Choosing the right Business Partner

Choosing the right Business Partner

Introduction

As a leader of a pharma services business over the last 15 years, I've been in many competitive situations. It’s true that you simply cannot win them all. We, as vendors, must do what is best for us to stick to our values and ensure that we work towards being the best at that when we “bid” for work.

However, this short piece is actually advice from a “seller” to a “buyer”.?What should you be looking out for??They may seem obvious, but no amount of obviousness can be enough when making a tough decision to choose a partner.?

• How do you choose??
• What is most important??
• What signs should you see that make you question what you are told?

There are some key things you can perhaps consider a little longer than sometimes I believe is given credit for and I am going to try and outline them, in brief, here.

Typically, in our business, and I think this applies to most, the decision to select one CRO can be boiled down to three broad categories (in no particular order):

1.????Price

2.????Experience

3.????Organizational "Fit"

1. Price

Price is important but very seldom is it, nor should it be, the main factor influencing the decision to select a provider. It should be easy to get it right but it’s so easy to get it wrong, and often for the client this be4comes obvious when it is too late to change course.

If I had a Euro, Dollar or Pound for every time I heard the story of the vendor that oversold itself, under-priced or simply did not have the right level of resource to manage a project (or maybe a combination of all three), but gave a?“great" price, I would have retired by now! I have sympathy for the client in trying to really get to the bottom of who is best for them as a fit.

At Arriello, before we propose a solution it is key for us to have the opportunity to discuss the project and talk pricing through with our prospective clients and then price accordingly, factoring in what should be factored in, not hidden for a later day. What can seem more today, is often less tomorrow if care is taken to look at optimal processes or project structure. The dreaded Change Orders that many companies face is something that we as an organization avoid as much as possible by having upfront and honest pricing.?

2. Experience

Experience comes in many forms but in our business of PV, RA and QA services, it is crucial to not only have in-house experience but also to have it to scale. Too often technology is overplayed as a solution to many things, including replacing people. Whilst it makes sense on paper, in our industry it does not always work in practice. Knowledge is key and so too is the practical application of experience gained in similar situations. An over reliance on technology can potentially risk a lack of analysis and critical thinking of an experienced person or team.

It's also my experience that as clients increasingly explore automation and AI, vendors increasingly overstate the value, capability, integration or maturity of these tools. Alongside that is the added risk that is not always duly considered that new technology can disappear and/or the company that runs it can as well. That's a really big deal.

Despite all that, standing still is going backwards and I am a firm believer that technology should not be a novelty to sell yourself but a key driver that underpins what you do. I have found over the years that as you build experience and understanding of the complexities of a people-based business, such as my own, Arriello, you have to ensure that technology enables everyone and that its implementation should be part of a bigger picture thought process.

For example, back in 2019, we decided to change our Drug Safety Database. For us, a key driver was having a system that was modern in design, was scalable and that would not be so niche in the industry that it would be difficult for our potential clients to embrace. Having scanned the market, we did not want to use a "me too" product, nor one too small to be considered a standard. Hence, we chose Veeva Vault Safety as it was clear that outside the "Big Two" databases, this was the one that really was going to be able to compete on quality, infrastructure, the team behind it and that it would be here for a long time.

3. Organizational "Fit", Maturity and Parity of Size

This is key. Having a similar outlook on the world is important if you are trying to choose a partner that you will work with long term.

Questions such as:

• Will they work as hard as us?
• Will they be available when we need them, not when they want to be available?
• Have they got the depth of personnel and experience to manage emergencies and quick "ramp ups"?
• Are they culturally similar to us?

Let’s start with company culture. This is key.

I often hear other vendors talk about being an “extension of your team” to their prospective clients.?But what does that mean??What if your team has values that differ from those of the potential vendor??That will soon unravel.?So, question it.?What does it really mean??What are your values and what is your culture??It shouldn’t be underestimated!

Work-ethic, honesty, integrity, desire to solve problems together, an attitude of never giving up - these are all key drivers of our business and that resonates with our clients. And those values come with a financial investment. You want to hire the best; you want to develop your younger teams to be at that level. You want to invest for continual improvement.

And then there’s organisational maturity and parity in size.?Is the vendor you are talking to of a size that can align with the size of your business??What if a key person is missing??What if the technology has an issue??What is the level of support? How mature is the QM? Is there requisite in-house experience in that business to address it, and quickly??These are key questions that sometimes get lost in the flashiness of a nice Power Point or some fresh faces delivering it!?Question it!?We expect to be questioned and so should others!

Conclusion

There are many other factors at play when choosing a business partner, but I hope a few of the areas here that I outline resonate. With a growth in "me too" companies, companies that offer tech as the fix-all solution and the risk posed by too-good-to-be-true (or ”great”) pricing, it is at least worth taking a little longer and asking yourself if any of the three points above sound familiar when companies are bidding to be your business partner. It’s a marriage, so it's best to get it right!

Alan White

Alan is the CEO and co-founder of Arriello, a 15-year-old leading provider of QA, Pharmacovigilance and Regulatory Affairs solutions to Biotech and Pharma, delivered Faster, Better, Smarter.