For Bernard Seiser, being vice-president of digital, information and IT at healthcare specialist AOP Well being is the most recent leg in a digital management journey that’s included a number of the greatest names within the life sciences trade. He describes the chance to deliver change to AOP as thrilling.
“We’re working in fascinating instances,” he says. “We’re doing loads of issues round digitisation. We’re a gorgeous place to work. We’ve got a transparent imaginative and prescient. We need to develop and be sure that we meet the unmet wants of our sufferers.”
Based in 1996, Vienna-based AOP Well being is a pioneer in built-in therapies for uncommon illnesses and demanding care. Seiser says this focus means the corporate’s day-to-day actions differ from these of Europe’s different large pharmaceutical corporations, lots of which he’s labored for beforehand. What is analogous, nevertheless, is the ever-growing significance of digital and information.
“AOP is a superb surroundings to work in, particularly in my position, as a result of we’ve got launched loads of modifications, with large initiatives and digital transformational actions,” he says. “What excites me is the chance to form the digital and IT panorama – enhancing how AOP works as an organisation. Being a part of this transformation journey is tremendous thrilling.”
Establishing targets
Seiser joined AOP Well being in September 2024. Having previously labored at Bayer, he’s additionally held senior IT management roles at Johnson & Johnson, Hookipa Pharma and AstraZeneca. He experiences to the AOP CEO.
“Initially, loads of my position was about designing the digital and IT technique,” says Seiser, reflecting on his 18 months with the corporate. “That duty took up in all probability 80% of my day-to-day job, the place I used to be creating the digital technique with the enterprise.”
With the long-term route agreed, his duties at the moment are extra targeted on rolling out initiatives, working with enterprise capabilities to make sure digitisation targets are agreed, and fascinating along with his crew to ship the programs the organisation calls for.
Seiser says the massive distinction between his position at AOP and Bayer, the place he was head of business information options, is the breadth of influence. At Bayer, his transformation actions targeted on information. At AOP, there’s a chance to drive change throughout the organisation.
“We’re not simply masking information,” he says. “We’re additionally masking business, R&D, medical, medical and so forth. The scope is far broader and, final result and impact-wise, it’s shaping all the organisation, not simply the information piece.”
Extra typically, Seiser describes the trendy CIO position as a super-important place as a result of it entails three essential subjects, all of that are encompassed in his job title at AOP, that he says roughly set the route for all the organisation – digital, information and expertise.
“No matter job title, I’ve all the time seen my position as a translator between expertise and the enterprise,” he says. “I’m not a marketeer. I don’t speak with sufferers, however I understand how precious digitalisation, information, and IT may be for the organisation. Typically, that data is unavailable to the enterprise. So, I see myself as a translator who can implement the issues they require.”
Plotting the roadmap
Seiser says the broad purpose of digital transformation at AOP is to make sure that strong, compliant and dependable IT foundations are in place. This foundation-building course of was central to the technique he designed when becoming a member of the agency, setting the overall route of journey by 2030. Now, he’s following the roadmap to succeed in that strategic vacation spot.
“We recognized that to develop additional and guarantee we have been on monitor with our enterprise imaginative and prescient at AOP, we wanted to step up the sport on digitisation and the IT spine, which meant taking a look at every little thing holistically, from analysis to business,” he says.
“No matter job title, I’ve all the time seen my position as a translator between expertise and the enterprise”
Bernard Seiser, AOP Well being
“That method was about extra than simply implementing the suitable instruments. It was additionally about guaranteeing that our digital transformation goes hand in hand with altering how we function, how we have a look at information, how we have a look at governance and the way we have a look at KPIs.”
Whereas Seiser and his crew are reaching key stage posts on the digital roadmap, he recognises that transformation is an ongoing journey. “Once I got here in, a few initiatives had already began as a result of they’d recognized that the ERP [enterprise resource planning] system was one of many core functions that wanted to be revitalised,” he says.
“After we checked out different enterprise functions, we recognized different necessities that wanted to be met. And that is what we’re targeted on now – guaranteeing we ship the outcomes on our roadmap. After which, as a subsequent step, we need to be sure that we preserve these programs and additional develop them to make one of the best use of our investments.”
Reworking the enterprise
Key transformation targets have already been achieved. AOP has moved its present Navision ERP system to the Microsoft Dynamics platform. Seiser’s crew has additionally carried out a knowledge lakehouse primarily based on Microsoft Materials expertise.
