The bank is fertile ground for low code no code, particularly in the field of data science. However, the uses are more transversal and concern many sectors, including the health sector.
The Roche group thus took its first steps in the no-code and citizen development sector in 2020, as Christine Moriceau, Informatics Partner, testified at the IT Paris – DIMS 2023 conference.
Professions that directly contribute to digital transformation
IT therefore provided its business partners with no-code tools. “They make it possible to automate. And above all, we can give employees the means to be autonomous in the development of solutions”, she explains.
Thanks to this project, Roche wanted the businesses to “contribute directly, at their level, to digital transformation.” The initiative, orchestrated by the DSI, was sponsored by the general management of Roche.
The use of no code has thus intervened in the trades to allow them to automate processes, to “design small apps” or even “to work on data visualization.” To start the movement, however, several steps were necessary.
The first took the form of awareness sessions. These concerned all employees and were intended to “demystify technology.” The function of these sessions was also to collect initial use cases.
Robots in all areas, including pharmacovigilance
“A very large number of employees volunteered to become citizen developers,” says Christine Moriceau. To access these skills, the volunteers first followed a training program.
Roche has also held hackathons to encourage initiatives and bring initial developments to fruition. These approaches have made it possible to identify use cases in “all departments”.
Support functions such as finance or communication are stakeholders. This is also the case for more specific businesses, including clinical affairs and pharmacovigilance. The no code enabled the development of an online portal to track the refrigerated boxes used for drug shipments.
At five euros each, these boxes were only rarely recovered. A citizen developer has developed a robot responsible for recovering these boxes, with financial gains at stake. In pharmacovigilance, a robot automates the downloading of emails exchanged with health authorities, their conversion into PDF and their archiving.
A DSI conductor and promoter
Christine Moriceau ensures that the multiplication of these automations through no code has not resulted in job cuts. “The gains are not only in time and money. They are also gains in user satisfaction”, she underlines.
The time savings generated are used to identify other automatable processes and problems to be solved, continues the IT partner with the businesses. Moreover, the existing robots must be maintained, even enriched, which requires resources.
“To support this transformation, governance is essential. And the IT Department is really there to define it, but also to train employees and provide them with a complete toolbox”, concludes Christine Moriceau.