Parexel’s MyTrials and Thoughts on eClinical Product Lines
I’ve been looking at Parexel’s new MyTrials program this week since people have been adding the press release to their blogs. It seems pretty cool, although I didn’t request a live demo.
MyTrials allows you to access all of Parexel’s eClinical software with a single login. A feature which has taken them a big step forward towards their goal of having a full suite of products that allow you to run a trial from start to finish.
When I first noticed this idea of theirs, I quite liked it. I think it appeals to the Napoleon in all of us (well, maybe just in me). I like the idea because it seems so much easier, a single product, a single login, all you need.
But I’ve started to question it from a strategic point of view. I believe, like Darwin and Rupert Murdoch that the future doesn’t belong to the biggest companies or the ones who can offer a broad range of products but the ones who can react to change the fastest.
To me, it looks like Parexel is focusing on size rather than speed. What happens if a customer wants part of their product line but not all of it? I’m sure customers can pick and choose to suit themselves but if a company is focused on providing a full suite of products, will they be geared to discovering and meeting new customer needs or will they just be focused inward on closing what they perceive to be the gaps in their own product line.
Should eClincial companies be trying to create a full suite of products for every occasion?
Maybe, but personally I’m interested in finding new problems and I think trying to link one solution to another is a good idea. Parexel calls this an inefficient and “cobbled together” solution in their brochure, and in the past it has been but I think that it can also be a genuine strategy in this area.
Companies that will be able to link their products to those of their competitors are going to be able to find and exploit new opportunities by moving faster than those that need to create a solution from the ground up every time.
Time will tell, in the mean time let me know what you think in the comments.
