McKesson Keeps Mission-Critical Healthcare Data Flowing With Simba ODBC Driver

Key Results

• Zero disruption to mission-critical reporting during driver transition
• Thousands of case records processed daily with consistent performance
• Multiple automated deliveries of patient therapy tracking data each day
• Seamless implementation with no delays or system hiccups

When your data tracks life-saving therapies for patients who depend on them, connectivity failures are unacceptable. McKesson, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, faced this reality when SAP discontinued licensing for the bundled Salesforce driver they had relied on for years. They needed a fix fast.

McKesson found a smooth and timely solution by turning to insightsoftware’s Simba ODBC driver for Salesforce, which kept its reporting infrastructure operational.

Industry Challenge: Healthcare Analytics Can’t Wait

Healthcare organizations operate under unique constraints that make data connectivity more than a technical issue. Providing timely patient care is vital.

McKesson’s customer care teams use Salesforce to manage thousands of active cases tracking specialty drug shipments and therapies. These aren’t optional reports that can wait until next quarter. They’re real-time insights that inform:

• Service level agreement compliance tied to contractual obligations
• KPI reporting on case resolution times and performance metrics
• Business process tracking across complex therapy management workflows
• Automated patient data delivery multiple times daily to healthcare providers and clients

We’re not talking about data related to widgets or sales pipelines. McKesson needs to keep its data flowing so people receive medications they need to maintain quality of life or, in some cases, continue living.

“We’re not out there selling pens,” said Alan Anolik, Data Visualization Architect at McKesson. “What we’re doing is working with drug manufacturing companies to get life-saving therapies out to their patients. The concept of ‘Oh, well, we’ll just fix it later’ doesn’t work in our industry. We have lives on the line.”

When SAP dropped support for their bundled Salesforce driver, McKesson faced a critical decision point. They could rebuild their entire data pipeline from scratch, accept significant service disruption, or find a supported alternative that maintained their existing architecture.

Anolik’s daunting challenge: maintain seamless Salesforce connectivity for enterprise reporting while avoiding weeks of system disruption. The alternative—building custom extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes—would have meant added headcount, infrastructure costs, storage fees, and most critically, gaps in the data that healthcare providers and patients depend on.

The McKesson team knew that their ability to maintain contracts, service level agreements, and patient care hinged on keeping the data flowing and leadership dashboards up to date. They needed a solution that worked immediately, without forcing them to rebuild their entire analytics infrastructure.

Solution: Simba’s ODBC Driver for Salesforce

Before reaching out to insightsoftware, Anolik briefly considered the alternative: building a custom ETL process to extract data from Salesforce into a database. Then they would have connected their BusinessObjects BI reporting environment to that intermediate storage layer.

The costs would have been substantial:

• Labor and headcount to build and maintain ETL pipelines
• Cloud storage fees for duplicated Salesforce data
• Support infrastructure and ticketing systems for troubleshooting
• Maintenance overhead for updates and version compatibility
• Development time pulling resources from other critical projects

Plus, adding layers of complexity meant more potential points of failure. Those risks were unacceptable to a healthcare organization managing patient therapies.

Before using Simba, it was like not having a direct access road, Anolik said. “The driver gives us an access road from our office space directly to our Salesforce.” He continued the analogy: without that driver, they would have to develop traffic lights, toll roads, and more infrastructure. “It has more areas of failure. And it takes more time to develop. If something’s working and it’s direct, the last thing we want to do is add any complexity or cost to it.”

Implementation: Simple Plug-and-Play

When Anolik contacted insightsoftware about Simba’s ODBC driver for Salesforce, the response wasn’t focused on sales cycles or lengthy procurement processes. Instead, he said, the conversation centered on one question: “How can we get this solved right away?”

The implementation process moved quickly:

1. Proof of concept deployed within days to verify compatibilit
2. Direct collaboration with insightsoftware’s team on BusinessObjects integration
3. Testing completed with zero discrepancies in data or performance
4. Full deployment executed without service interruption

“It was incredibly smooth,” Anolik said. His ability to just oversee the project and not get in the weeds was unusual, he said. “For this one, it was just very easy. It was plug and play. It was a simple switch out, and we did not have any hiccups or any delays.”

The speed and simplicity of the transition allowed Anolik to maintain focus on his broader responsibilities while ensuring McKesson’s reporting infrastructure remained operational. No 24-hour gaps. No emergency weekend deployments. No explaining to stakeholders why patient data deliveries were delayed.

How McKesson Uses Simba Today

McKesson’s use of the Simba ODBC driver for Salesforce extends across multiple critical workflows:

Case Management and KPI Reporting. The team extracts thousands of case records daily to track key performance indicators and grade service level agreements. Time-to-resolution metrics and service level progression directly impact contractual obligations with clients.

