There are thousands of considerations to consider before making a final decision on a clinical trial management system (CTMS) for your research company. Is the pricing model appropriate for my company? Will the system yield a quick return on investment? Is the system equipped with the capabilities required to do the task?
All of these are important things to ask, but there are a few more to think about during the selection process. While the system itself is frequently the most exciting part of the process, failing to ask questions about the solution provider's other features will assist you avoid selecting a vendor that is not a suitable fit for your company. Here are four questions to ask during the selection process to offer more insight into your future success with the selected vendor.
What is your Customer Retention Rate?
Knowing a CTMS provider's client retention rate is essential for selecting the proper system. CTMS companies frequently promote the number of customers they have but do not readily offer any information on retention.
This is critical to grasp since it demonstrates how much value the vendor offers to the research group. If a high number of people sign up but do not renew their subscription, this should raise an eyebrow. What is the source of the dissatisfaction after the sale? Was the system's capability overstated? Is there no help available?
How Frequently do you Release Software Updates?
The clinical research business has seen a near-unprecedented transformation in the last few years. A CTMS system must evolve to suit the ever-changing needs of researchers in order to continue to serve a research organization properly.
CTMS vendors must be swift in today's fast-paced market in order to deliver the greatest experience for researchers. This is why it's vital to understand the CTMS vendor's release cycle. Make certain that your chosen vendor releases three to four upgrades every year. Changes in the industry are accounted for in this manner in a fairly short period of time.
What New Functionality are you Working on for Future Releases?
A CTMS vendor should not only produce releases on a regular basis, but the content of such releases should also be relevant to the consumers. During the CTMS selection process, be careful to inquire about what the firm is currently working on for future releases, as well as how they decide which features to include in a version.
This is frequently a reliable indicator of your vendor's market awareness. It also ensures that you choose a provider who recognizes trends and develops tools to assist you succeed in the ever-changing research sector.
How Many Service and Support Personnel do you Employ?
The degree of customer assistance provided by your CTMS vendor is almost as crucial as the system itself. Whenever you have an issue or a query, you want to know that you will get an answer quickly.
This is why it's critical to inquire about the number of service and support professionals employed by the CTMS vendor. There should be enough employees on hand to handle calls quickly and get users up and running as soon as possible.
Finally, considering these issues while selecting a vendor will benefit your firm in the long run. By knowing how a vendor could fit into your business holistically, you will be able to select the ideal one for your organization's needs.
How Octalsoft Can Help
Octalsoft's CTMS allows academic medical facilities, CROs, Pharma companies, and other institutions that conduct enormous volumes of research each year to obtain visibility into all elements of their research operations. Octalsoft's CTMS enables employees to automate the flow of information between systems, acquire insight through extensive reporting and analytics, and manage the full protocol timeline effectively.
It goes without saying that not every CTMS can match your clinical trial needs and standards. What you need is an efficient solution that can offer all the benefits mentioned above and more.
Octalsoft's CTMS is a robust clinical trial management system that will transform the disjointed and inefficient work environment of your back-office clinical trial tasks into one that is highly efficient and cohesive. With real-time operational visibility and complete control, Octalsoft's CTMS clientele of pharma sponsors and CROs from all over the world.
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