improving customer experience.” This has impacted the strategy towards mobile devices.

“BYOD is no longer a cost-saving initiative; it drives deeper employee engagement and empowers employees to innovate.”