“That’s a platform to retailer, organise, rework and utilise our information,” he says. “We’re integrating the ERP information. As different programs go reside, we may even combine that information into the lakehouse, in order that we’ve got a consolidated platform the place we are able to extract analytics and generate insights and greatest practices.”
Seiser says AOP’s digital transformation continues apace. The enterprise is exploring enterprise system refreshes in different areas, together with planning, invoicing, and human sources. AOP can be implementing Veeva cloud-based expertise. “The checklist is fairly lengthy,” he says.
So, will that work take his crew by to AOP’s 2030 digital technique deadline?
“That’s appropriate, however we need to get there a lot sooner,” he says. “The ambition is to have every little thing completed in a strong state by 2028. I’d assume that we’ll have 80% to 90% of the core functions in place, and that they’re interconnected and serviced in the suitable method, in order that we are able to then give attention to the trendier areas, comparable to superior analytics and AI.”
Seiser recognises rising expertise can create a step change in operations and workflows. AI, for instance, is a part of the Veeva cloud-based platform designed for the life sciences trade that his crew is implementing. The organisation additionally makes use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot for accepted duties, comparable to help with writing emails.
The important thing message, says Seiser, is that generative and agentic providers will solely be carried out in his extremely ruled trade when the use case is confirmed and AI-enabled outputs are 100% correct.
“We need to set up the foundations, stabilise them, optimise them after which use AI to develop our efforts,” he says.
Optimising operational actions
A key aspect of Seiser’s digital roadmap is the Veeva platform, the primary stage of which went reside lately. By standardising on life sciences functions within the Veeva Vault Platform, AOP hopes to streamline operations, get rid of silos, and speed up the supply of essential medicines to sufferers.
“After we began the digital technique, we already knew that sure programs wanted to be addressed sooner quite than later, and it grew to become clear that Veeva may very well be a possible possibility to switch the core programs that we have already got in place and likewise present further functionalities that we’ll have the ability to leverage sooner or later,” he says.
What I would love … is that individuals don’t spend an excessive amount of time on menial actions, [and instead focus] on delivering higher outcomes for the affected person Bernard Seiser, AOP Well being
AOP will use Veeva as a part of a linked cloud technique, bringing collectively its medical analysis, growth, high quality and business groups. Slightly than simply offering a expertise platform, Seiser hopes the combination and interoperability supplied by Veeva’s platform will assist to optimise inside processes and methods of working.
“It ought to make our lives simpler in that sense that we are able to have established processes end-to-end on the Veeva platform, that means there aren’t any handovers, no breaks within the course of, and every little thing has the identical degree of transparency and safety in the identical interface,” he says.
The primary part, the Veeva Validation Administration system – a paperless method to validation – went reside in March, with different capabilities set to observe quickly. Seiser says the platform’s core functionalities will present a base for additional data-enabled change.
“As soon as these programs are in place, we’ll return to the enterprise and ask, ‘Okay, what else are you able to leverage to enhance your methods of working? What characteristic, for instance, might have an effect on affected person outcomes or the outreach to our sufferers?’” he says.
“So, that is the muse part. Then we are going to construct on prime of the muse, optimise every little thing after which we’ll do the extra fascinating stuff, which implies a deep dive into the AI capabilities of Veeva specifically, and leveraging these functionalities as properly.”
Delivering higher outcomes
Seiser displays on his first 18 months at AOP and suggests his crew has made strong progress in direction of its long-term aim – utilizing all of the organisation’s information in a compliant and safe method.
“We need to generate insights that both make us faster when it comes to the processes we full, be faster out there or grant faster affected person entry to our merchandise,” he says. “We’re already seeing that there are a number of methods digitisation will influence our methods of working and the way we serve our clients.”
Between now and 2030, Seiser and his crew will proceed to refine the programs and providers they supply to the remainder of the enterprise. Two years from now, he expects individuals throughout the organisation to learn from a consolidated IT panorama that makes it simpler for professionals to work successfully.
“We’ve talked about Microsoft, and we’ve got Veeva in place now. There shouldn’t be hundreds of functions it’s good to hook up with, and the place individuals have a special expertise in every system. The processes needs to be established end-to-end, with no interruption, and traceability and transparency to observe the processes,” he says.
“What I wish to have established for the enterprise is that individuals don’t spend an excessive amount of time on menial actions, doing further work, which is definitely not wanted, however as an alternative give attention to what’s vital to them and to our organisation – having the affected person in thoughts and specializing in delivering higher outcomes for the affected person.”
