ClinicAid is a full service, boutique, contract research organization providing a broad scope of services to support early and late stage clinical drug development processes from top to bottom. ClinicAid customers include private practice physicians, community medical groups, regional medical centers, large hospitals, academic medical centers, as well as biotech and pharmaceutical companies of every size. ClinicAid clients can select from a range of customized services to achieve rapid, streamlined outcomes.
Challenge
Industry regulations and a practical application
As part of the highly regulated drug development industry, standards require ClinicAid to possess data systems with built-in version controls, audit trails and levels of security critical to ensure data integrity. This known aspect of the process would prove to make their search increasingly difficult and bring them close to spending over $30,000 for a solution. This industry-specific need was complicated by ClinicAid’s practical requirement for the chosen system to be as comprehensive as possible, including a system addressing the need for MS Exchange functionality, CRM tools, project management, document management and a sophisticated web conferencing tool.
An uncommon demographic with a need for change
ClinicAid is an organization comprised of experienced industry professors and scientific researchers, thus, the need for a highly intuitive, user-friendly product is paramount. The chosen application required a simple enough user interface to promote rapid deployment while providing seamless integration with their existing systems.
The existing collaborative approach within ClinicAid was patchy and ad-hoc. A series of word documents were circulated via email to inform employees internally of events, including meetings and due dates. MS Project was utilized by the Project Management team to track projects and tasks; however, this solution was limiting in its inability to share information across multiple parties and traveling employees. Complicating this, they began to see overlap in calendar events as a real time update did not exist with the email system, causing multiple events to be scheduled concurrently. The status of any given project was only viewable by the individual overseeing the project, bringing projects to a standstill with employee absence and providing a system with inherently limited managerial oversight.
It became increasingly clear that, in order to sustain its position and progress, ClinicAid required a more efficient and robust collaboration solution.
Solution
“HyperOffice has significantly improved our collaboration by centralizing project management and document management requirements. The secure domain is compliant with most federal regulations, which is key for our industry, and the web based application has improved mobility and accessibility for our employees around the globe. It is the closest application to an enterprise solution that I have seen with a price point that is equally attractive and affordable. To top it off, we have had absolutely NO issues with downtime or connectivity!!!!!”
~ Dr. Dwight Tapp
A $28,000 Savings
With a 2007 budget that included the procurement of a new server platform for $30,000, ClinicAid was now tasked with the not wholly unpleasant duty of allocating a surplus $28,000 to other areas of the organization. Dr. Tapp expands upon this issue: “Our year one cost of HyperOffice was $1,900, representing an immediate savings of almost $28,000 over our original planned investment. We then had a surplus of funds to allocate towards additional programs which were not projected in the 2007 budget. These allocations would prove to not only open additional opportunities, but also generate additional funds to promote even more organizational growth. ”
New Opportunities
With the money saved, Dr. Tapp was able to allocate this considerable overhead towards marketing and sales ventures. Resulting in a considerable increase in contract awards, ClinicAid began attending additional trade shows and partaking in advertising as a means of marketing their service. This additional overhead has changed the way ClinicAid approaches business development, with the ability and newfound confidence to consider and approach larger opportunities.
An Endearing Solution
A few months into the implementation, ClinicAid has taken a step past the first layer of the product and finding that there is still much power left to be tapped. They have realized that HyperOffice is a multifaceted and mature product that is even more robust than initially thought. The ability to publish tailor-made microsites, coupled with the web and audio conferencing tool that would allow them to completely move to HyperOffice, has given Dr. Tapp many new ideas about how to approach and improve current vendor relationships. With HyperBase, a complete online database solution in the works, ClinicAid can look forward to soar to new heights.
