3 signs you need a partner, not just a platform

In Pharma, one form of technology that offers great promise is a structured component authoring (SCA) platform. When Life Sciences organizations choose to roll out new tools of any type, hopes are typically high; adoption needs to go smoothly all the way from implementation to individual use. You want resources to support functionality. And you want a solution that saves your organization time and money on whatever problem you thought the product might solve.

But, like many technology options, not all SCA solutions are created equal. And convincing medical authors to switch from a familiar platform, such as Microsoft Word, is no small feat — even if it could shave considerable time off your documentation process.

For a Life Sciences organization hoping to achieve ROI off your investment in a platform like SCA, you need more than an easy-to-implement and use solution. You need assurance that your vendor will be with you every step of the way. If you’re considering SCA, we’re highlighting three signs why you need a partner, not just a platform.

Sign 1: You understand the value of change management support

Navigating human behavior is one of the most challenging aspects of running any business. People are creatures of habit, crave structure and appreciate feeling like they have a say in things. When an enterprise organization wants to roll out any new tool or policy, a great deal of strategy must be dedicated to ensuring the initiative is successful.

To implement SCA technology, Pharma organizations must consider the steps and stages necessary to ensure the solution will be a good fit for their writers — before they even open the platform for the first time.

A few questions to ask of your vendor include:

• What planning and communication should happen for successful adoption of the platform?
• How many stakeholders should be involved at each stage of the rollout?
• What does customer success look like, and how will you help our organization achieve it?
• Will we have a dedicated point of contact for any needs along the way?

It’s critical to understand that success begins long before the platform is added to your toolkit. You don’t want to just sign on the dotted line and have SCA available; you want a dedicated team that can help you ensure your organization follows a strategic approach so that once available, your people will utilize your investment.

Sign 2: You know onboarding requires more than simply logging employees into a new account

Many enterprise IT departments are overworked and understaffed. Their cache of responsibilities runs the gamut from keeping networks safe and secure to addressing individual issues as they arise — an often neverending inbox of help tickets. The last thing a busy IT team needs is a program such as SCA that they have to both manage and train new users on.

Though some SCA solutions claim to be intuitive to use, there is always a learning curve with new tools. Life Sciences organizations considering switching to an innovative SCA platform should look for a solution that understands that because the onboarding process is so important — and sometimes labor intensive — there are dedicated account managers and thorough documentation and training materials available.

Some considerations for evaluating SCA options include:

• How do you support onboarding and ramp-up?
• What does rollout look like? Is it all at once or done in phases?
• What services are available for training across functions (i.e., IT, authors, reviewers, etc.)?

For Pharma organizations, a new tool like SCA can have great impact, so long as it’s backed by fully-supported adoption assistance; in every stage from implementation through authoring.

 Sign 3: You need a solution that can evolve with your organization

Have you ever been in a scenario where someone shared a lot of details for a project or something similar and then asked, “Any questions?” Many people need the context of actively getting into the project to know what questions to ask. Software can be a lot like that. It might work out of the box, but it could work even better once you see how it fits into your organization’s ecosystem and can make adjustments accordingly.

To get the most out of an SCA solution, you need a vendor that is still there after you’ve started using it to help answer any “questions” you have now that you’ve established the context. It’s also important that the SCA option you choose can be scaled and optimized to function as the work demands — and it shouldn’t fall directly into the laps of your IT department.

Make sure your solution is accompanied by:

• A full spectrum of ongoing assistance and training
• Self-service help options
• Ecosystem integration support

The future is wildly unpredictable, especially for bio-medical, Pharma, and other Life Sciences businesses. Whether it’s acquiring new businesses and locations or embarking on new avenues of product development, research or other areas of documentation, organizations need to know they are investing in an SCA solution that is invested in their future — and ready to help them get there.

Docuvera SCA is designed for Life Sciences organizations

From the locking of approved content and content reuse to enhanced capabilities such as auditing, translating or omni-channel document publishing from the same project, the potential of SCA is real for medical content teams. While there are multiple component and content authoring options available, Docuvera was built specifically for the Life Sciences. Because Pharma is such a highly-collaborative industry, we’re committed to partnering with our customers to ensure the successful adoption of SCA.

Though we might not be part of the authoring, review and publishing process, dedicated Docuvera account managers and support teams are there to guide you at every step — from implementation through deployment, and beyond.

Learn more about how Docuvera can partner with your organization today.