Clinical Trial Support Company Embarks on Digital Transformation Journey with an Office 365 Modern Workplace Solution from ITS

• Clincierge (formerly Gray Consulting International) is a leader in the global clinical trial performance market, supporting the pharmaceutical industry to deliver new treatments and life-saving medicines to patients in more than 40 countries and 30 languages.
• With a unique services portfolio, Clincierge helps trial sponsors, CROs and research institutions overcome barriers to patient participation and reduce trial time and costs, thus accelerating the process of getting products to market and treatments to patients.

• Clincierge had a hybrid network environment with much of the company’s data still managed on-premise. As the business grew, it became difficult and costly to manage. With the announcement of a shift in the business model and a company-wide rebranding effort, the timing was right to establish a modern infrastructure and address the company’s global networking needs.
• With a large remote workforce and international user base, Clincierge sought to improve the experience for these users, including a better way to communicate and collaborate.
• As an international business dealing with PII, security, and compliance were top priorities.

New Cloud Environment

• Clincierge chose to move its network to the Microsoft Office 365 platform, with SharePoint Online as the backend for storing business data in the cloud, and OneDrive as an online replacement for end-users’ ‘My Documents’ library.
• Before performing the migration, ITS conducted an information architecture planning session to establish a file structure that would complement the existing file system and be highly scalable for future growth.
• Administrators are now able to maintain granular control over user permissions and quickly make changes as needed from a centralized location.

Communication & Collaboration

• For Clincierge, SharePoint not only serves as a file repository but also as a corporate intranet, a hub where all users can go to access employment documents, hear about company news, events, and much more.
• In SharePoint, there’s a “How-To” tab containing internal training materials, which provides easy access for new hires and for people changing roles or departments.
• Each department has its own SharePoint site with a document library for easy navigation and permissions set up so that only those assigned have access.
• Leveraging SharePoint and Power Automate (formerly known as Flow), ITS set up trigger-based workflows right into Clincierge’s Office 365 environment to automate several manual processes.
• Each Office 365 license comes with the productivity suite online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and other applications that can be used across 5 different devices, including mobile devices, simultaneously. O365 includes several features that promote collaboration, such as:
  • Coauthoring: Multiple users can work on and edit documents at the same time.
  • Versioning: Allows users to go back to as many previous versions of a document as needed.
  • Guest Access: Users can invite clients, vendors, and partners to collaborate on documents..

Security & Compliance

• Office 365 comes with an enterprise-grade security center for protecting Clincierge’s modern workplace. The security settings are applied across all applications, including SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Exchange.
• To ensure compliance with both U.S. and European GDPR compliance requirements, ITS set up two separate tenants with distinct sets of policies.
• ITS configured single sign-on with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) incorporated, so now users only need one set of login credentials for their machine and for all Office 365 services.
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) was implemented on SharePoint to alert key personnel when documents containing specific confidential data (medical records, credit cards, or social security numbers) are shared outside of the organization. This helps Clincierge ensure that they adhere to HIPAA and PCI best practices.
• O365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) was configured to provide Clincierge with advanced spam and virus protection.
• IT Solutions proactively manages Clincierge’s O365 environment, including the company’s Secure Score, which provides insight into potential threats, vulnerabilities, and compliance status.

• Office 365 has eliminated physical servers, and a remote desktop solution is no longer needed to access the network from outside the office.
• The SharePoint intranet has improved communication and collaboration with the company’s international and remote staff, ensuring that everyone is in-the-know about corporate news and events, regardless of their location.
• Although the modern workplace is a major shift in the way Clincierge staff were previously working, the flexibility and ease of use has allowed employees to adopt the new technology and work more efficiently than ever before.
• By automating several manual processes, Clincierge has freed up employee time to focus on revenue-generating tasks without incurring additional software costs.
• The digital transformation has allowed Clincierge to promote its new business model with confidence knowing that modern technology, processes and security are in place to support future growth.
• With IT Solutions as a dedicated, ongoing support resource, Clincierge executives have peace of mind knowing their cloud environment adheres to industry best practices and that we have “eyes on” security and compliance at all times.