RepRoute: giving a pharma company's medical representatives an app they actually wanted to use
A mid-sized pharmaceutical company had hundreds of medical representatives visiting doctors daily, reporting calls in a clunky legacy app they filled in at night. Managers could not trust the data, and sample stock was a mystery. We built RepRoute: visit planning, offline call reporting in seconds, compliant digital detailing, sample and gift tracking and manager coaching dashboards.
Reports filled in at midnight
RepRoute's sales head had a problem he could not measure: the field reporting app said representatives made their calls, but prescriptions did not follow. Representatives admitted they filled in reports at night from memory because the old app was slow, needed a connection and took minutes per call. Managers coached based on data nobody believed.
“I have hundreds of reports a day and I don't trust any of them.”
A day on the road
We spent days with representatives visiting doctors and chemists. Visits lasted minutes; doctors were busy; clinics had poor signal. Representatives needed to plan the day quickly, show the right product content, record the call in seconds and move on. Samples were tracked on paper and routinely ran out.
- A report that takes seconds, right after the call
- Works in clinics with no signal
- Detailing content that loads instantly
- Knowing how many samples are left
Report in the moment
RepRoute's call report is built from what the representative just did: products detailed from the digital presentation are pre-filled, samples given are one tap each, and a short note is optional. It works fully offline and syncs later. Visit location and time are captured automatically, which made the data trustworthy without anyone policing it.
Managers get coaching dashboards showing coverage, frequency and content use, and can plan joint visits where they matter.
The team
A mobile-first team with a data engineer for the head-office analytics.
Field research and regional rollout.
Seconds-long call reporting and detailing.
Offline representative and manager apps.
Head-office console and content management.
Coverage analytics and reporting.
6 people in total, working as one team.
Decisions we made
Agreed with the sales head, compliance and field managers.
Online or offline-first?
- Online app
- Offline-first with background sync
Our call: Offline-first with background sync. Clinics often have poor signal; reporting had to work anywhere.
How to ensure honest data?
- Strict validation rules
- Fast reporting with automatic time and location
Our call: Fast reporting with automatic time and location. Making the right behaviour easy produced accurate data without friction.
Where does detailing content live?
- Streamed on demand
- Pre-downloaded and version-controlled
Our call: Pre-downloaded and version-controlled. Content had to open instantly in front of a busy doctor, and only approved versions could be shown.
Every feature, module by module
Everything that shipped for representatives, managers and head office.
- 01Daily visit plan
Doctors and chemists with map routing.
- 02Digital detailing
Approved product content, offline.
- 03Seconds-long call reports
Pre-filled from detailing and samples.
- 04Sample and gift tracking
Stock issued and remaining.
- 05Chemist visits
Stock checks and orders at chemists.
- 06Expense claims
Daily allowances and travel claims.
- 07Team dashboard
Coverage and frequency by representative.
- 08Joint visit planning
Plan and record joint visits.
- 09Approvals
Leave, expenses and plan approvals.
- 10Coaching notes
Feedback recorded after joint visits.
- 11Doctor master data
Doctors, specialties and segments.
- 12Content management
Approved detailing content with versions.
- 13Territory analytics
Coverage and engagement by territory.
- 14Sample inventory
Stock by region and representative.
- 15Campaign tracking
Product focus campaigns measured.
- 16Compliance rules
Limits on samples and gifts per doctor.
- 17Automatic time and location
Captured for every call.
- 18Role-based access
Representatives, managers and head office.
- 19Audit trail
Calls, samples and approvals recorded.
Rollout
One region piloted RepRoute for a month. Representatives' feedback — mostly requests for fewer taps — was built in before rollout. Adoption was driven by the representatives themselves, who were relieved to stop reporting at night.
- Weeks 1–2Discovery
Days on the road with representatives.
- Weeks 3–4Design
Call report tested in real clinics.
- Weeks 5–12Build
Apps, detailing, samples and analytics.
- Weeks 13–16Regional pilot
One region for a month; feedback built in.
- Weeks 17–18Full field force
All regions.
What we learned
Accurate data comes from easy data entry. Making reporting fast fixed data quality better than rules did.
Design for the busiest minute of the user's day — the two minutes after leaving a doctor's cabin.
- React Native
- Next.js
- NestJS
- PostgreSQL
- Offline sync
- Digital detailing content player
- Analytics warehouse
- AWS Mumbai
