February 2015, IDC #254210 Industry Developments and Models IDC TechScape: Worldwide Life Science Clinical Trials Technologies, 2015 Alan S. Louie, Ph.D. IDC OPINION FIGURE 1 IDC TechScape: Worldwide Life Science Clinical Trials Technologies, 2015 Note: This IDC TechScape chart is representational of various technology adoption life cycles, given IDC's current analysis of the market. It is not a detailed or dynamic mathematical model. There is no preestablished time frame for the various adoption curves. Source: IDC, 2015 Figure 1 shows the 2015 IDC TechScape worldwide life science clinical trials technologies.
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February 2015, IDC #254210
Industry Developments and Models
IDC TechScape: Worldwide Life Science Clinical Trials Technologies, 2015
Alan S. Louie, Ph.D.
IDC OPINION
FIGURE 1
IDC TechScape: Worldwide Life Science Clinical Trials Technologies, 2015
Note: This IDC TechScape chart is representational of various technology adoption life cycles, given IDC's current analysis of the
market. It is not a detailed or dynamic mathematical model. There is no preestablished time frame for the various adoption curves.
Source: IDC, 2015
Figure 1 shows the 2015 IDC TechScape worldwide life science clinical trials technologies.
This IDC TechScape provides technology buyers with a snapshot of technologies and their current
state of adoption in the life science clinical development space. Recognizing that the rate of
technology adoption can vary with organizational risk tolerance, the IDC TechScape is intended to
represent adoption progress expected for mainstream technology adopters.
The IDC TechScape is composed of three separate adoption profiles, representing technologies
supporting disruptive processes (transformational), current technology best practices (incremental),
and supportive technologies that can deliver improved operational effectiveness or efficiencies
(opportunistic).
Within each adoption profile, individual technologies are positioned relative to their adoption maturity.
IDC has identified five basic stages to technology adoption: evaluate, test, deploy, maintain, and
replace. Refer back to Figure 1, which displays the adoption curves and the relative stages of adoption
for each technology on the IDC TechScape graph.
Scope and Domain of the IDC TechScape
The core foundation of an IDC TechScape is the definition of the specific technology coverage area
within its specific use domain. The IDC TechScape is intended to provide IT and technology buyers
with a current snapshot of the user domain, which may be specific to a particular focus area or
industry. As a result, it becomes possible for specific technologies to be positioned in different places
on the IDC TechScape, depending on what user domain is being discussed. For example, while public
clouds are positioned in the deploy stage within the opportunistic category in this IDC TechScape, they
would likely be considered to be in the maintain stage within the incremental category in an IDC
TechScape focused on industry-agnostic datacenter technologies. As a result, an understanding of the
specific domain associated with an IDC TechScape figure is critical to applying the market insights
contained within.
IDC TechScape Categories and Definitions
The categories that define the three types of adoption curves in an IDC TechScape are (see Table 1):
Transformational: The transformational category includes disruptive technologies that are likely to be next generational by their potential to fundamentally transform current industry best
practices. While clearly different from current best practices, technologies that are successful in this category are likely to represent the best practice technologies of the future.
Incremental: The incremental change category includes technologies that represent current
industry best practices. While different technologies can clearly be at different stages of adoption, these technologies are generally recognized as best practices currently in use in
clinical trials, with the analyst's assessment of average industry adoption for each technology represented. These technologies are expected to continue to incrementally evolve over time.
Opportunistic: The opportunistic category includes those technologies that contribute to
industry progress but are not considered integral to current best practices. These technologies may include industry-agnostic solutions that help advance efforts but are not critical to
success. While not absolutely required, technologies in this category contribute to company success through more streamlined process execution, direct cost savings, and improved process outcomes.
Covered technologies/processes: Private clouds, BI platforms, public clouds, social media
engagement, and big data platforms
TABLE 1
IDC TechScape Technology Markers of Momentum
Curve Type Technology Stage of Adoption Speed of Adoption Risk Level Market Buzz
Transformational Adaptive trials Deploy Medium Low Medium
Virtual trials Test-deploy Medium Medium High
Gamification Test Medium Medium Medium
RBM trials Test Fast Low High
Cognitive computing Evaluate-test Slow Medium High
Mobile-linked diagnostics Evaluate Medium Low Medium
Webcam diagnostics Evaluate Slow Medium Low
Incremental EDC Maintain Medium Low Low
eClinical solutions Deploy Fast Low Medium
eTMF Test-deploy Medium Medium High
Translational research Test-deploy Medium Medium High
Top pharmaceutical companies will likely have to directly consider and contend with all technologies
and processes described in this IDC TechScape. In addition, as many organizations increasingly
virtualize many of their processes, they will still need to deal with these technologies and processes
through their vendors and partners. Foundationally, top pharmaceutical companies should have an
extensible technology road map in place that allows them to maintain a standardized approach to their
technology implementation efforts across their broad ecosystem. Beyond these foundational efforts,
the approaches described in the General Guidance section should apply to the companies' preferred
technology adoption philosophy.
Emerging and Midtier Biopharmaceutical Companies
In most cases, emerging and midtier biopharmaceutical companies should be able to focus their
technology and process road map primarily on functional technologies and processes used in the
clinical trial space, since they have likely made only limited investments in IT infrastructure. In
differentiating these companies from top pharmaceutical companies, emerging and midtier companies
typically depend more heavily on external service providers for their clinical trial efforts (especially
contract research organizations and clinical IT service providers). The increased dependence on
external service providers suggests that vendors supporting life science clinical trials should also
examine their technology road maps relative to this IDC TechScape to ensure that they are capable of
delivering services to their customers in a timely fashion (both functional technologies as customers
increasingly demand these services and infrastructure as increasing operational efficiencies limit cost
growth).
