Contract research is an extremely competitive industry. It can be challenging to differentiate clinical trial service offerings in such a crowded marketplace. One emerging and successful strategy is to utilize technology to enable and expand expert services. Unified technology platforms that connect and enable expertise within the clinical trial offer opportunities for CROs to differentiate their expertise, gain efficiencies and simultaneously increase revenues.
CROs can and should exploit technology to offer value-add services to their clients. For example, certain capabilities such as randomization and inventory management, can be a costly add-on to a clinical trial solution or may require a sponsor to seek yet another CRO or technology vendor to acquire the capabilities. This type of offering can help the CRO team to offer broader solutions while positioning them as a “one-stop-shop”. Clients get more value; the delivery team gains efficiency and the organization has a new and differentiating capability to bring to the market.
The CRO market continues to grow at a rapid pace. In fact, the global CRO market size is expected to reach $54.7 billion USD by 2025, according to Grand View Research Inc. Technology is now an implied necessity in such a fast-paced market that prioritizes compliance, efficiency, quality and cost containment.
Benefits of a Unified eClinical Platform
A unified eClinical platform with native modules can provide the flexibility to handle diverse requirements of different trial sponsors and/or protocols without requiring additional integration costs. The inherent price transparency of this approach allows the CRO team to more easily bid on clinical trials of varying size and complexity with greater clarity of actual costs while also offering a broader set of technology-enabled services.
A unified and flexible technology solution can also optimize resource utilization. By breaking down traditional barriers between functions, the greater connectivity supplied by a common platform helps teams improve efficiency and performance. For example, a seamless, easy-to-use unified platform can enable quick ramp-up of new team members and sites. As a project pipeline expands, new team members can be on-boarded quickly and efficiently so deadlines aren’t negatively impacted by shifting resources. Vendor management is also streamlined significantly since a broad range of capabilities can be managed through one point of contact. Finally, price transparency is key to the clinical trial bidding process and a unified platform enables CRO teams to easily develop accurate budgets without unexpected expenses.
Competitive CROs use technology to enable expertise, creativity and flexibility across the clinical trial continuum. The right fit must be flexible enough to support diverse sponsor requirements as well as varying CRO skill sets. Choosing a unified platform with features like intelligent build tools enable teams to use wizards and other business logic to quickly design and build a study, without the need for costly programming resources. At the same time, a well-designed platform will also provide enough flexibility to allow CROs to leverage their expertise and use programming resources to customize the study design. This flexibility helps the CRO team respond to differing needs of sponsors while enabling them to take the best advantage of internal skill sets and offer more valuable services.
As clinical trials increase in complexity, technology allows experts to apply their knowledge and experience in new ways. This type of innovation highlights specialized skill sets and is the competitive edge that helps CRO development teams go above and beyond client expectations.
Technology Enabled Differentiation
A growing market and competitive pressures will continue to demand differentiated services. A unified eClinical platform with native modules will continue to offer the best foundation – the right mix of functionality and flexibility that CROs need to be successful.
iMednet is a comprehensive, cloud-based, all-in-one eClinical platform incorporating data management, data capture and trial management tools. Everything you need is at your fingertips. Built from the ground up, iMednet’s native modules work together seamlessly without costly operational investment.
Mednet also recently announced a new program, called the Mednet Value Program, or MVP. It is designed to provide extra services and benefits to better support and provide additional value to Contract Research Organizations (CROs). To learn more about the Mednet Value Program (MVP), contact us.