Patni

Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (Patni) (NYSE: PTI) is one of the leading global providers of information technology services and business solutions. With its U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Patni has more than 15,000 professional service clients across diverse industries, from 22 sales offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and 20 Global Delivery Centers in strategic locations across the world.

The Challenge

Patni made a strategic acquisition of the life sciences firm Taratec Development Corporation in 2007. Just recently, the fruits of the integration of these life science experts with Patni’s global delivery model resulted in the introduction of PatniADEPT™, a new service that performs adverse event case processing for pharmaceutical companies. As Patni’s PR counsel, PAN Communications was challenged with developing a strategy for not only introducing a new service offering from a company relatively unknown among pharmaceutical reporters and analysts, but also coming up with a mechanism for consistent opportunities around building mindshare in this highly competitive market.

The Approach

To capture mindshare of influential players in the pharmaceutical industry, PAN initiated a rolling thunder PR campaign of well-timed activities to quickly maximize exposure for its client. First, the agency saw an opportunity to announce the global launch of PatniADEPT at the Drug Information Association, a popular life sciences conference held in Boston.

Leveraging relationships with key influencers in the industry, the PAN team secured 15 meetings to introduce Patni to pharmaceutical analysts, reporters, and editors. This proved a great way to educate the market about how Patni’s unique service helps pharmaceutical companies avoid costly missteps in the drug production cycle. With this application, companies can quickly glean trends related to adverse drug events. In preparation for the conference, PAN released news about Patni’s expert spokesperson who was also presenting a tutorial at the show. This further demonstrated Patni’s domain expertise and became a draw to the media who were planning to attend the show.

While the conference was being held, the agency capitalized on a host of emerging news stories about drug development issues to capture the interest of the business press not in attendance. In addition, PAN pitched business and industry publications on Patni-authored byline articles about pressing industry challenges such as harmonization of pharmaceutical rules around the world, managing adverse events and other topics on pharmacovigilence.

The Results

By leveraging the deep expertise of Patni spokespersons available to respond to the latest pharmaceutical news stories, PAN was able to spark considerable interest among important media contacts, including Dow Jones and Pharmaceutical Executive. Moreover, this flurry of PR activity opened the door to invitations for Patni to join the editorial board of leading magazines such as PharmaVoice, profiles on the Patni Life Science business, and series of bylined articles for a myriad of industry magazines. The agency began with the singular topic of adverse events and branched out to capitalize on the full breadth of Patni’s life sciences expertise. Now, Patni and its Life Science business, is highly regarded and sought out among the most powerful voices in the pharmaceutical analyst and media community.