Case Studies/Testimonials

Pharma Compliance Group (PCG) Case Study

Posted by Deerwalk on January 21, 2014

Introduction

The Pharma Compliance Group (PCG) is the leader in providing regulatory compliance services to the pharmaceutical industry.

Background

PCG came to Deerwalk with a very specific request. PCG wanted to transition from a service heavy company to be a product company with focus on specific services. PCG wanted to invest heavily on building a product so that the ‘know-how’ of the business could be leveraged by a large set of audience and PCG could focus on targeted engagements where the product could not provide the service.

Aim – come up with a deployable system with great User Interface and complete features and functionalities

PCG came with a very specific deadline on when the product needed to be ready. Deerwalk worked in designing the system from concept to reality. This meant working from a conceptual design to wire-frames to actual screens. In terms of the functionalities, standard Use Cases approach was used to come up with a set of features and functionalities.

The approach

Deerwalk worked very closely with PCG to make sure the requirements were completely documented and written in such a way that the PCG understood what was being built. Deerwalk met in-person with PCG on a monthly basis to make sure that each part of the progress was transparent. The version of the system was shared so that PCG could feel like they were part of the building process.

Evolving Business Requirements

No matter how thorough one is, the requirements did change during the course of the project. This was mainly due to feedback of the demo system by Industry experts. Deerwalk was accommodating to the needs and incorporated all the changes that was possible without extending the deadline. This was done by understanding where the constraints of the system lay and where there were flexibilities possible.

Striking a balance

This balance was possible due to the development methodology that Deerwalk uses. Deerwalk uses the standard ‘SCRUM’ (www.scrum.org) methodology to develop software applications.

Challenges

The biggest challenge the project faced was around managing the business requirements such that the system was flexible to incorporate as many requests as possible. Deerwalk built the flexibility in the system so that there were standard dashboards that provided all pertinent metrics. Deerwalk also built in a business intelligence search capability so that any data that is available in the underlined database could be searched.

Successes

The clear success will only be realized when the application will have multiple paying clients. Until then, the robustness of the application and its extended capabilities are what PCG is touting as a successful launch. PCG also acknowledges that the system was built within the time and budget allocated.

Conclusion

Even though it was a first time involvement for PCG on an application development venture, the experience was very positive. Moving forward, PCG is keeping Deerwalk as their extended IT team. Deerwalk is hosting and maintaining the system moving forward.

This is a true case of partnership and both Deerwalk and PCG are excited about future potential.