Offline-Ready Investor Relations App for a Global Pharma Company

The client ranks among the largest biopharmaceutical companies anywhere. Each quarter, investor relations teams across several countries team up with the research centres to refresh what leadership shows investors: company performance, R&D, where every medicine in the pipeline stands, which ones are close to launch and which are being dropped.

All of this ended up in one PowerPoint of roughly 350 slides that was used like an application. Presenters clicked hyperlinks to move between therapy areas, medicines and stages of the pipeline.

Where the deck fell short

• Many editors, one file. People in several countries worked on the same deck. The content had no structure underneath, and nothing showed who had changed what.
• Never quite current. The pipeline shifts every quarter, yet it lived inside a file that needed rebuilding and resending each time.
• Answers were hard to reach. Clicking through 350 slides of hyperlinks while an investor waits, or on a conference stage.
• Offline was not assured. Leaders on the conference circuit needed the material on whatever device they had, connected or not.
• Nowhere to give feedback. Those preparing the content could not comment on it, review it or sign it off within the tool.

Leaders now open an app, not a deck. Whatever device they have, online or offline, the answer is one search or two taps away.

• A navigational PowerPoint of 350 slides has been replaced by a structured app on each platform leadership relies on: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and the web.
• Investor material works offline in meetings and at conferences.
• Owners keep their own content current, and comments and feedback sit in one place.
• The existing content was moved over automatically, with no retyping.
• Used by the CEO, by investor relations and by other directors and departments.
• Nobody recorded time or usage figures, so we quote none.

What teams usually overlook

Promising to turn a deck into an app is simple. Delivering it is not. An app that opens empty on day one gets ignored, and an app that needs a connection breaks down in the conference hall. Adoption hinges on starting content and offline behaviour. We converted the existing deck into structured data before go-live and built the app offline-first, syncing once a connection is back. That is why leadership reached for the app and not the PowerPoint.