Pharmiweb.com - Knowing When to Let Go

Author:

Martin (Marty) Magazzolo, Global Practice Director, Software Solutions Group, with CSC Life Sciences

There’s nothing like a tough market to force companies to take stock of their core business and reassess the best use of internal resources. Martin Magazzolo, global practice director of CSC Life Sciences’ Software Solutions Group, charts the move toward content as a service amid changing market dynamics.

Although life sciences organisations have a reputation for being conservative in outlook, keen to retain tight control over their information-based assets for fear they might otherwise compromise their competitive edge or customer safety, times have changed. With markets showing no immediate sign of recovery and competitive pressures fiercer than ever, pharma companies are finding they must rethink their business models if they want to secure their futures. And certain intensifying regulatory demands have added to the complexity surrounding content management. All of that has conspired to create a situation that is unsustainable administratively, if organisations want to stay lean and keen and able to outpace their competition.

One of the major shifts is that companies are finally learning to let go — by entrusting aspects of their operations to external suppliers: those that can offer specialist-managed service and superior economies of scale in handling noncore activities. Having gained confidence from their experiences in outsourcing basic information technology (IT) infrastructure management, companies have now begun putting their trust in content-as-a-service providers: in the form of cloud-based managed-service suppliers that can look after those companies’ critical data assets and improve the way the assets get processed and maintained. Read full article