Laimonas Sutkus, Fractional CTO, tells us how Fractional CTOs could be the answer to pharmaceutical companies’ technical leadership needs for a fraction of the cost of a CTO.
How Fractional CTOs can help pharma companies achieve technological success?
Pharmaceutical companies are typically non-tech organisations with limited IT setups. Employing a full-time CTO is often too costly, so many pharma companies go without one.
Yet, as Digital Transformation advances, there’s a growing need for experienced technical leadership in every company. Fractional CTO is the best option for pharma companies to receive such senior technical
expertise for a fraction of the cost.
What is a Fractional CTO?
A Fractional CTO (FCTO) is a senior technology leader who works with a company for a fraction of
the time, for a fraction of the cost. While regular CTOs are employed as full FTEs, the engagement
with FCTOs can range anywhere between 0.1 FTE to a temporary full FTE. This type of engagement is extremely attractive to pharma companies as their IT operations are usually quite small and don’t require a permanent or full-time CTO.
CTO vs Fractional CTO: What’s the difference?
Despite being both tech leaders and guiding an organisation through narrow and dark paths of technological challenges, Fractional CTOs (FCTOs) can be a much more attractive option than a regular CTO. FCTOs possess a vast network of connections spanning different seniorities, roles, companies and industries. Such a wide network can be utilised to make a significant impact quickly with reduced levels of risk.
FCTOs are exposed to many companies and their challenges at the same time. Therefore, they can identify common patterns of mistakes and correct ways of fixing them quickly. FCTOs provide unbiased insights without having to paint everything in bright and beautiful colours. FCTOs describe problems the way they are without trying to forge an appeasing relationship with the boss. Lastly, fractional engagement is a perfect option for pharma companies that have too few IT operations or just don’t have the budget for a full-time CTO.
Pharma company IT landscape
Pharma organisations are considered non-tech (non-IT-tech) companies as their revenues primarily
come from drug and medical device manufacturing or providing pharma services instead of IT operations. However, internally pharma companies possess IT departments for mainly two functions: technical support and integration of new digital tools. What small-to-mid-size pharma companies usually don’t possess is a CTO to guide and shape these two functions within a company.
And for a good reason! Such internal IT operations are far less significant compared to clinical, regulatory and pharmacovigilance operations, and receive far less budget and attention. In such cases, a CTO is simply either too expensive or there aren’t enough IT operations for a CTO to be fully occupied with. However, without such senior tech leadership, pharma companies are set on a trajectory with an entirely misguided technical strategy.
Recent events, such as significant breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and cloud computing, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have ignited an enormous Digital Transformation trend which is estimated to be worth around US$250 billion by 2033. Pharma companies are investing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms to accelerate the research process, make personalised medicine and make informed and data-driven decisions. Cybersecurity is another hot topic in the pharma industry – protecting digital intellectual property is more vital than ever.
Lastly, the cloud is the ultimate Digital Transformation enabler allowing companies to manage their data with ease. Such hot trends influence pharma C-level executives to make rushed decisions and jump to implementations without preparing robust strategies with internal or external CTOs. It is a very common scenario, where a pharma company would approach a Dev Agency (or as they call themselves Digital Transformation Agency) to implement one or another solution. Dev Agency would handle any wish (just like a genie) as long as pharma pays. Such scenarios too many times end in very costly and sub-optimal custom solutions that should have been avoided in the first place.
How Fractional CTO empowers Pharma
No matter how big or small a pharma company is, it relies its operations completely on technology. Give it a Microsoft 365 suite, a Clinical Trials Management System, a Pharmacovigilance Safety database or a cybersecurity strategy – these are all fundamental technologies that can either empower you or slow you down. Another important aspect is how well these technologies play together and how well data flows from one system to another.
This is where a Fractional CTO delivers maximum value. Having previous experience with similar companies, an FCTO can prepare a strategy for a company’s technical growth. This ranges from department-based tools, backbone infrastructure, company structure, IT team, pipelines, standard operating procedures, guidelines, cybersecurity posture, data flows and even communication strategy with clients about overall tech posture.
The most elegant part of an FCTO is that once the strategy is prepared and executed, the company no longer needs intense engagement with the FCTO, and can enter a maintenance mode or as-per-needed mode to help maintain high-end technical posture. If required, FCTO will help to hire and train an IT manager for full-time support.
Practical advice from a Fractional CTO
- Digital Transformation does not happen overnight. Nor a Dev agency will do it for you. It is a long process involving changes in technology, people, mindset and culture. You really shouldn’t start this journey without an experienced CTO who has done this before.
- People will resist change. It is in human nature to resist every change, because change requires mental energy and we don’t like spending energy. The new system, new process and new rules will always be perceived negatively initially, but this shouldn’t discourage you from continuing your digital journey. Be open to your team’s feedback, pivot according to your team’s feedback, but don’t stop just because your change met some resistance.
- Every department should have a process owner and a system owner. The process owner knows how things are done, while the system owner knows how things are done within a system. Do not make a mistake and think that the system owner is in the IT department.
- Set a clear pipeline of how new digital tools are integrated and maintained within your organisation. You should clearly define steps from analysis to research to integration to support. Ideally, it should be a guideline document.