IMS Health Reviews

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Work life balance
Highly talented employees

Cons – Management is required to be more motivated and be replaced by new faces

Advice to Senior Management – Be more creative and hardworking

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at IMS Health full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Build contacts with people in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Get a handle how and what sales and marketing data is consumed by the Pharmaceutical industry

Cons – Is now more like a sweatshop since it has been taken over by venture capitalists. Used to be a great and friendly company to work for. That has all changed since 2000. Management once fired a person on the same day this person was received a super red letter day reward. Figure that one out. IMS has been known for a shambolic ally managed (dis organised) company.

Advice to Senior Management – Look at your morals

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Working as a consultant at IMS in one of the regional offices often entails work with international clients and more stimulating projects than your average local consulting job. As a premium provider to the pharma industry IMS offers a variety of opportunities, consulting, data services and everything in between. Employees are well respected.

Cons – Silo'ed departments, the company has acquired several smaller companies in the past and some still operate as such. The pressure to perform often creates disruptive competition between employees. Promotions are only every six or twelve months, not when a person is ready for it.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't try to be the answer to everything.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at IMS Health full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great people, great insight, fun teams

Cons – Long hours and heavy work load

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health

Pros – - people are very helpful
- a lot of people have been there for around 20 years, so IMS is good at keeping its employees happy
- opportunities to work with biggest pharma companies in the world
- just moved to new offices in kings cross which are nice

Cons – - sometimes get told to do a number of tasks by different managers, but i suppose that is expected at most companies

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Good work/life balance
- Very specialized so great if you like pharma

Cons – - Poor salary and bonus. Unfortunately, they seem to think it's good enough.....really need to get your act together!
- Lack of proper career management and support.
- Very poor training
- Too much focus on data makes people think they 'know' what they're talking about when they're really not...

Advice to Senior Management – To turn this into a proper consulting firm you need to PAY WELL! Stop counting pennies!!! You say you want to compete with McKinsey/BCG/Bain but a) the projects are not nearly as strategic b) the salary is bad and c) the opportunities to develop are not nearly as good.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at IMS Health full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Access to huge amount of data and internal resources, international environment, most people are friendly and sociable.

Cons – Huge bureaucracy, way too many directors/VPs, very little training, constant erosion of employee benefits, obsession with cost savings at the expense of quality..

Advice to Senior Management – Stop pennypinching, it's not all about cost. Do something to retain talent and boost morale. Stop outsourcing/offshoring key parts of the business with total disregard tor quality.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health

Pros – good learning opportuniy with exceptionally experienced people. interesting projects

Cons – easy to burn out...multiple projects, long hours and average pay

Advice to Senior Management – hire more people or quit selling work

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health

Pros – - Great exposure to multiple geogaphy projects
- Good introdution to busy, complex project environment
- Great introduction into pharma industry
- Huge depth of pharma market data available - global leader in this area

Cons – - Top heavy management structure
- Poor salaries
- Very limited progression opportunities
- Poor professional/personal development opportunities (in spite of the management claims)

Advice to Senior Management – - Streamline senior/middle management (example, reduce the numbers at Vice-President/Director level for a start!)
- Offer genuine professional development opportunities (i.e. Industry recognised courses and qualifications, and a more realistic Bright Sparks budget)
- Improve remuneration and perfomance incentives (make the PMP process genuine)

Current Employee – been working at IMS Health

Pros – Plenty of client exposure
Opportunity to present to client with 6 months of employment - clients are global brand directors and senior managers in top pharma companies
Good middle managers. Lower ranks full of oxbridge / Ivy league types who are all sound people.

Cons – Worst salary in management consulting industry (in the world).
No one knows where what IMS does outside of Pharma / health care. Difficult to be proud of where you work when no one knows what you do.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being cheapskates, pay your management consulting analysts like every other big company. Start advertising in non-pharma magazines to increase reputation. Creating a brand isn't just about the direct audience.

When you write, stop talking in IBM corporate jargon. We are in consulting, not local level government. We need to set an example and make sure we are clear. Read some 'How to communicate better' books.