From Underconfigured to Optimized: Reengineering a Digital Asset Library for Global Pharmaceutical Marketing.

About the Client

Company L is one of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies and operates globally through more than 140 affiliates. The company researches, develops, manufactures, and sells novel therapeutic products for human and veterinary markets.

Industry Context

By the mid-to-late 2000s, pharmaceutical marketing organizations were widely adopting commercial marketing resource management and digital asset management platforms like Aprimo’s Enterprise Marketing Management suite to centralize the creation, review, approval, and distribution of marketing collateral — work that carries unusual legal and regulatory review burdens compared to most other industries. A common pattern in these commercial off-the-shelf deployments, though, was that systems went live with default or minimally customized configurations, leaving much of the platform’s real capability unrealized until a dedicated post-implementation enhancement effort addressed it. Company L’s own DAL had gone unoptimized for roughly two years after its installation. Because pharmaceutical marketing content also had to flow to external advertising agencies alongside internal legal, regulatory, and marketing stakeholders, configuration decisions carried real compliance and brand-consistency stakes beyond typical marketing operations concerns.

Current Situation

Company L’s Marketing and Creative Services Department launched the DAL Enhancement Project to improve its current portal and digital asset management deployment. Specifically, the Department wanted to collect end-user feedback about new DAL features and functionality, develop a set of improvement recommendations, define an implementation roadmap, and implement the recommendations — engaging Iknow to lead the effort.

• An underconfigured system since initial installation. The DAL system had never been optimally configured, leaving much of the platform’s real capability unrealized.
• No structured end-user feedback process. No structured mechanism existed for collecting end-user feedback on DAL features and functionality from the Department’s actual users.
• Dual internal and external audience requirements. Marketing collateral needed to be accessible to roughly 50 external advertising agencies as well as internal teams, raising the stakes for content architecture, permissions, and findability.
• No path from recommendations to production implementation. The Department needed a credible, sequenced path from identifying enhancements to actually implementing them in production, not just a wish list.

• Collect end-user feedback about new DAL features and functionality.
• Develop a set of improvement recommendations addressing the DAL system’s identified gaps.
• Define an implementation roadmap sequencing the recommended enhancements.
• Implement the recommendations, culminating in a production rollout of the improved system.

How Iknow Structured the Work

Iknow structured the engagement around identifying a comprehensive set of enhancements, then executing a three-phase implementation roadmap moving from design through migration and rollout to expanded use — reflecting Iknow’s information management platform implementation methodology for getting genuine value out of an existing commercial system rather than replacing it outright.

Key Activities & Decisions

• Comprehensive enhancement identification. Iknow identified 38 major enhancements to the existing DAL system, covering content architecture and metadata design, user interfaces, connections between assets, Tempo workflow integration with the DAL, the DAL’s use by external advertising agencies, asset expiration and archiving, search, content creation guides, and personalization.
• Phase 1: Content architecture and search evaluation. In Phase 1, Iknow focused on content architecture and DAL system enhancements, producing detailed technical design documents to guide coding by Aprimo and other developers, and evaluating commercial search software.
• Phase 2: Migration, technical changes, and rollout. In Phase 2, Iknow migrated existing content to the new system, implemented the technical changes, and designed and implemented business process and organizational changes, with production rollout occurring at the end of this phase.
• Phase 3: Expansion and leverage. In Phase 3, Iknow expanded and leveraged Company L’s investments in its digital assets and the Tempo system.
• Full-lifecycle project outputs. Iknow delivered business and technical requirements collection and documentation, user experience design including use cases, wireframes, and screen mockups, best-practice identification, COTS software product evaluation, improvement identification, and system design and development.

Stakeholders & Collaboration

Iknow served as prime contractor, working with Company L’s Marketing and Creative Services Department, Public Relations, and internal users in Marketing, Legal, Regulatory, and Managed Markets Marketing, alongside roughly 50 external advertising agencies with portal access.

Upgrading a Live System Without Disrupting Daily Marketing Operations

The DAL was already in daily use by internal staff and roughly 50 external agencies, so a disruptive or poorly sequenced upgrade risked real operational harm to ongoing marketing activity. Iknow addressed this by structuring the work into a phased roadmap that completed content architecture and technical design first, then handled migration and production rollout as a distinct, later phase, introducing change in a controlled, staged way rather than all at once.

Balancing Internal and External User Needs in One Platform Configuration

Internal teams across Marketing, Creative Services, Legal, Regulatory, and Managed Markets Marketing needed different access and workflows than roughly 50 external advertising agencies using the same system. Iknow addressed this by explicitly including the DAL’s use by external advertising agencies as one of the 38 identified enhancement areas and configuring the Digital Asset Portal and Task Portal components to serve both internal and external users appropriately.

Quantitative Outcomes

• Enhancements identified: 38 major enhancements identified across nine functional areas of the DAL system.
• Implementation roadmap delivered: A three-phase implementation roadmap delivered and executed through production rollout.
• Platform scope configured: Five Aprimo modules and three additional components configured, including the Digital Asset Portal and Task Portal.
• User base served: Roughly 50 external advertising agencies provided portal access alongside internal Marketing, Legal, Regulatory, and Managed Markets users.
• Engagement duration: Five-month assignment.

Qualitative Outcomes

At the end of the project, Company L had a significantly improved digital asset management system. Users in both the Marketing and Creative Services Department and the external advertising agencies provided very positive feedback regarding user experience, digital asset findability, streamlined workflow, and improved productivity — genuine evidence the enhancement effort delivered real, felt value to both internal and external user populations rather than simply completing a technical rollout.

Timeline to Impact

Within the five-month engagement, Iknow moved from 38 identified enhancements through a three-phase roadmap to production rollout by the end of Phase 2, with Phase 3 continuing to expand and leverage the investment beyond the initial engagement.

Core Skills

• Digital asset management platform optimization
• Content architecture and metadata design
• User experience design (wireframes and mockups)
• COTS software evaluation

Methods & Frameworks

• End-user feedback collection and requirements gathering
• Phased implementation roadmapping
• Best practices benchmarking

Technologies & Tools

• Aprimo Enterprise Marketing Management suite (Tempo)
• Digital Asset Portal and Task Portal; commercial search software evaluation