In 2021, the pharmaceutical industry faces the severe problem of reshaping and reconsidering the traditional models and approaches.
The global lockdown caused an increased level of uncertainty, personalization, and digitalization. All this creates the trend titled by McKinsey “next normal,” or the situation of constant search for innovative solutions and models.
Notwithstanding this nervousness, the harsh Coronavirus reality has brought some positive changes. For example, the distant selling of drugs and access to pharmaceutical companies via the Internet during quarantine proved to be a good practice that is about to stay for long.
In this case, pharmacy management software serves as the innovation that addresses most industry challenges and provides the services needed. Check our overview to request this technological solution for your business benefit!
What Is Pharmacy Management Software?
In essence, the technology for pharmacy management is applied to optimize the routine processes that take place in a pharmaceutical company.
It has numerous capabilities, including workflow automation, boosting sales, and digital documentation, among other benefits.
The core functionality of the pharmacy management system refers to the facilitation of medical prescriptions. Precisely, this tool manages inventory, picks the drugs needed and available, and delivers them to patients securely and effectively.
At the same time, it’s applicable to improving the entire supply chain, addressing the needs and expectations of numerous stakeholders.
The Importance of Pharmacy Management Systems for the Industry
The software is beneficial for large and small pharmaceutical companies alike. In particular, the technology assists in enhancing the relationship with customers, meaning that you can meet their expectations more accurately.
On a larger scale, the functionality of pharmacy software improves communication with partners. You can establish stronger relationships with wholesalers, manufacturing companies, and warehouses.
Overall, the technology can improve the quality of various routine operations, making them error-free and impactful. They may refer to price setting, medication selection, security measures, and supply chain, to name a few.
All in all, it serves as an integrated platform where various modules and technologies assist in delivering the service of the highest quality a given pharmaceutical company can effort.
6 Benefits of Pharmacy Management Software
- Cost-effectiveness. With the diversified set of automatic technologies, pharmacy software significantly decreases the number of extra working hours from your specialists. However, this is a long-term advantage that needs a substantial short-term investment first.
- Less paperwork. Online pharmacy capabilities let you forget about the need to cope with numerous documents. Steadily, you can switch to an entire eCommerce module that enables executing completely contactless sales where the drugs are delivered to the doorstep of your clients directly.
- Internal integration of processes. With pharmacy management software, you can synchronize the work between departments and stakeholders, including the back-office, sales teams, offline data flows, and many other processes.
- Improved client experience. Starting from tracking the order history, you can offer pharmaceutical products to your customers more accurately. Furthermore, pharmacy management systems can link the information from insurance agencies and patient history from medical institutions. This data can boost your sales by connecting your drugs to the relevant client base category.
- Better inventory management. The specialty pharmacy management software provides an easy-to-use interface to enhance resource allocation. This way, you can enjoy better control over your stock with more accurate invoicing and financial management. You can feel the improvements starting from order tracking by collecting data from other agencies, providing multi-location support, and reporting on what’s going on in your store that can be updated anytime.
- Effective sales. Each pharmaceutical product has its own record in the pharmacy management systems, including the available amount, typical client profile, and promotions available. All this information can help your salesmen do their job better and contribute to your business strategy efficiently.
6 Must-Have Features of Pharmacy Management Software
- Stock control modules. The software should contain drug selection, supply management, scheduling orders, and filling in the necessary details for tracking the inventory. In other words, pharmacy inventory management software completes the entire digital audit. Ideally, this module should provide the information in real-time for the highest accuracy of inventory management possible. Moreover, it should be integrated with several pharmaceutical organizations (like ambulatories, retailers, and inventory centers) to process all the needed data sets and deliver the best results.
- Scheduling prescriptions. This prescription management feature is closely linked to stock control, meaning that the processes of filling the inventory and prescribing the medications are synchronized and guarantee the optimization level needed. This way, digital prescription turns into an error-free and user-friendly option that accurately and rapidly dispenses medications among patients.
- Workflow management module. In this dimension, pharmacy software mechanisms should take care of checking the accuracy of the medication appointment process. In particular, it deals with preliminary patient identification, prescription creation, automotive data entry processing, and order medication issuing. In short, pharmacy workflow software assists in operational management, meaning the assistance in delivering the drugs from the entry point to the point of sale.
