Transformation in a 20-year partnership
Case study
Dedicated resources and truly blended solutions
Overview
A top 10 pharma partner of over 20 years needed a dynamic clinical outsourcing solution that could adapt to their evolving sourcing strategy and R&D infrastructure.
ICON provided a blended solution to enable greater accountability and collaborative delivery. By establishing a comprehensive enterprise-wide business unit, supported by an integral FSP solution, the sponsor benefited from a dedicated ‘business within a business’, focused on consistent delivery excellence.
Challenge
Over the course of 20 years, the partnership between ICON and the pharma partner expanded enterprise wide, with ICON providing support across a range of service lines. Adapting to the evolving needs of a long-standing pharma partnership, with a significant change to their global sourcing model required agility and innovation. A key challenge was that the pharma partner sought greater control and accountability for Phase II and Phase III studies, with a goal of 80% insourcing.
It was also critical to ensure parity across both organisations and establish a single point of contact to manage an increasingly complex outsourcing relationship, whilst supporting our partner through a period of radical change. Our partner wanted assurance that their corporate strategy and goals would be integral to ICON’s delivery strategy.
Solution
Responding quickly to the pharma partner’s evolving requirements, ICON established a customer-dedicated business unit that was operational within one month. The structure, an evolution of standard alliance management, was enterprise-wide, spanning all relevant services lines. The unit featured a blended-team approach, comprised of:
- A business unit head who is ultimately accountable for all ICON deliverables to the pharma partner.
- Service line operational leads accountable to the business unit head, leveraging their domain expertise to deliver with excellence.
- Designated global business support for finance, legal, commercial, human resources, IT and communications, enabling the business unit to function pan-ICON
Truly blended solutions
The unique business unit structure marks a significant transformation from the traditional outsourcing models. Facilitated with blended models and teams, it allows the pharma partner to meet their insourcing goals and benefit from embedded expertise. Strong cultural alignment within the business unit, driven by leaders from both organisations, ensures alignment to pharma partner’s strategy, shared goals, aligned processes and accountability for delivery excellence, fostering deeper collaboration.
Outcome
The establishment of a customer-dedicated business unit ensured accountability at the right level of the organisation, aligned strategy with the evolving needs of the partnership, streamlined communication, enhanced governance and operational efficiencies, leading to deeper collaboration, transparency, and alignment across teams.
ICON’s efficiency as an embedded team supported a successful evolution to a new sourcing strategy within the pharma organisation.