With complex bioanalysis at the core of BioAgilytix’s expertise, collaboration and effective communication are critical to our success. It is all too easy to neglect vital parts of a project when members of the team are on different pages, and being on the same page is challenging when working from different locations. At BioAgilytix, as we have grown into a multi-national organization with headquarters in the USA and Germany, we have had to evolve the way in which our internal team works together to ensure that clients, no matter their location, are getting the quality services they expect from BioAgilytix.
William Hunter, Director of Business Development and Global Key Accounts at BioAgilytix’s European headquarters, and Todd Lester, Bioanalytical Project Manager at BioAgilytix’s USA headquarters, understand the importance of this collaboration first hand. The two work together on a regular basis to ensure BioAgilytix’s relationships with sponsor companies run smoothly.
Tell us about your roles and how they intersect.
Todd: As a Bioanalytical Project Manager (BPM) I work as a project manager and am the sole point of contact for clients during their study. I wear a lot of different hats, including managing the more administrative parts of a project like resource allocation and deliverable timelines, as well as scientific responsibilities that are core to the project, from assay development to validation to sample analysis. I generally interact with William, who works in Business Development, when a contract needs to be established for a new project or if any alterations need to be made during the process of working with the client.
William: As part of my role as the Director of Business Development and Global Key Accounts at BioAgilytix’s European headquarters, I help Todd and other BPMs navigate any issues that arise with the contracts within which they are working. Todd handles most of the client interaction once the project starts, because at BioAgilytix we use a scientist-to-scientist communication method with our sponsors. However, I do have regular checkpoints with Todd and the client to make sure everything is running smoothly for both the scientific team and the customer with regards to timeline and scope.
How often do you communicate with one another?
William: I participate in weekly calls where the scientists present updates to each of their clients, so I always know what is going on even if it doesn’t merit any intervention from the Business Development team. This call helps me to be proactive in my role, often catching potential hang-ups before they become problematic on a larger scale. Honestly, if all is going smoothly, the customer will not need to hear from me often because Todd and I are working behind the scenes to get any potential issues resolved quickly.
Todd: In addition to those weekly calls for active projects, we communicate frequently during the initial project scoping process. William reaches out to me when he’s developing the contract to make sure that he understands the full scope of the project from a scientific perspective, so that he can create an accurate proposal for the client that is based on first-hand information from a scientist.
What are the benefits of having a global team that can work well together?
Todd: With laboratories in the USA and Germany, we can support more trials overall. Additionally, shipping samples internationally is not a trivial exercise, so having two options for sponsors based on where they are located is definitely beneficial and makes us a more attractive option as a CRO partner.
William: Most of BioAgilytix’s business development team has always worked remotely, so we have gotten good at working together effectively without being in the same place. We’ve formalized methods and tools that help us easily manage communications across departments and across locations. So, while having teams on different continents can sometimes be challenging, we are able to deal with it very efficiently so that our clients can benefit from having those two options when working with BioAgilytix.
What is your favorite thing about this transatlantic partnership?
William: One of my favorite things is that Todd and other team members in the USA get things done while I’m asleep! But on a more serious note, I think it is beneficial to our clients that we are productive, as a company, almost 24 hours a day.
Todd: It has been a great experience working with William and the rest of the European team. I feel like we’ve figured out how to work well together and how best to manage any issues that arise with projects proactively so that ultimately we are delivering better end results to clients in the USA and Europe.
Learn more about the expert teams and robust resources at BioAgilytix’s European and USA laboratories and how we can leverage them to support your large molecule drug development needs.
Interested in hearing from other BioAgilytix team members? You can find other Q&A sessions from our employees here.
