| | April 20169CIOReviewsolutions from across the department, regardless of titles or levels. I have an open-door policy for associates to share their insights. I review discussions on our internal social network, responding to conversations and supporting ideas. We host frequent all-hands meetings to ensure alignment on company goals and how the IT department supports them. This investment in talent and focus on collaboration has helped AmerisourceBergen stay one step ahead in developing innovative IT solutions, even before our customers know they need them. For example, when our team understood that AmerisourceBergen's focus was to help customers become more efficient and increase product access, one of our associates investigated an approach to fast, efficient deliveries. By collaborating with others to review ordering information in SAP, this particular associate developed a new IT solution that allowed us to combine our customer's purchase orders to reduce the number of large totes delivered by 15percent, or 50,000 ­ 60,000 fewer totes per day. This reduction in delivery had a positive economic and environmental impact that could immediately be felt by our client. Starting with our customer's needs in mind and understanding our organizational goals, this associate used data and collaboration to create a more efficient pick/pack/ship process, increase the capacity of our distribution centers, and reduce transportation costs that we've since replicated with other large customers. For our customers, there are less totes to receive and manage, which means some products can be delivered more frequently, all products can make it to the shelves faster, and patients have better access to the medications they need. Creating Connectivity Internally and Externally IT is a driver of connectivity within and outside of an organization. A core challenge for building those bridges is standardization of information both within the organization and among customers and partners. As we've grown, we've implemented rules to dictate what kind of data is used and shared, how it is used, and who can access it. Having these rules in place has helped ensure connectivity that, using both data science and clinical expertise, unlocks the value of information for our customers. We're working with data from oncology EMRs and natural language processing software to better understand how oncologists are prescribing different therapies. This provides insight into treatment pathways that was previously captive in notes as difficult-to-analyze qualitative data. Extracted and put into usable formats, manufacturers can better understand how their products are being used, and physicians can monitor trends in treatment. In both of those uses, the end goal is that patients are provided with the best care and data-driven treatment recommendations. This type of project benefits from connectivity that is enabled by strict firewalls, patient protection measures, and standardization. By standardizing and analyzing data on behalf of members of our Good Neighbor Pharmacy network, we are able to identify trends and use numerical data to support reimbursement discussions with payers. This "strength in numbers" approach has been successful and wouldn't be possible without implementing standards that connect our company, the pharmacies we serve, and the business partners that support our efforts. Embracing the challenges and benefits of building a unified IT system has made our company stronger and more nimble. While we are a complex organization made of many business units, we serve our different customers and the industry-wide objective to make healthcare more accessible and better for patients. By focusing on our customers and their needs, hiring great talent to do that, and ensuring that we are able to create connections that help unlock value, we've transformed disparate IT systems into a streamlined source of insight and foresight. Embracing the challenges and benefits of building a unified IT system has made our company stronger and more nimble
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