Modern age consulting: Wingman, your extended arm

Who remembers the scene from Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise is in his hotel room and in the middle of the night realizes that his life as a sports agent is not what he envisioned it to be? He felt the urge to write up a memo that detailed how things in his business should be instead of how it actually is. And although he saw repercussions from this move (losing his job), in the end, he not only found a better way to do what he was good at, he also won the heart of Renee Zellweger.

Ok, maybe this is a bit far out, but in some way, over the years, I felt similarly constrained of being a healthcare analytics consultant. The typical perception that consultants are often a nuisance, rarely worth their money, people you have to deal with because you don’t have much choice started getting to me. The more I saw the way our industry is doing business, the more I found it is good for the consultants but not as much for the customers.

The widespread belief that we are always smarter than our clients, and that they should simply do what we recommend and pay the bill was obviously wrong, yet, our processes, communication, and black-box deliverables were aiming to maintain this status quo. At phamax, this realization came to us in September 2018, when we conducted a workshop to better understand who we actually are and what we aspire to be. In that meeting, we shifted focus and looked at ourselves from the client’s perspective. We simulated their needs and tried to also understand the emotional side of the business. It was only then we realized that we have to make a fundamental change to our way of working and return to the basics of what “service” means.

And voila, the concept of being a Wingman for our clients was born. A Wingman’s job is to ensure, at all cost, that the flight leader is reaching the goal. Translated into our business routine, this means that we have to understand ourselves as part of the client’s team and do whatever it takes to get the job done. Flexibility combined with experience, diligence, and endurance will not only secure flawless execution, but it will also ultimately make our client shine. And we understood that this is the best way for us to shine too.

phamax covers the whole spectrum of analytics support that ranges across commercial, scientific, and digital analyses. We collect, generate, clean, structure, review, validate, combine, track, and maintain data; in other terms, we are here to simplify your work. Our data experts understand the requirements and consolidate data from different sources to identify the right data sets that match the client’s requirement by building models. Each service has either one or all of the above deliverables depending upon the business requirement.

Our Wingmen are seniors with expertise in commercial, scientific data analysis who continuously strive to make our clients shine in all their tasks, be it big or small, strategic or operational. They support our clients in healthcare as individuals or a team as per their requirements.

Focus more on the “How” than “What”

Earlier, our focus was always on “what” amazing things we can do but never on the “how”. Eventually we realized that the What is often less relevant, especially when we deal with non-strategic, operational tasks. What counts there is the way you deliver the work: paying attention to details, being diligent, on time and with pristine quality.

By doing that, we bring back the spirit of service to the consulting space. And given our success, it seems that this was a needed move to change the perception from an “outside consultant” to “my Wingman”

Human and Machine: An evolving partnership

The AI sector was valued at USD 600 million in 2014 and is projected to reach USD 150 billion by 2026. Healthcare establishments are already leveraging the power of AI to reduce costs and automate processes for efficiency and faster services. We rely on technology all the more to help us sift through increasing loads of data. Simple and elegant solutions like Ariya are changing how we access and work with information, but what about the human element?

At phamax, we believe that a smart combination of human and machine intelligence produces the best results. It is no surprise to know most of our clients face the same general issues – not enough time due to high workload (resulting in being often reactive and not proactive), too many things to juggle, often remaining superficial at work, and not performing at the desired level as a result.

Unfortunately, we cannot change all of that, but with Ariya, a conversational AI application, we aim to move things in the right direction. With Ariya, our clients get instant access to on-demand business information. They become more effective and efficient in what they do, being relieved from unnecessary workload stress. Wouldn’t this be a big achievement? It is our in-depth domain knowledge and rich experience that helped design Ariya to work as required and reduce the time our clients have to spend on data management.

What makes us stand out?

Today, we serve over 20 different companies with over 250 individual clients using the Wingman Support model and Ariya. We assist on demand and clear the clutter from our customer’s table, irrespective of a large project or a small task. One of the winning criteria for our unique Wingman Support model is the cost. Instead of applying black-box fees, we use a transparent costing approach where our clients can use our services as and when needed.

Together with our promise of quality, the Wingman model is the best solution for our clients’ commercial and scientific analytics tasks and projects. We only bill consumed hours and get the work done when it is required, strictly in line with the deadline. Over the last decade, our team comprising of doctors, physicians, and analysts have worked diligently to earn the trust of our clients. The overwhelming positive feedback is a testament to this.

 Hands off for me and the team really found great solutions to a difficult challenge. I also personally appreciate a lot “the extra mile thinking” – Client feedback

Let us be your Wingman to success.