Why build an orchestration team
Companies continue to invest in digital channels yet still face fragmentation. Work is duplicated across brands. Customers receive inconsistent messages, often without a clear narrative or timing logic. The structural causes are familiar: siloed execution, weak instrumentation, and limited coordination across functions. An orchestration team solves these problems by standardizing how engagement is planned, produced, delivered, and measured. It creates a single operating system for consistent experience, faster learning, and better resource allocation.
The minimum viable structure
Five core capabilities create immediate impact. Each has a clear scope and an interface with brand and commercial teams. This structure is not an empire. It is a clarity-driven operating model.
Strategy and Planning. Translate brand objectives into integrated omnichannel plans. Own journey architecture, experiment design, success metrics, and learning agendas.
Content Studio. Build modular, reusable assets. Manage compliance workflows with risk-based controls. Maintain a governed component library so speed does not dilute accuracy.
Campaign Operations. Execute cross-channel campaigns through standard workflows. Manage consent and frequency rules. Ensure digital and field efforts reinforce each other.
Data and Analytics. Unite CRM, behavioural, and outcome signals. Define engagement scoring and attribution. Enable next-best-action testing that is observable and repeatable.Technology and Enablement. Own platform architecture and system integration. Manage identity resolution and preference management. Pilot new capabilities with clear criteria for scale.
Centralize or decentralize
A networked model works best. The central team owns data, platform governance, compliance standards, and measurement frameworks. Brand teams own local adaptation, content nuance, and tactical timing within agreed guardrails. Some areas, such as journey design and experiment planning, benefit from shared ownership.
This mix preserves consistency where it matters and speed where markets require it. It also aligns with regulatory and privacy expectations.
How to allocate resources without politics
Use a transparent tiering system based on business logic.
Launch grade. Strategic launches or transformation priorities needing dedicated support, custom journeys, deeper domain-expert integration, and weekly reviews.
Growth grade. Established products with expansion potential, supported through standardized playbooks with bounded customization and twice-monthly reviews.
Lean grade. Mature or declining products using template-driven execution, platform-first routes, and monthly reviews.
Three filters determine the grade:
• Scale: is the revenue opportunity material enough?
• Signal: does behaviour change require deeper dialogue or simple availability?
• Specificity: are targeted stakeholder programs needed?
Two or more affirmative answers qualify a brand for higher-touch support. This approach removes subjectivity and links investment to expected returns.
Funding that drives adoption and accountability
A blended funding model balances accountability with adoption. Central funding supports the shared stack: platforms, data foundation, governance, core team salaries, and innovation pilots. Brand funding supports campaign builds, custom content, incremental channel costs, and performance analysis.
Publish a clear internal rate card tied to service levels and turnaround standards. Add a simple governance forum for prioritization and escalation. Finance gets visibility, brands get predictability, and the orchestration engine remains sustainable.
What to measure
Three measurement layers connect activity to value.
Engagement quality. Track journey progression, interaction depth, repeat qualified visits, and the lift from coordinated field-digital activity.
Business attribution. Measure initiation, adoption, retention, and share movement by cohort. Focus on real outcomes, not only intent signals.
Operational excellence. Monitor cost-per-outcome by brand grade, content reuse ratio, working-capital impact, and channel-mix ROI. Use diminishing-returns analysis to guide allocation.
When standards are followed, typical outcomes include meaningful cost reduction, stronger ROI, better content efficiency, and wider reach.
Failure patterns to avoid
Four predictable pitfalls show up across organizations.
Metric theatre. Counting outputs instead of testing behaviour change. Eliminate any metric that does not link to an outcome.
Process with no ownership. Beautiful workflows with no end-to-end owner. Appoint a single orchestration lead with authority to resolve conflicts.
Outsourced thinking. Agencies run strategy while internal teams route assets. Build internal capability in journey design, analytics, and content strategy. Agencies should execute, not architect.
Technology before truth. Buying platforms before setting standards and processes. Establish governance first; then let technology amplify what works.
How to maintain speed
Speed is a function of clarity, not shortcuts.
Decision rights. Publish ownership for the ten most common decisions: audience definition, cadence, data use, channel eligibility, creative variants, and medical review.
Two-speed operating model. A fast track for routine work using pre-approved templates and automated checks. A standard track for custom or high-risk work needing deeper review.
Modular content. Componentized assets with metadata tags, pre-cleared claims, and risk-based review. High-risk modules get deeper scrutiny. Low-risk variants move quickly.
Technology priorities for year one
Focus on foundations.
- Quarter one: identity resolution and consent management.
- Quarter two: unified event streaming and basic analytics.
- Quarter three: preference centre and journey orchestration.
- Quarter four: next-best-action and attribution modelling.
A 90-day plan you can start now
Three focused sprints create momentum and evidence.
Days 1–30: Appoint the team lead and capability owners. Define service levels and the rate card. Select the pilot brand. Set five KPIs tied to business outcomes. Publish RACI and operating procedures.
Days 31–60: Connect CRM, digital, and outcome data. Build the modular content library. Launch three campaigns. Hold weekly reviews and document improvements.
Days 61–90: Publish the pilot scorecard. Define scale criteria and resources. Lock a six-month roadmap. Secure executive sponsorship and funding.
Exit with a working team, early evidence, and a clear path to scale.
Turning execution into orchestration
Salil Kallianpur, former EVP at GSK, puts it well. “Technology is the easy part. The real work is getting people to think and work differently across marketing, medical, and field. Omnichannel success is heavily shaped by people, not just platforms.”
He describes the critical role of “engagement architects.” These are professionals who sit at the intersection of brand strategy, analytics, and medical. Their job is to translate science into behaviour change narratives across channels, and to do it with enough consistency that the field, inside sales, and digital teams feel like one coordinated system, not three disconnected projects.
Salil also emphasises the need for a shared language. “Everyone should know what good omnichannel looks like and how it is measured. When journey progression and engagement quality show up on every scorecard, omnichannel stops being a ‘digital initiative’ and becomes everyday behaviour. That is where leadership comes in. Without visible sponsorship, transformation fatigue sets in. Leaders have to review sprints, celebrate early wins, and link budgets to omnichannel maturity. When analysts see a path to becoming strategists, and content specialists see their work measured in outcomes rather than outputs, people start to invest emotionally in the change. That is when orchestration stops being a project and becomes a way of working.”
The author is Sunder Ramachandran, healthcare commercial leader at GSK, Pfizer, and Dr. Reddy’s.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETCIO does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETCIO shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organization directly or indirectly.