General Guidance
Early Adopters
From an IDC perspective, early technology adopters are more aggressive than the norm, seeking to
gain early benefits from technologies that have the potential to transform the business. In addition,
these organizations routinely seek to foster an open innovation mindset in their people, enabling the
organizations to embrace rather than fear risk. Within the IDC TechScape framework, early adopters
are expected to be at par or ahead on key initiatives within both the incremental and the
transformational categories with an eye toward aggressive implementation of new technology
opportunities as they arise. IDC expects that within their core focus areas, early adopters are likely
significantly ahead of industry adoption progress, especially in the area of transformational technology
adoption:
Based on their increased risk tolerance, early technology adopters should consider emerging
transformational technologies outside of their core competencies for benefits to their organizations.
With organizational efficiency and effectiveness initiatives maturing, early technology adopters should review opportunistic technologies to ensure that progress exceeds average industry
progress with a view toward maximizing both near- and longer-term performance metrics.
Mainstream Adopters
Most organizations are likely to be in the domain of mainstream adopters, with only limited investments
in promising, but unproven, technology innovations outside of their core focus. Mainstream adopters
are somewhat risk averse with very limited tolerance for failure. Since this IDC TechScape is
normalized to these buyers, technology adoption progress is expected to be aligned for all
technologies with mainstream adopter expectations:
Likely falling into a "fast follower" mindset, mainstream adopter companies should validate that their technology innovation initiatives, particularly with the incremental technology category,
are in line with overall average industry progress.
With a view toward longer-term opportunities, mainstream adopters should consider focusing
their technology innovation budgets on core technologies that reside in the transformational category.
Cautious Adopters
For those organizations that would be categorized as cautious adopters, technology innovation is not a
significant priority when compared with operational issues. Operational efficiency and effectiveness
are foundational drivers within these organizations, and incremental progress in technological
innovation is the norm. Cautious adopters likely lag behind their mainstream peers with regard to
adoption progress in the incremental category and may have little, if any, active technology initiatives
based on technologies residing in the transformational category. Even within the supportive
opportunistic category, cautious adopters are likely lagging behind their peers with regard to
technology adoption, with the exception of those initiatives that can clearly demonstrate near-term ROI
to support improved operational efficiency and effectiveness while concurrently raising no regulatory or
quality concerns:
With ongoing external pressures continuing to threaten the status quo, it is becoming
increasingly difficult to retain traditional business models. Cautious adopters should consider targeted technology investments in areas expected to become near-term issues (e.g., the upcoming data tsunami and effectively collaborating in an increasingly global ecosystem).
LEARN MORE
Related Research
Business Strategy: Disruptive Innovation — Transformational Change Coming in Life Science R&D (IDC Health Insights #HI251770, October 2014)
Business Strategy: Transformational Times — Preparing Life Science IT for the Age of Genomics (IDC Health Insights #HI249557, June 2014)
Cloud-Based Business Transformation: Industry Case Studies (IDC #243275, September
2013)
Perspective: Patient Centricity — The Key to the Future of the Life Science Industry (IDC
The IDC TechScape study is both a strategic planning tool and a tactical decision-making tool. It's
designed exclusively for technology professionals in IT buyer organizations. This audience includes
CIOs, IT directors, IT managers, and IT architects and IT buyers from within business lines and
functions:
Strategic planning tool. IDC TechScape research offers a view into where a technology exists within its overall adoption life cycle. Technologies in the early stages of evaluation and
deployment are riskier investments than those further along in the adoption life cycle that are already being deployed more broadly. IT strategists can use this information to decide when a technology or group of technologies might be ready for adoption, given their organizations'
preferred level of risk.
Tactical decision-making tool. Because Figure 1 provides insight into where a technology
exists within its overall adoption life cycle and its associated risk, the IDC TechScape can be used to determine whether or not a particular technology should be adopted immediately or at
some point in the future when the adoption risk is less.
IDC TechScape Methodology
This IDC TechScape explores technology and/or management arenas characterized by one or more of
the following:
A single technology that has the potential for huge positive impact in the near future
A general technology area represented by multiple different technologies such as cloud, big
data and analytics, mobility, social business, datacenter, and security
A group of technologies that must come together to support a particular business process or
objective
Supporting technologies that, while not directly driving clinical development, have the potential to create significant competitive advantage
Synopsis
This IDC study uses the IDC TechScape model to provide an assessment of both industry-specific and
industry-agnostic technology adoption supporting the worldwide life science clinical trials market. The
IDC TechScape is an evaluation model based on a comprehensive framework and a set of parameters
that assess a technology's adoption progress relative to one another and to those factors expected to
be most conducive to success in a given market over both the short- and the long term. In breaking
technologies into three major adoption categories, transformational, incremental, and opportunistic,
the IDC TechScape aspires to provide IT buyers with an industry snapshot as to where specific
technologies lie today relative to current industry best practices. In addition, the IDC TechScape
identifies technologies likely to become best practices in the future and their current state of adoption
maturity relative to each other. Within our discussions of individual technologies, we also identify our
analyst's best opinions regarding key momentum factors, highlighted as IDC TechScape Spotlights,
where we rate technologies based on adoption speed, risk, and market interest.