Alation > Case Studies > Transforming Data Management in Biopharmaceutical Services: A Case Study of Parexel

Transforming Data Management in Biopharmaceutical Services: A Case Study of Parexel

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAM)

Applicable Industries

Cement
Transportation

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Last Mile Delivery
Time Sensitive Networking

Services

Testing & Certification

About The Customer

Parexel is a global provider of biopharmaceutical services with a workforce of 20,000 people across 80 countries. The company is involved in the life science sector, focusing on understanding the value and impact of treatments in the real world. This involves leveraging real-world data and healthcare data from electronic medical record systems, claim systems, and pharmacy claims systems. The company is also involved in funding initiatives to advance their business operations and analytics capabilities. Parexel's workforce is largely composed of data generators, data consumers, or analytics recipients, making the management and governance of data a critical aspect of their operations.

The Challenge

Parexel, a global provider of biopharmaceutical services, faced significant challenges in leveraging big data to transform their operations. The company had been approaching the issue as a technology problem, underestimating the complexity of the clinical development process and the importance of domain expertise. The business was focused on understanding the value and impact of treatments in the real world, which required the use of real-world data and healthcare data. However, the company's data governance was fragmented, and they had to build a capability in real-world data that was adjacent to their own business data. Additionally, the company was funding initiatives to advance their business operations and analytics capabilities, but the gap between their corporate IT function and the business was wide, with IT drifting away from the business.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Parexel created the role of Chief Data Officer (CDO) to develop a real-world data strategy and improve the business. The CDO focused on closing the gap between the corporate IT function and the business, creating new structures and processes to bring the operators together more effectively. The company also underwent a robust reorganization of its IT function to face the business and its various aspects differently. Parexel also implemented Alation, a data catalog that encourages people to interact with each other around data. This tool helped to centralize data work, improve the quality and trustworthiness of the result, and speed up processing time. The company also focused on key transformative analytics initiatives that generated value back to user communities, building process and infrastructure as they serviced those teams.

Operational Impact

The implementation of the CDO role and the use of Alation have resulted in significant operational improvements for Parexel. The gap between the corporate IT function and the business has been significantly reduced, leading to better alignment and understanding between the two. The data catalog has also improved the way people interact with each other around data, leading to a cultural and mindset shift within the company. This has helped move the company away from its fragmented past and improved the quality and trustworthiness of the results. The company has also been able to drive data culture by focusing on key transformative analytics initiatives that generate value back to user communities. This has led to better and more trusted forecasting accuracy and tighter financial controls.

Quantitative Benefit