Aligning Operational Drivers to Financial Results
The Situation
A full-service pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) focused exclusively on middle-market commercial clients (employer groups, TPAs, brokers) was struggling with its data. Specially, as a particularly data-intensive business, the Management and the Sponsor lacked insight into operational drivers of financial performance – especially with respect to rebates.
Our Accordion team was engaged to help Management provide timely, accurate, and proactive responses to the Sponsor’s requests. This required an assessment of data architecture, validation of datasets, and a robust, iterative visualization exercise in Power BI. The visualization exercise included outputs on claims, pricing algorithms, rebates, as well as AR aging.
Services
Stakeholder Reporting & KPI Development
Finance Function Automation
BI Systems and Selections
The Execution
The project was divided into two workstreams:
Workstream 1: Reporting & Data Architecture Assessment and Data Model Design
- Worked with key members of the FP&A and IT teams to:
- Review the existing contents of the data warehouse and assess the data for development of financial statements
- Design a roadmap for the construction of the reporting and client modules, including an assessment of reporting engine deployment options (e.g. Power BI)
- Documented existing data sets and designed a data model map for the various disparate datasets required for end-state reporting
Workstream 2: Stakeholder Reporting
- Assessed potential data hurdles
- Collected, aggregated, and reviewed relevant historical data at the most granular level available (by utilizing existing reporting systems and internal data sources) to produce financial statements in a timely and efficient manner
- Leveraged Power BI to develop a reporting package which provides both Management and the Sponsor with greater visibility into financial results
- Reviewed and iterated on report output and contents with pre-determined stakeholders
- Defined and documented an efficient process and cadence for ongoing report updates
- Trained and transitioned model to appropriate contacts at the Company
- Supported the CFO in completion and delivery of monthly reporting to key stakeholders
The Results
As a result of our work, Management and the Sponsor have gained regular, detailed insight into the operational drivers of their data-intensive business. Before Accordion’s involvement, this insight did not exist (without significant manual effort that diverted resources away from their primary responsibilities). Now the CFO can make real-time decisions to help drive growth in partnership with the Sponsor.