Case Study

CobaltRx

intro

About CobaltRX

CobaltRX is a consulting and auditing company for large pharmacy benefit plan sponsors. They collect client data, organize, and then analyze it for insights to optimize expenditures on the client’s pharmacy benefit plan(s). They also serve as the back office for other pharmacy benefit consultants to help them serve the data analytics and auditing needs of their clients. While subject matter experts in their business, technology is not their core area of expertise. As the business grew, they had a need to mature beyond Excel and other tools. They had a contractor implement something immediate to keep the lights on and provide room for growth.

Discovery

Challenge meet Solution

Challenge

They used Informatica to help normalize client data files and Salesforce to store the data. They then built custom reports out of Salesforce. Challenge was that someone technical had to manage every step of the process. New files? Technical request. Change to existing files. Technical request.

Solution

After an initial conversation we discovered they were simply using Salesforce as a database and Informatica was like a John Deere lawn mower for their small yard. The solution was to replace their entire stack with K3, a Microsoft SQL Server database, and Tableau for reporting.

K3 is now used by business users to incorporate new files and handle changes to existing client files. K3 delivers an easy to maintain datamart and Tableau has empowered them to slice and dice information as needed. As ongoing analysis reveals revisions that should be made upstream, business users make those in K3 directly.

Benefit

Not only were they able to rid themselves of unnecessary software expenses, they also shed their reliance on external technical consultants to drive a core part of their business. This grew the margins on their business giving them a competitive edge on pricing while bidding for new deals.

Result

The new technical stack has served as a foundation for company growth, all the while providing company principals with increased control and awareness over their clients’ data. Rather than focus on the data plumbing, their time is spent on their core mission; combing for insights to help their clients.

In Their Own Words...

"Most small to medium sized businesses struggle with the challenge of using technology to better serve clients. Our clients need clarity in the cost and trend drivers of their pharmacy benefit plan costs. Unfortunately the vast amounts of data that is produced by their vendors makes this task difficult. BroadPeak’s K3 solution offers us a more manageable and cost-effective way to assimilate disparate data files so Tableau’s data visualization tools can assist us in providing clients with the analysis and clarity required."

Upstream

Downstream