How Envision Pharma Group uses Hive to Organize Multiple Workflows 

Founded in 2001, Envision Pharma Group is a leading global technology-enabled strategic solutions partner for the life sciences industry, working with over 200 pharma and biotech companies, including the top 20 pharmaceutical companies.

Envision supports clients across the product life cycle through a comprehensive suite of services and industry-leading technology solutions that include artificial intelligence and natural language processing, commercialization and integrated strategic consulting, evidence-based scientific communications and engagement, HEOR/market access and data analytics, medical capabilities, and omnichannel solutions.

Since early 2022, Envision Pharma Group has used Hive to plan, schedule and manage projects serviced by its Creative, Digital and Editorial teams.

Simon Dempsey is the Global Lead of Operations across Creative and Digital at Envision Pharma Group. We sat down with him to talk about his favorite Hive functions and how the company boosts its efficiency and output with Hive.

Searching for the right solution

Before the company began using Hive, the Creative, Digital and Editorial teams worked with a number of software solutions, including Trello and Ganttic. However, team leaders found that these solutions only addressed some of their needs. They wanted a single project management solution that would enable them to collaborate internally and externally, communicate securely, and manage two differently-paced workflows.

“The first workflow relates to publication planning, which commonly includes deliverables such as scientific posters, presentations and other fast-paced projects with shorter timeframes,” Simon explains. “The second relates to medical communications with deliverables such as data visualization, animation and branding, which require a greater element of planning and longer timeframes. We needed a solution that could support both workflows and enable everyone to collaborate together in one place.” 

In addition, Simon also wanted the new software to provide varying levels of visibility for different individuals so managers could share relevant information with team members and clients while limiting which details are visible. 

Simon and team explored and trialed a wide range of project management solutions. Finding what they were looking for was a lengthy process and for a while, it seemed as if the right solution did not exist ‘off the shelf’. The company began considering developing its own tool, then Simon found Hive. 

“Hive offered everything we wanted in one package,” says Simon. “It could give us all the functionality, flexibility and security that we wanted and provide a top-down overview of our team capacity.” 

Let's take a closer look at how the Creative, Digital and Editorial teams use Hive to handle day-to-day operations.

Customizing Hive for different workflows and management styles

The company uses one Hive project for each team. Individual deliverables within the Hive Projects are organized on action cards. Briefs initially come in via a Hive Form, and automation is used to route the action card to the correct team. Simon highlights that using Hive Forms makes it easy to collect specific data points, which leaders can use to monitor work and generate reports quickly.

As the teams have two very differently-paced workflows, each team plans work using different views in Hive. Teams supporting fast-paced, high-volume materials, such as scientific posters and presentations, use Hive’s Kanban function (Status View). Teams supporting projects with longer timeframes and/or high complexity, use Hive’s Resourcing view to schedule allocated time and keep work running smoothly.

“Our workflows move at different speeds, so we need a clear overview of our job list to enable us to allocate resources and track work,” Simon explains. “For example, in some teams a designer might tackle eight projects in a single day, whereas in others a designer might need to work on the same project for four weeks. We want to make sure that we have the flexibility to manage both scenarios seamlessly and interchangeably.”

Using Hive for Collaboration

Keeping track of multiple streams of communication can be challenging and time-consuming, so Envision Pharma Group’s Creative, Digital and Editorial teams have centralized task-specific notes and communication for each deliverable. Everything is kept within the relevant action cards, so there is a full record of everyone’s notes and discussions throughout the project lifecycle. Working this way helps team members and leaders stay informed and enables users to catch up on any new developments quickly. 

“Having the history on the Action card is particularly useful when somebody new comes on to help out,” says Simon. “Rather than needing a meeting or an email to update them on the work in progress, we can first refer them to the action card. If there's anything that's still unclear, we can then follow up, but it represents a really efficient way to share project work. It saves everyone time to have everything in one place.”

Simon also highlights that communicating inside Hive is helpful when people need to review an archived deliverable at a later date or access a record of work for future management, planning or auditing activities. In the future, the company plans to use the Hive Proofing and Approvals function, enabling team members to streamline their processes and keep a full record of approvals within their Projects. 

Conclusion

Hive’s capacity to customize workflows and streamline operations for each team’s specific requirements supports the company’s need for flexibility. Simon and his team also like the ability to add external users at no extra cost, so they can share information with clients and enjoy even more flexibility in their day-to-day work and communications. 

Hive’s customer support and openness to development is also a big highlight for Simon. 

“Hive listens to our suggestions and actions them. In my experience, it’s one of the few software-as-a-service companies where users’ ideas are taken onboard,” Simon concludes. “We also love Hive University; it's really well structured and keyword-matched. Overall, Hive is flexible and offers great functionality and service for the investment. I think it’s really good value for money.”