Thoughts, Opinions, and Insights at CSC Life Sciences Solution Client Conference
By Marty Magazzolo, Global Practice Director, Software Solutions Group
The CSC Life Sciences Solutions U.S. Client Conference 2012 provided an invaluable opportunity for clients to share thoughts and opinions, as well as gain insights into CSC’s content management and regulatory products and services.
In keeping with CSC’s broadened approach to managing client needs, the conference explored not only content management and regulatory products but also business-related topics. The meeting gave clients the opportunity to gain deeper insight into CSC’s end-to-end approach to meeting the business process challenges that exist across regulatory, quality, and manufacturing.
The three-day meeting began with presentations by CSC’s experts on the company’s vision, followed by a more-detailed look at our services and software solutions.
A growing theme across the industry is that of complete business services and integrated technology solutions to solve business problems; at CSC, we’ve labeled them Total Business Solutions. The conference also explored how divesting of costly infrastructure and looking to as-a-service options are becoming more popular at several of the large pharma companies. The advantages of moving to a secure and trusted solution such as CSC’s architecture and infrastructure model are extensive and include reduced cost, greater flexibility and improved data-sharing capabilities.
The first day of the meeting gave clients an opportunity to hear how other companies are managing their own regulatory and business process improvements.
Track Sessions
The second day of the meeting involved the start of the track sessions, wherein participants were separated into three groups to attend and take part in sessions specific to their needs. The topics included content preparation and authoring, regulatory publishing, and planning and tracking. Each session offered comprehensive presentations by CSC’s area experts; discussions on data standards; roundtable discussions that opened the floor to clients so they could share their experiences, hopes and frustrations; and tasters of what to expect with future CSC releases.
The final day of the meeting began with a user feedback session, wherein clients had an opportunity to tell CSC what is working for them, what isn’t, and what they hope to see in the future. Later in the morning, the discussion focused on another key industry trend: mobility. Participants explored what mobility means to the industry, to their own areas of the business and to the ways they work. The meeting then turned to an exploration of how CSC can assist in clients’ transitions from their on-premise solutions and into a managed cloud environment. The last session was a client-led training discussion that looked into best practices and lessons learned regarding the training of users.
The conference was a hugely productive one, leading to much insight on how best to move forward — for both CSC and clients. We are deeply appreciative to our client participants for their time and feedback during those three invaluable days.