VIDEO | Apotex Senior Director: Data is the Most Important Asset After People

(US and Canada) Aida Tahiri, Senior Director of Enterprise Data and Analytics at Apotex, speaks with Robert Lutton, Sandhill Consultants Vice President, about prioritizing data management, balancing multiple portfolios, and aligning the organization’s programs to address business issues.

Tahiri states that high-quality, innovative, and affordable medication access is the core purpose of Apotex as an organization. Focusing on that, the organization brought together patients, customers, products, and supporting partners, and structured them as data assets, she adds. Tahiri mentions that the organization highlights the data assets critical to success and prioritizes them from the data management perspective.

According to Tahiri, data is the most important asset after people. She defines assets as the resources owned, managed, and leveraged by the organization to drive future benefits. That way, Apotex leverages all the data assets to work on governance, definitions, and all the components of good data management.

Speaking about managing multiple portfolios, Tahiri explains an internal decision to not use Excel workbooks and databases to manage data. Instead, Apotex invested in technology and resources to enable and support vendors, external partners, and the global IT department. By implementing definitions, metadata, or data quality rules, her team uses technology to educate and enable the organization to make better progress. She adds that, while it is difficult to manage initially, it provides the organization with a solid platform to move forward.

As a member of the EDM Council, Tahiri mentions training her team on the council’s Data Management Capability Assessment Model (DCAM) to gain deeper insight and use its guidance to develop the data management program at Apotex.

Further, Tahiri shares that theoretically educating the organization on data governance and management is one thing, but the appreciation comes when the business faces pain. She suggests that teams can provide the most value in areas where it gets challenging to access the customer structure, hierarchy, and interconnectivity. Tahiri also uses end-user feedback as success stories across the organization.

Speaking on the issue of data management, Tahiri reveals that the organization is transitioning from SAP to HANA, and data work is critical to the success of such implementations. She states that it is fundamental to prioritize good data work and reengineer the concept of data ownership for people by guiding them and providing tools.

Concluding, Tahiri mentions that her team has made a difference by understanding and profiling data and has brought the organization along on the journey.

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