- Reporting system. This pharmacy software element lets you manage and store information within your company. Besides, the feature can generate analytical reports and stick to all the privacy requirements for sensitive data. The reporting module is highly practical since it is able to mitigate risks, introduce data-driven decisions, and make audits empowered by detailed analytics. The greater good is in enhancing business strategy and meeting certification requirements.
- Finances and accounting. The pharmacy management software should introduce a careful approach to checking the payments from suppliers and consumers. In this context, the smart mechanism can connect your data processing and reports with local regulations to facilitate the work of your accounts.
- Notifications system. Within the software, you can use the customized system of alerts to establish closer communication and better customer care. For instance, you can send reminders that refer to patient safety, medications that are about to be out of stock, and upcoming promotions. Frequently, pharmaceutical companies use this feature to schedule text messages to patients that help them keep track of their prescriptions.
Key Technologies Needed to Create Pharmacy Management Software
In terms of the technological stack, the software developers you’ll hire will require knowledge of several programming languages.
Basically, they are Angular, Java, Swift, Kotlin, PHP, CSS3, and HTML5 (for front-end) and Python, Node.JS, and Laravel (for back-end). The exact set of coding knowledge depends heavily on the customized solution you’ve chosen, though.
Moreover, there are some structural elements of medication management software that require special skills from your developers.
- Database. This technology is needed to store the various information flows in one place. Mostly, developers refer to MySQL and PostgreSQL. For the implementation details, check the section on the database system development life cycle in our blog. Here, you can get the plan to help you start the negotiation process with your development team.
- Cloud. E-prescription and overall operation of the pharmacy management work the best in the specially designed hosted program. Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS are the most trusted technologies to build such a platform. If you’re about to transfer your existing legacy infrastructure to the cloud computing environment, check the guide on 7 key cloud migration risks in our blog.
- Integrated Voice Reporting (IVR) systems. This technology is useful for processing telephone conversations. The core functionality includes text-to-speech conversion, updating patient status automatically, and giving answers during calls.
- Analytics. For analyzing the data and generating reports, Google Analytics and Amazon EMR work the best.
- Payment processing. Once integrated, services like PayPal and Stripe enable online ordering and contactless delivery of your pharmaceutical products. Recently, we’ve published an overview on how to introduce a secure payment gateway in your software. Check this blog post to get more information on SSL for secure connections, PCI certificates, and 3D secure authentication. This article will help you comprehend the upcoming challenges and special skills needed from your development team.
- Blockchain. Among the recent innovations in the pharmaceutical industry, we encourage you to consider blockchain functionality in medical management software. The technology will provide an extra security layer, transparency, traceability, effectiveness, and automation to the core functionality of pharmacy management software for pharmacy technicians. More information on how to outperform your competitors with this know-how you can find in our blog post on blockchain benefits for the pharmaceutical industry.
How to Introduce Pharmacy Benefit Management Software: Implementation Plan
Here is the generalized version of the software development plan to introduce pharmacy management functionality in its full scope. Use it for your reference not to miss anything important on the way.
- Elaborating your business strategy. Outline your goals and expectations from the software. Define the weakest points that will become your top priority, be that inventory management or poor customer experience. Don’t try to fix everything at once: create a plan and make each plan concentrated on one area only.
- Collect internal information. Check the business strategy with your stakeholders to elaborate your insights and get the broader picture of your strengths and weaknesses. Collect everything in a separate document.
- Choose and hire a vendor. Hire the development team that possesses the needed set of hard and soft skills you’re comfortable with. Check the portfolio, tech stack, and communication quality before making a final choice.
- Pick a ready-made solution or start building a customized solution. If your business needs match the functionality of the existing software, you can start its integration right away. Alternatively, the development team will create a custom service that unites the technologies needed. The choice is yours, depending on the budget, deadline, and expectations from the service.
Intellectsoft Team Can Build Pharmacy Management Software for Your Business
We, at Intellectsoft, offer a diversified set of healthcare IT solutions and software services, where you can get all the technical assistance relevant to the new reality of COVID-19 digital health. In particular, we’re experienced in developing hospital information systems, data engines, remote medical care, and health awareness.
You can request a custom medication management software with these capabilities from us — and get a full-equipped and highly effective innovative solution to cope with routine operations in a more effective way.
If you’re interested in our service, talk to our experts! We’re ready to answer all your questions, provide the needed certificates, and give you a piece of practical advice on how to create a truly beneficial pharmacy management system. Reach us today, and let’s catch the trend of digital health together ahead of your competitors!
