What can South African pharma use instead of a syndicated data panel for commercial data and analytics?
We build commercial intelligence for South African pharma from data you already hold, mapped to geographic zones and governed as one source. For an anonymous pharmaceutical and animal-health company we built and maintain an analytics platform of 59 tables and 38 views. Every partnership starts with a paid diagnosis, and syndicated data you already buy is integrated, not replaced.
What can you use instead of a syndicated panel?
You can use the commercial data you already hold: your sales, your CRM extracts and your call records. Most of it sits at national or provincial level, which is too coarse for good decisions. We map every record to a geographic zone and enrich it with demographics, healthcare facilities and pharmacy access from Her-Zone, our geographic intelligence layer, so the analysis answers questions that an aggregated total hides. The method is described on the Data Fusion Intelligence methodology page. Where you already license syndicated market data, we integrate it within the provider’s contractual terms rather than ask you to replace it.
Why does the work start with a diagnosis?
Every Herbst Group partnership begins with DiaDoc™, a paid, fixed-scope examination, before anything is built or bought. It combines confidential one-to-one sessions with your senior stakeholders, a structured executive workshop and evidence from your own commercial data, not benchmarks. You receive a written report with findings ranked by commercial consequence and an implementation roadmap you can run with us or without us.
What has the work produced for pharmaceutical companies?
For an anonymous pharmaceutical and animal-health company, we have built and maintained an analytics platform since March 2026: 59 tables and 38 views across more than 800,000 rows, including sell-in and sell-out reconciliation, backed by 236 automated tests. It has been through three audits, with all 69 identified issues resolved. The detail is in the analytics platform case study.
For an anonymous pharmaceutical distribution group, we ran an independent data-foundation diagnostic across four areas: data quality, master data, system integration and data governance. Interim data processing ran alongside it under a signed memorandum, and the engagement started in July 2026. The detail is in the data-foundation diagnostic case study.
What do we need from you?
We need the commercial data you already hold, at the most granular level you have it: sales, CRM extracts and call records, plus any syndicated data you license. The more granular the data, the more precise the zone-level analysis. For the diagnosis, we also need time with your senior stakeholders, for the one-to-one sessions and the executive workshop.
When is it not the right fit?
It is not the right fit if what you want is a benchmark or an industry average, because the diagnosis takes its evidence from your own commercial data. It is also not the right first step if the customer list and sales history cannot yet be trusted and you want analysis run over them straight away: analysis cannot repair the data underneath it, so the foundation comes first, and our Commercial Data Management service builds and governs it. And a diagnosis is not a route into further work by default. It can conclude that no further engagement is warranted, and the report and the roadmap are yours either way.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to stop buying syndicated market data to work with you?
No. We work with what you already have, including syndicated market data, internal sales data, CRM extracts and call records, and we do not ask you to replace any of it. Each source is integrated within its provider's contractual terms.
What data do you need from us to start?
We start from the commercial data you already hold. The more granular it is, the more precise the zone-level analysis, and we never require you to purchase additional data to start an engagement.
Why do you start with a diagnosis rather than a data build?
Because the diagnosis establishes what is actually wrong before anything is built or bought. It is a paid, fixed-scope examination that takes its evidence from your own commercial data, and it can conclude that no further engagement is warranted.
Is our data kept separate from other clients' data?
Yes. Each engagement operates in isolation, no data from one client informs analysis for another, and no provider's data is used outside its contractual terms. We work in line with ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 42001, the standards we are pursuing, and we are POPIA-bound.
Have you built commercial analytics for a pharmaceutical company?
Yes. For an anonymous pharmaceutical and animal-health company, we built and maintain an analytics platform that reconciles sell-in and sell-out data. For an anonymous pharmaceutical distribution group, we ran a data-foundation diagnostic covering data quality, master data, integration and governance.