Bringing products to market more efficiently

Challenge: An “old school” legacy

Not only did this biotechnology company need to meet strict regulatory requirements—but they also wanted to bring critical food and safety products to market faster.

Non-automated workflows proved to be complex and cumbersome, leading to extended approval processes and a high probability of error. According to an IT specialist there, “We had been a bit ‘old school,’ with most collaboration done through network shares and email. Most of the business processes were done using paper forms and Excel spreadsheets, so there was really no platform to support any kind of automated processes.”

Solution: A digital transformation

The company wanted a digital transformation, so they first introduced Microsoft SharePoint to improve their collaboration infrastructure. Soon after, they compared several business process automation platforms to address workflow needs, choosing K2 Software for its pricing structure and capabilities.

Today, the team is up to speed on K2 Software and is able to make and fulfill requests easily using Nintex K2 Five forms and workflows. Says the IT specialist: “My first impression was that this is a product any developer would like to see. I don’t consider myself a fulltime coder, but if there’s a business requirement that can be realized by customizing out of the box, I can do this.”

Challenge: Overcoming complex regulatory compliance

This biotechnology company had a deep understanding of the strict regulatory requirements to bring critical food and safety products to market. When the company develops a new product in any of their lines of business, be it animal and food safety, genomics, life sciences, or toxicology, it needs to go through a rigorous set of regulatory and compliance procedures. These governmental requirements come from both the U.S. and globally, so there are internal processes that require validation before it goes external to state, local, or federal governments.

Solution: Meeting rigorous requirements

This is now automated by Nintex K2 SmartForms and workflows with different stages of approvals based on a variety of parameters. For instance, if it is an initial request for a foreign country, it needs to go through a different approval process than if it were domestic, while a state request is another approval process—all of which is configured within the form and specific SharePoint list.