Astellas Pharma Inc. is a leading global pharmaceutical company with more than 17,000 employees. The company is headquartered in Japan with regional headquarters in the US and EMEA.
To contribute to the business globally, Astellas IS (Information Systems) made the decision to harmonize regional operations. This required common governance policies, standards and a single standard management tool. Previously, processes and information were managed in isolation within regions and functions, which created a number of challenges in terms of consistency and governance. Creating overviews across geographies and functions was a manual and time consuming process.
“To support ongoing planning and prioritization activities, we were looking for a new Portfolio Management approach for Astellas IS. This required up-todate project information related to finances and performance across regions. Decision Focus is very good at supporting us in achieving this.”
Osamu Inagaki, Associate Director, Strategy & PMO, Strategic Planning & Control
The Decision Focus platform was chosen as the common management tool to help address these challenges. The scope of the solution includes:
“Having a single Global Governance Model was a key for success in this organizational change. We knew that the introduction of a global governance process would be a challenging journey. Along the way we would need the flexibility to adapt and change our requirements as our maturity increased by learning and expansion. It was therefore crucial to have a tool that could evolve with us along this journey.
We selected Decision Focus as it is extremely flexible and because of the ease and speed with which it can be configured to address new process areas as our requirements are crystalized.”
Hisashi Shimobayashi, Executive Director, Head of Strategic Planning & Control
Based on the global scale and the local variances of Demand and Portfolio Management, it was agreed that a ‘Top-Down’ approach would be the most effective way to implement the solution. The financial processes in connection with Demand and Portfolio Management were used as the backbone of implementing the global solution as these provided a level of commonality.
As requirements still needed to be vetted, but implementation speed was also of essence, an agile implementation approach was applied.
Management of Astellas IS Project Information
Challenges: Regional approach using a number of different tools.
After the implementation: Decision Focus is now the common collaborative tool for consistent management across regions. Productivity has been improved by standardizing processes and eliminating duplication.
Project Approvals
Challenges: Different offline approval templates within regions.
After the implementation: The introduction of new standardized templates, supported by workflow, has resulted in faster decision making and more focused management meetings. Decision Focus makes critical information readily available and also provides easily accessible audit logs for improved governance.
Status Reporting
Challenges: Individual leadership team members provided a monthly update based on a Word template.
After the implementation: Users update the project status directly in Decision Focus. This reduces the manual effort required and results in a central upto-date view of the portfolio status. The portfolio progress, including history and trending analysis, can now easily be shared with business stakeholders.
Benefits Realization
Challenges: Besides Japan, Astellas did not have a consistent Benefit Realization process.
After the implementation: A common Benefit KPI model was established as a compulsory part of the process for projects above a specified size. This helps provide timely information to business stakeholders about realized benefits and the business value that Astellas IS is delivering.
The Demand and Portfolio Management solution is considered by management as the right vehicle to create transparency and communicate investments within Astellas IS. Moving forward the solution will be used not only for gaining consensus with the business, but also as an information source for investor communication.
Osamu Inagaki adds “Decision Focus has the experience and know-how to propose alternative solutions and work styles to meet our requirements. This has enabled us to implement user-centric solutions both fast and effectively.”
Decision Focus is a simpler solution for GRC (Governance Risk & Compliance) management. It is 100% web-based and service-orientated, easily configurable and requires a minimum of end-user training.
Decision Focus Platform replaces the unstructured mixture of e-mails, documents and spreadsheets used for managing all aspects of GRC, with a role-based, user-friendly and fully customized web-portal.
Key benefits include:
Ease of use and simplicity of ownership. Our complete solution, supporting all GRC stakeholders, comes in one low license cost. We can quickly help you tailor it to fit your exact needs and give your users a system they love to use.
Risk Dashboard (example)
Risk Landscape (example)
Decision Focus is not only for governance, it is not only for risk and not only for compliance. Decision Focus is a fully integrated system that enables you to manage all three areas in a single platform, which also supports Internal Audit. No more silos. We offer you a solution that breaks down internal barriers and lets you manage all aspects of GRC in a simple manner - with the same line of thinking and a common terminology throughout your organization. It will save you time and money while enabling you to solve more diversified tasks.
If you can use a smart phone, you can use Decision Focus. In fact, you can use it on your smart phone. We believe GRC should be embedded in your organization so everybody with a role in GRC feels confident with the tools. No more ivory towers. It’s extremely user-friendly and easy to configure. It is designed to intuitively engage employees at all levels, even those who only use the system every third month. And this is not something we just say. Decision Focus has one of the highest NPS (Net Promotor Score) in the industry.