Conexus Solutions, Inc.: Empowering Life Sciences Companies with Data-Driven Practical Analytics

As data continues to grow exponentially, we are becoming more data-rich, information-poor, and insights starved! As a result, companies are seeking better ways to glean insights from a multitude of sources rapidly and deploy the insights to end-users close to real-time. However, this is easier said than done. “A pressing question that most of our clients face is: There is a myriad of sales, claims, and marketing data, but what do we do with it? Just looking at raw numbers doesn’t mean much,” says Akshay Kapadia, founder and CEO, Conexus Solutions. “This is where we come in. Leveraging over 20 years of experience in providing systems and services for commercial operations, we help small to mid-size pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies uncover the hidden value in largely untapped data sources,” affirms Kapadia. The firm’s cloud data warehousing and master data management solutions set the stage for clients to use data to make objective and strategic business decisions.

Conexus’ services span four core areas: sales or commercial operations, data science and insights, cloud services, and marketing operations. The firm provides end-to-end services and systems that allow pharma and life sciences companies to outsource their technology support operations confidently. “This includes the different stages of the drug development lifecycle—from R&D, clinical to commercial. We specialize in CRM implementation and support, systems integration, data management, analytics, AI and ML solutions, application development, and end-user support,” adds Kapadia.

When it comes to data science, Conexus’ data scientists help companies gain deeper insights into their marketing campaigns, sales team performance, and customer behavior. “Clients don’t have to explain to us why they need the data because we understand the ‘why.’ This helps us lay the foundation, process the data quickly, and provide practical insights through dashboards, drill-downs, and visualizations,” avers Sunitha Venkat, practice lead, Data Science and Insights at Conexus. As organizations explore their modern data estate, the Conexus Data Science and Insights team helps pharma companies procure data from multiple sources, ingest, prep, explore, transform, train, predict and serve data. They assist in fostering a culture that leverages data to unlock insights that drive better outcomes and facilitate business transformations. This is where modern cloud data warehousing comes into the picture. “We curate data in a way that it is readily available for anyone who needs it. AI and ML solutions rely on clean data. We help life sciences companies start their advanced analytics and digital transformation journey with confidence,” asserts Sunitha.

While Conexus currently specializes in descriptive analytics, purpose-built for life sciences, the team is looking to include predictive and prescriptive analytics, which will help companies identify the likelihood of future outcomes and find the best course of action for a given scenario. Furthermore, they are also investing in data cataloging capabilities to help companies understand data lineage, trace how their data was transformed, what changed, when, and why.

Through its cloud services, on the other hand, Conexus handles the implementation and management of marketing and sales operations technologies for pharma and life sciences teams. “We combine marketing automation and CRM system expertise with a practice-based understanding of the complex challenges that life sciences marketing and sales teams face.

Leveraging over 20 years of experience in providing systems and services for commercial operations, we help small to mid-size pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies uncover the hidden value in largely untapped data sources

Our services include system implementation, integration, training, data management, and ongoing user support,” mentions Praveen Chandrasekhar, CIO, Conexus Solutions. Thus, clients can reap the benefits of CRM implementation without the complexity and cost of maintaining and managing internal resources.

That’s not all. Conexus takes things a notch higher by also providing marketing support services —joining creativity with technology. “We do not claim to be an agency but we can provide cost-effective solutions and services needed by the brand and marketing teams. Our offerings range from website development, video production to ad and collateral design to custom photography, and more. Because our marketing resources are ‘on-call’ and easily scalable, clients only pay for the services they need. They won’t have to underwrite the overhead of a large, multi-tiered agency,” highlights Kapadia.

The Conexus Advantage: The Team behind the Team

When it comes to the factors that differentiate Conexus in the marketplace, the company’s customer-centered engagement approach ranks first. Primarily, client interactions are structured in a way that there is a single point of contact from the start till the end. To ensure that the requirements are fully met, two stages of review (alpha and beta) are put in place. What is truly remarkable is that Conexus does not merely implement what clients ask for but also offers their learnings and insights. Engagement managers, who are veterans in the life sciences industry, form Conexus’ consulting team and help clients navigate and alleviate possible risks through mitigation strategies. “Our clients know that they can count on us to deliver the product and be there with them as it is rolled out into production. The whole interaction is highly consultative, unlike an order-taking approach. They receive white-glove service, even post-implementation,” states Chandrasekhar. This approach, in addition to the team’s nimbleness, transparency (with work scope and billing), and collaborative culture, has enabled Conexus to build great relationships with all its clients.

Driven by these competencies, Conexus celebrated its fifth anniversary this year. Since its inception in 2016, the firm has grown tremendously, both from a capability as well as revenue standpoint. “All that said, these are still early days for us. And the potential is much bigger than what we have achieved. We are quite confident of a lot of successes along the way in the coming years,” wraps up Kapadia.