A leading and innovative global healthcare company needed a dedicated eClinical support partner for its web-based clinical trials. This pharmaceutical company is healthcare leader and has over 110,000 employees in 100 countries.
With extensive expertise in eClinical support services for patient and clinical site personnel, the ability to share strategic intelligence and advice for future technology solutions, and a flexible and transparent business model, Stefanini was chosen as a strategic partner for the customer in 2007.
Stefanini continues to enjoy being a long-term partner in their customer’s innovative ecosystem. Seventeen years later, the partnership continues to evolve to meet the customer’s changing needs. It is solidly based on collaboration and supporting advances in technology for their customer’s clinical trials.
The Business Challenge
Prior to Stefanini’s partnership with this global customer, the customer relied on the services of a big eClinical provider that was constrained by a conservative business proposition. They needed a flexible and committed strategic partner who could support and advise on their current and future eHealth trial requirements with a focus on speed and cost.
The customer required that its eClinical service support would:
- Play a crucial role in representing the customer’s values and culture while interacting with users on the company’s behalf.
- Provide effective support to a very demanding audience of professionals such as doctors, physicians, hospital members, and international centres personnel.
- Provide 24/7 worldwide support.
- Build strong customer relationships.
- Deliver proven multi-lingual capabilities.
- Accompany and support the customer in an ever-changing business environment.
With information technology footprints dramatically increasing in clinical trial activities and significantly transforming how the customer is to do business, a trustworthy partnership was needed. The customer wanted a strategic partnership for its eClinical support rather than an ad-hoc or tactical IT collaboration framework.
The customer wanted a strategic partner that would:
- Provide future guidance.
- Offer End User support.
- Deliver a multilingual eClinical support solution service based on SLAs and/or KPIs.
- Enjoy mutual stability with a multiyear contractual engagement.
- Engage in a partnership with clear expectations that allows for future adaptations to move fast, by way of a Master Service Agreement (MSA) that negates the need to negotiate every contractual term in future transactions and offers the flexibility to quickly adapt to a continuously evolving business landscape and a Statement of Work (SOW).
- Engage in shared value creation as a business model to meet future challenges.
How We Helped
In 2007 the global company switched to Stefanini, a smaller, more flexible, and committed IT service solution provider. Since then, Stefanini has been delivering 24/7, high-quality, multilingual, first-line IT service desk support for its global healthcare customer’s web-based clinical trials.
Stefanini was chosen as its differentials met the customer needs by being:
- Excellent in providing leading guidance on how to leverage new technologies and tools for end-users.
- An expert in clinical systems used for clinical trials.
- A pioneer in end-user satisfaction. Every caller is treated as a VIP.
- A Gold Partner of the major software used by the customer.
- Strong in building solid relationships that help customers to shorten the business cycle.
- A leader with effective business behaviours to adapt to a fast-changing business environment.
- Innovative in co-developing software features and influencing application life cycle roadmaps.
The Solution
An optimal long-term solution is that Stefanini and its global healthcare customer work together as partners, not as client and vendor.
A proactive mutually beneficial partnership
A continuing partnership allows both parties to concentrate on their area of expertise and collaborate on the best way forward for future IT support needs. The customer concentrates on its core business, drug development, by trusting Stefanini to provide a high-quality eClinical support service to its patients and researchers. There is a clear understanding of how both partners benefit from the partnership.
Functioning as a virtual expansion of the customer’s capabilities, Stefanini can proactively support this customer to rapidly scale up, provide business intelligence and strategic advice, explore opportunities, and offer new IT services, as required, to sustain competitive advantage.
A revolutionary eClinical outsourcing business model based around flexibility, created especially for the customer
Stefanini developed an innovative, transparent, and tailor-made cost model based on a master service agreement to allow the customer to grow freely. The MSA states the negotiated terms and conditions. It is simply drawn upon to flexibly change IT support as required without losing time with formalities.
This model supports the formulation of concrete budget forecasts for current projects and precise cost predictions for scope expansions. It also permits the addition of new and removal of obsolete services without the need to renegotiate terms.
Certified quality in healthcare eClinical outsourcing services
Stefanini has created a quality initiative that requires each employee working in life sciences to take a test to gain the “Pharma Regulatory Compliance” certificate every 90 days. This assures customers that their IT outsourcing partner has the required knowledge for this special and highly demanding industry. This unique certification proves Stefanini’s high commitment and capabilities to deliver outstanding quality IT services in the life sciences.
Expertise in clinical services
With extensive expertise in eClinical support, Stefanini has developed an eClinical Services support package to deliver excellent customer service. It provides this healthcare customer with:
- 24/7, first-line, high-quality e-Clinical and hardware service desk support.
- Phone and email assistance operating from 6 global sites to over 63 countries in 13 languages.
- A reliable single point of contact to help resolve researchers’ technical issues.
- An established, long-term, dedicated, and stable team with an extended knowledge base.
- Empowerment with self-provisioned technologies.
- Committed account management. Stefanini’s dedicated Account Liaison, Madalina Prodana together with Service Manager, Adriana Sitaru and her customer counterpart, work in conjunction to explore opportunities and consider new services.
Results
Stefanini has consistently delivered admirable first-level support to this customer which is demonstrated in its FLE and customer satisfaction ratings.
- Over 90% FLE on average for 2023/24 – First-level efficiency (FLE) is measured by how many service tickets are resolved at Stefanini’s first line support. With an FLE target of 80%, this has been exceeded month after month.
- 4.85 out of 5 in 2023/24 YTD customer satisfaction results.
Added value includes:
- Cost improvements results
- Service delivery improvement results
- Standardised support processes
- Standardised tools and technology
- Standardised customer satisfaction handling
About Stefanini
Stefanini specialises in tailored and innovative digital health solutions for pharmaceutical, Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), and biotech companies worldwide.
Bringing cutting-edge technologies including AI, real-world data analytics, and cybersecurity, Stefanini helps healthcare companies to respond to a fast-changing landscape. They streamline communication channels, optimise patient and site personnel engagement, and develop user-friendly platforms and a set of hybrid services.
Stefanini aims to improve adherence to trial treatment plans and drive better health outcomes while ensuring regulatory standard compliance and industry best practices.
Originally formed in 1999, Stefanini’s work has spanned more than 800 clinical studies, taking place across 100,000 sites and engaging with over 1 million digital health end-users. Today they have staff operating from 8 global sites speaking over 20 languages to provide the best-in-class services and solutions, helping healthcare companies transition to a patient/site-centred, “smart health” approach to care.