Custom Business Process Tracking. McKesson’s team has customized their Salesforce objects to support specialized business processes unique to specialty pharmaceutical distribution. The Simba driver handles these custom objects seamlessly, pulling mission-critical operational data that informs daily decisions.

Data Enrichment and Integration. Raw Salesforce data merges with other internal operational sources to build comprehensive dashboards and performance reports for leadership and client teams. This integrated view provides context that neither system could offer alone.

Automated Client Deliveries. Perhaps most critically, McKesson uses the Simba driver connection with BusinessObjects’ automation tools to send filtered patient therapy data to clients multiple times per day. Healthcare providers and patients can access their specific case information, drug shipment tracking, and therapy status through portals or email. This is all powered by the reliable data flow from Salesforce through Simba.

“These are really important therapies for our clients and most importantly our patients,” Anolik said. “It’s hugely important that we know what is going on, that we know where these therapies and these drugs are going, and that we can track them.” They also have to merge the tracking data with other internal data to ensure that everything is operating smoothly.

Maintaining the Technology Foundation

McKesson’s analytics environment demonstrates how modern reporting can blend the best of legacy and contemporary tools. While McKesson’s team maintains BusinessObjects as their core platform, they’ve enhanced it with add-on visualization tools and automation features that rival Tableau and Power BI capabilities.

This hybrid approach gives them:

• Operational reporting with paginated, scheduled delivery
• Interactive visualizations with drill-throughs and dynamic charts
• Raw data exports for partners who integrate into their own systems
• Flexible data delivery options to email, Teams, SharePoint, and secure portals

The Simba driver sits at the foundation of this architecture, ensuring that regardless of how data is visualized or delivered, the connection to Salesforce remains fast, stable, and reliable.

“I don’t care what cool things your new cloud tool can do,” Anolik noted. “I need the data. I need it to get from Point A to B. It needs to be smooth, scalable, and reliable. I get that with Simba.”

Results: Reliability That Healthcare Demands

The true measure of the Simba driver’s success at McKesson isn’t found in a single dramatic transformation. It’s in the seamless continuity that prevented disruption entirely.

With Simba, McKesson continues to see reliable performance:

• Volume handled. Thousands of active case records processed daily.
• Delivery frequency. Multiple automated data deliveries completed each day.
• Implementation time. Rapid proof of concept and deployment with zero service gaps.
• Performance. Fast, consistent query execution at enterprise scale.
• Support incidents. Stable connections with no compatibility issues.

Simba’s Strategic Value: Peace of Mind

Beyond the performance metrics, the Simba driver delivered something valuable on a different level: peace of mind. Anolik and his team could maintain their focus on continuous improvement rather than crisis management. Client SLAs remained intact. Patient therapy tracking continued without interruption. Healthcare providers received their data on schedule.

Anolik was impressed not just with the driver but also with insightsoftware’s people. The team got Simba working directly on McKesson’s systems and servers, and they responded quickly, he said. “What do you need? How can we help? How can we make this work? Which are questions that I don’t always get from vendors.”

The driver also eliminated the risk of building technical debt. Without the need to construct custom ETL pipelines, McKesson avoided creating maintenance burdens that would have persisted for years. A custom solution would have required ongoing development resources and introduced potential failure points as Salesforce and other systems evolved.

McKesson’s Advice About Simba

When asked what he’d tell another organization considering Simba, Anolik’s response was straightforward: “Simba is simple. It works every time. It’s scalable. And not only that, you’re going to have a support system.”

Anolik highlighted three core attributes:

Consistency and Reliability. Connections remain stable across system upgrades and version changes. Queries run smoothly without compatibility surprises. The driver simply works, which matters when you’re managing mission-critical operations.

Independence and Flexibility. Because Simba drivers operate independently of the BusinessObjects system, McKesson gained resilience against future vendor changes. They’re no longer vulnerable to bundled software decisions beyond their control.

Simplicity That Prevents Problems. In healthcare analytics, overcomplicated systems create security issues, long-running queries, and data discrepancies. Simba’s straightforward approach eliminates unnecessary complexity, allowing teams to focus on extracting insights rather than troubleshooting connections.

“I want to get the data. I want to get it out. I want to get it into my systems, so it’s gradable, reportable. And then I want to get that data to the people that need it,” Anolik said. “That’s it. And Simba does that for me.”

In an industry where delays can impact patient outcomes, reliability isn’t just a technical achievement. It’s a commitment to the people depending on the therapies McKesson helps deliver.

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