Doctolib continues to lead the way in healthcare technology in Europe, offering a suite of services to over 340,000 healthcare personnel and approximately 80 million patients in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. From fast, secure and frictionless online booking solutions to medical and clinical next- generation software, the company improves patient access to the right healthcare services. It also provides care teams with the tools to improve clinical decision-making and reduce the time spent in organising and administering patient appointments.
Following a decade of sustained growth, Doctolib now has a presence in more than 30 cities with a workforce of 3,000 and is widely respected for its innovative and human-centric approach in the healthcare sector. The company recently introduced a secure messaging service to improve communication and collaboration among practitioners, and has seamlessly integrated this service into Doctolib’s desktop booking management system and electronic health record services.
Continuing expansion has recently seen the company acquire Siilo, the largest messaging app for healthcare professionals in Europe. This has enhanced the reach and mobile expertise of Doctolib, enabling the company to extend its impact and deliver a first-class user experience as well as connecting over 800,000 healthcare professionals across the continent.
It was clear that conventional accounting and reporting processes using Excel were no longer able to keep pace with the expansion and dynamic nature of the business. A far more resilient and agile platform for budget and resource distribution planning was required to support the company’s strategic growth plans and the demands of a constantly evolving market.
Efficient and effective financial planning supports growth plans
Building on the successful use of Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) within the HR department, it was a natural progression for Doctolib to select Workday Adaptive Planning to automate and streamline the company’s finance processes. The integration of the two products was seamless and the deployment of Workday Adaptive Planning took just a few months as staff throughout the business immediately recognised the value of the new tool.
“As it’s a connected planning solution, we now have a single platform with consistent master data and data flows,” says Denis Kavaliou, Doctolib’s Data Governance and EPM Manager. “This allows us to collaborate effectively with colleagues throughout the business and share our assumptions easily and in real time. Accurate data is now at everyone’s fingertips so the development of budgets and forecasts is much quicker. That’s because everyone can now contribute to forecast preparation and there’s no need to constantly source, copy and verify data.”
All of the company’s budget processes, long-range planning, staff planning and cash flow management are now completed on Workday Adaptive Planning.
Up-to-date data needs to be readily accessible to all of those who need it, and the benefits of automating a number of time-consuming routine tasks really are considerable.
Denis Kavaliou, Data Governance and EPM Manager
Improved operational efficiency and more agile forward planning
According to Kavaliou, the introduction of Workday Adaptive Planning has transformed how the finance team works. “My colleagues now spend far less time data crunching and can devote more time to business partnering and insightful analysis. This is not only more fulfilling for the team, but also far more productive and delivers tangible benefits to the business.”
Effective scenario planning using different projections and “what-if” scenario models is now a simple and fast turnaround exercise for the company. Such agility is particularly significant for Doctolib as the ability to respond promptly to new business opportunities and constantly evolving and critical demands in the healthcare sector is vital for such an ambitious and expansive business.
Discarding redundant processes and focusing on what matters the most
The introduction of connected planning enabled Doctolib to migrate monitoring and Excel data to a shared solution, which has proved to be very useful. It highlighted a number of redundant or irrelevant processes and provided the opportunity to filter and select only those processes considered to be critical for supporting the company’s continued growth. It also created an opportunity to identify potentially useful additional data elsewhere within the business and take a closer look at the issue of data governance.
“From the outset, the introduction of Workday Adaptive Planning has proved to be invaluable,” adds Kavaliou. “Working closely with the Workday team provided reassurance that we were making the right decisions when structuring our datasets on the new platform. And with quarterly releases, there’s also a regular flow of new and innovative features, such as new reporting graphs and analytics. This dynamic and progressive approach directly supports our own drive for continuous improvement and is enabling us to build on the success and reliability of the solution.”
We’re now using a planning tool that is not just for the finance department. It is a shared and common platform for the benefit of the entire Doctolib community and the operational improvements have been remarkable. Everyone is now working collaboratively to develop forecasts, and the finance team is no longer weighed down by lots of data crunching.
Denis Kavaliou, Data Governance and EPM Manager