OREANDA-NEWS. August 22, 2016. “Life science and healthcare are an important area for the IT industry,” says Ram Meenakshisundaram. “The focus on North America that we saw a couple of decades ago expanded about 5-10 years ago to include Europe and now it has further expanded to Asia.”

The life sciences industry is now increasingly adopting cloud and software-as-a-service models. IT is clearly at the core of enabling such growth. Streamlining systems from multiple locations, ensuring adherence to compliance with norms laid down by various regulatory bodies, and building newer systems to enhance business effectiveness makes it an exciting period in the growth of the life sciences industry, he points out.

The life science industry is keen on reducing capex on traditional investment to fund innovation. “As the life sciences industry continues to prioritize quality, compliance and security in choosing IT service partners, we are also seeing more IT providers offer newer validated storage and platform services in contract and clinical research organizations,” he notes.

Lack of standards in many areas and interoperability challenges across multiple systems are a major drain on productivity. With mergers and acquisitions driving significant expansion, companies tend to spend sizeable amounts of time and money to streamline IT operations and systems. Also, paucity in business processes results in customizing IT solutions. This prevents the industry from rapidly scaling up, especially through the emergence of new technology and regulation, he states.