Summary
Outsourcing programming and statistical tasks to an external provider is a necessity for most pharmaceutical companies. The time and resource required to train each provider can be extensive, so there are advantages in committing to a single provider – generally described as a Functional Service Provider (FSP). Veramed have built up a relationship with a key therapy area in a major pharmaceutical company over several years, enabling them to input into process improvement as well as consistently providing quality deliverables to client requirements. This successful FSP relationship is now allowing Veramed to support other therapeutic areas through organic growth with the same commitment to quality and timeliness.
Challenges
There have been mixed outcomes for this type of outsourcing model: This can be for a variety of reasons associated with poor understanding of the requirements leading to poor quality and missed deadlines. The FSP has sometimes been overwhelmed with the volume of work that has been contracted out and are unable to meet planned deadlines.
Solution
Veramed have worked closely with the client to establish a working collaborative FSP relationship, agreeing a governance structure upfront, developing an appropriate budgeting model and establishing a core of client-trained staff able to work flexibly on a number of projects. A detailed report of resourcing forecasts and progress against plans is reviewed with the client monthly to proactively identify conflicts between different projects, potential pinch points for specific projects as well as identify opportunities to support additional projects where resources become available. An agile and flexible budgeting model allows Veramed to quickly provide ballpark costs and explore requirements. The Veramed team is considered an integral part of the client team and flexes resource availability as necessary to meet client requirements; supporting two landmark studies and several global submissions as well as other smaller studies. A key factor in Veramed’s success is the ability to accurately forecast work and available resource, thus not over-committing to work and subsequently always being able to deliver.
“Thanks so much for everyone’s hard work so far. Please pass on my thanks to the rest of the team. Genuinely think this is the best experience I have had with a CRO in all my time working in the industry”
FSP client since 2015
Outcome
Veramed have ably demonstrated that in-depth knowledge of the client and projects has enabled this successful FSP relationship to develop and grow. Although the relationship was initially developed with a single therapy area, the resource forecasts have enabled identification of future periods where a team of client-trained staff could be available. Based on Veramed’s proven track record of quality and timely deliverables, the relationship is now expanding into other therapy areas.