So you are about to embark on an important business transformation with a new informatics solution in your laboratories? How can you be sure you are making the right software and vendor selections? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How can you maximize your certainty of success?

First, the probably surprising news… Did you know that almost half of all ‘big projects’ fail?

“Big projects fail at an astonishing rate. Whether major technology installations, postmerger integrations, or new growth strategies, these efforts consume tremendous resources over months or even years.” – Harvard Business Review

Ask yourself a question. “Am I considering everything I need to embark on this laboratory transformation journey?” Making correct choices from the start significantly improves your chances of success in implementing a solution that delights your users, your sponsors, and helps grow your business.

So, what is it that you could be missing?

More than Just Software Features?

What are the typical criteria when a company wants to implement a new software solution? Usually it is the features and functions of the software. It might also be the expected Return on Investment. It may even be the size of the vendor. But, unsuccessful business transformations often happen when companies overlook the deployment of the solution. The availability of skilled and experienced professional services that understand your business should play a crucial role in your vendor selection. Working with the right partner who shares a common vision and roadmap is a critical factor in business transformation success.

Then, why choose a ‘vendor’ when you can select a ‘business partner’ who is as invested in your success as you are?

Success Criteria

Complete laboratory transformations can be challenging and take careful planning to keep on track. Successful programs understand that ‘change overnight’ is not practical and recognize that transformation is a journey and not just a destination. Managing the pace of the transformation and allowing flexibility to optimize and adjust as the program progresses is critical to the overall quality and value of the laboratory transformation that is implemented.

You may notice that we use the term ‘transformation’ in this article frequently instead of ‘replacement’. This is because a laboratory transformation is an opportunity to provide a better ‘to-be’ solution than the current ‘as-is’. Collaborating with a business partner who has deep understanding of the laboratory best practices allows you together to ‘think differently’ and drive to standardize, harmonize, challenge and optimize existing laboratory workflows ensuring that the program brings the maximum possible value in a realistic timeframe.

Change management and cultural alignment are also crucial to any laboratory transformation project. Communications must be carefully managed to portray that this is an opportunity to do things better, without implying that anyone is doing anything wrong. Successful improvements happen when the laboratory users feel that they are part of the transformation and that change is not something that is just imposed on them. Two ways in which your business partner can help support change management are as follows:

1. Identify and develop internal champions – Select key laboratory subject matter experts to participate in the transformation. Ensure that your business partner enables your champions to become system experts through knowledge transfer and mentoring. The transformation will not only benefit from their valuable experience in the design and implementation, but also from their ability to positively influence their peers.
2. Prioritize and deliver ‘quick wins’ – Show your laboratory users the positive impacts of the transformation by identifying smaller, focused and incremental improvements. This can typically be achieved through a combination of targeted solution features and laboratory functional group.

“Smaller, focused and incremental improvements will increase the success rate of any business transformation” – MBE Consulting

People Make the Difference

So much depends on the people involved in the laboratory transformation. Selecting the right business partner and building a team that aligns on the following major pillars is a proven way to significantly increase the likelihood of a successful program:

1. Common Vision – Both your internal team and your business partner’s team must share a common vision for the transformation. Only when everyone is pulling in the same direction can the Team optimally function.
2. Partnership – Working together as one team with open, honest and professional collaboration toward a common set of goals. Build relationships based on trust and mutual respect.
3. Sharing Knowledge – Your business partner should bring deep laboratory best practice experience and technical solution expertise to the program. Effectively sharing this knowledge, combined with the cultural intelligence and laboratory process experience of your internal team members, drives the team collaboration to function at its highest level.
4. Cultural Alignment – You are very familiar with working within the culture and practices of your own organization. In order to collaborate with your business partner at the most optimal level it is important that they are adaptable and agile enough to work with you the way in which your organization works best. Good cultural alignment is essential for developing enduring and high performing collaborative relationships.
5. Governance – Working with your business partner to establish the right governance structure supports good decision-making, progress tracking (through key performance indicators) and accountability. Moreover, it provides a mechanism to continually validate direction and ensure the value and quality of the ultimate laboratory transformation.

BIOVIA Professional Services

The global BIOVIA Professional Services and Consulting team has decades of experience and expertise in understanding and delivering scientific process and workflow digitalization. We have supported hundreds of scientific companies worldwide, including 25 of the top 25 pharmaceutical and biotech companies in harmonizing and optimizing their processes.

“BIOVIA Professional Services have been there for us on every step of our journey to implementing our digital solution. Their support and technical leadership continues to be a key contributing factor in the ongoing success of our program.”
— Head of Global Lab Operations Global Lifesciences Company

We have a proven record of accomplishment of aligning with our customers on both culture and vision to build high performing laboratory transformation partnerships. Whether you are looking for a business partner to augment your internal team, or are looking for a business partner to take a leadership role, BIOVIA Professional Services has the depth of talent and skills to provide all of the support your laboratory transformation requires to be successful.

• Program management (incl. governance and change management support)
• Laboratory best practices, optimization and harmonization consulting
• Solution architecting and laboratory workflow analysis
• Configuration and integration services
• Validation and Quality Assurance services
• Technical training and mentoring

Furthermore, we are committed to providing outstanding customer service through building an enduring business partnership dedicated to the success of your laboratory transformation that is maintained throughout the years of continuous usage and value from your BIOVIA solution.

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