As it continues to enhance its R&D technology solutions, ZS was named a Leader in the new report “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Science R&D ITO Services 2024 Vendor Assessment.” The IDC MarketScape evaluated 12 life sciences companies and focused on more than a dozen attributes ranging from breadth of technology services offered to experience in business model reinvention strategy.
The report noted, “Consider ZS Associates when you are seeking support from an organization with deep life science domain expertise across the value chain with a clear focus on digital, data, and AI and [generative] AI; a strong footprint in clinical trials and niche areas such as biostatistics, risk-based monitoring, bioinformatics and -omics, drug discovery, [electronic medical record-clinical data model] integration, and integrated evidence planning; and key opinion leader intelligence consulting expertise with an innovative, problem-solving mindset and a core ecosystem of partnerships.”
The report comes at a pivotal time for the industry, with 85% of biopharma executives saying they plan to invest in data, digital and AI in R&D for 2025. Many companies are already achieving technology driven wins that would have recently been unimaginable: Amgen, for example, has used a multimodal, data-driven machine learning tool to double its clinical trial enrollment speed, while Sanofi is collaborating with OpenAI and Formation Bio to develop an AI tool that reduces patient recruitment timelines “from months to minutes.”
Why ZS was named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape
The report noted, “ZS is an end-to-end R&D partner with experts and solutions in research, clinical, and integrated evidence that drive ‘speed to value’ and then ‘scale value’ in support of R&D organizations and transformations. ZS’ differentiators include the company’s portfolio of solutions and accelerators, SaaS products and platforms, data assets, algorithms, partnerships, and systems integration capabilities and consortiums for client-led advisory and market feedback. It has expertise in areas ranging from developing knowledge graphs to supporting scientific innovation to digitizing protocols to optimize trial design and success.”
The report further details why ZS was recognized as a Leader:
“It has developed Revelen, an Interactome database of protein-protein interactions to detect novel, disease-specific molecular interactions. Its GenAI toolkits include AutoMap for data transformations; Alter Igo for the natural language search of data; GenAI agents and apps for document authoring and literature mining and mining medical insights; clinical GANs for patient journey predictions, enrollment modeling, and site selection; and AI/GenAI solutions for accelerating submissions and digital twins of the patient/site/study. ZAIDYN is its end-to-end SaaS platform that is used to assess site feasibility, and EvidencePro is its tool for integrated evidence strategy and planning (IESP).”
“ZS has partnered with Intelligencia.ai to help with pipeline decision-making, with Informatica on master data management solutions, with ONTOFORCE to deploy ONTOFORCE’s DISQOVER platform for target and drug screening and lead optimization, with Quartic.ai to leverage its enterprise-scale AI platform for autonomous manufacturing, with CluePoints to leverage its RBQM expertise and technology, and with AWS, as well. ZS is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with competencies in life science, data and analytics, and Amazon Redshift Service delivery partner, and ZS and AWS have over 100 joint clients.”
“ZS reports that this engagement saved its client $120 million and reduced patient and site burdens by 7% per trial.”
Source IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Science R&D ITO Services 2024 Vendor Assessment, doc #US52703324, November 2024
According to the report, “One of ZS’ most complex ITO engagements involved collaborating with a top 10 pharma, wherein ZS developed a cloud-based design intelligence platform leveraging AI, ML, and NLP to generate scores for patient burden, site burden, and operational complexity and predicted outcomes to mitigate risks and drive better trial design decisions.” IDC also observed that, “Over three years, the solution has evolved to facilitate regulatory precedent tracking for the United States–approved drug assets, thereby expanding the competitive intelligence landscape. ZS reports that this engagement saved its client $120 million and reduced patient and site burdens by 7% per trial.”
What ZS’s R&D clients said in the IDC MarketScape
Several of ZS’s R&D clients were quoted in the IDC MarketScape about their experience working with the firm and using ZS’s best-in-class technology solutions.
“[ZS] customized their existing platform to develop a comprehensive evidence platform for us, a first in the industry, it speaks to the vision of the group. They understand the marketplace, the gaps and customer challenges and how to build a solution to address that. We are very happy with their service, their deliverables, their responsiveness and their leadership. Driving adoption is critical, and ZS is doing a great job. If there’s budget, ZS is top of mind. In health value generation, they have so much expertise.” – Associate vice president, value, evidence and outcomes, of a global pharma company
“ZS looks at the bigger picture, rather than individual initiatives. They look at the success of the relationship — that’s what really differentiates them. They are very proactive at trying to solve problems. Our data fabric, they were supposed to handle the engineering side of it, but they also addressed the change management. They build and maintain R&D systems for us. Data and analytics are their bread and butter. Their software engineering is top notch. We use scaled agile. They are very proficient at it. Their testing is frankly superior to ours. They built custom apps, including one for molecule inventory. They were the lead consulting company selected to evolve multimodal data strategies for us. They said that they could bring us 20% cost efficiencies using AI. We purchased their AI tools. That translated into significant benefits for us. They are doing a lot of GenAI work. We set up an AI pod of engineers using Alter Igo as an accelerator to build a virtual assistant capable of handling structured and unstructured data. ZS has T-shaped individuals that bring in the breadth of life science business and of technology,” – Associate vice president, enterprise engineering and analytics, of a global biopharma company
We have created a data visualization platform, a data sciences platform, tapping into ZS’s cloud expertise. They are respected and trusted advisors. They deliver high-quality work—that’s why I fight for them. I am grateful for the great team that ZS has, their ownership and their accountability.” – Associate director, data and analytics IT, of a global pharma company
“Our existing vendor wanted to divest its platform. They helped us transition and maintain business continuity. They provided the data sciences, modeling. In terms of vendors, ZS excels — they look at a holistic nature of partnering. I appreciate their approach on sharing industry trends. They developed a platform for data-driven enrollment modeling. Their customer call center, they provided that service on top of the platform — I valued that. Customer relationships is where they excel the most — that’s a 5 for me, very adaptable, very willing to partner, and adapt the solutions to your organization. We use the term partner in the industry a lot — I cringe to use that term with respect to some other vendors, but with ZS, they are really a partner. In terms of life science domain expertise, they are definitely better than most,” – U.S. country head, U.S. CSU, of a global biopharma
Read the excerpt of the IDC MarketScape report that focuses on ZS and learn more about ZS’s R&D expertise and solutions.
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