The benefits of outsourcing laboratory services to a scientific solutions provider

For life science organisations, outsourcing key business processes to third parties is nothing new. Increasingly, however, businesses are handing over the reins to specialist providers — particularly those that offer onsite scientific support in a laboratory setting.

Previously, many of the big life sciences players outsourced laboratory services to generalist or non-specialist providers, which provided high-quality facility management services such as building management, catering, and housekeeping in addition to the science.

In the last half-decade, the predominant trend in the STEM outsourcing market has been an increase in the use of specialist scientific solutions providers. At Synergy, SRG’s dedicated scientific solution, we’ve met this growing demand to help scientific organisations scale their workforces.

Unlike traditional outsourcing providers, Synergy take control of HR management and fully employs embedded teams of scientific experts to carry out both routine and essential scientific tasks — freeing up pharma and biotech organisations to focus on the innovation that makes them thrive.

In this article, I’ll explore some of the top-line advantages of outsourcing laboratory services to a specialist scientific solutions provider.

10 Outsourcing Benefits with a Specialist Scientific Solutions Provider

1) Flexibility and scalability

If your company outsources to a generalist provider, there’s a chance you may be offered a one-size-fits-all solution or receive more or less the same service as competitors (particularly if your supplier works with multiple businesses within the sector). On the other hand, Specialist science solutions like Synergy work closely with clients to take stock of their unique pain points and create tailored solutions — combining the best elements of in-house R&D and external outsourcing activities to meet long-term scientific goals in an agile way.

2) Control, governance, and compliance

Unlike non-specialist or traditional outsourced solutions in which the third party has a degree of autonomy over project management; limiting outsourcing advantages, calling on a specialist science provider gives you full oversight over every lab process. With laboratories being subject to stringent regulation, having full control of the end-to-end process also ensures your laboratory remains fully compliant.

3) Reduced risk

At Synergy, we assume full responsibility of HR management for the scientists we employ (including payroll, benefits, holiday, performance management, and onboarding/offboarding), thereby avoiding the HR liability of direct employment. By ensuring task orders remain valid for the duration of a contract, we also eliminate co-employment risk helping curb the risk of key business continuity challenges.

4) Headcount

Outsourcing to a scientific solutions provider addresses common headcount constraints.

With no increase of visible headcount, Synergy employees can be hired on an OPEX (Operating Expenses) basis as opposed to FTE (Full-Time Equivalent).

5) Agility

Outsourcing to a team of specialist scientific experts provides agile resourcing, leading to scalability of projects (i.e. increased productivity in the laboratory) and efficiencies of the managed structure (such as redeploying the trained workforce to meet business demands and focus on strategic priorities).

6) Cultural alignment

Often, outsourced arrangements can strain relationships between teams, particularly if the third-party solutions provider has vastly different organisational structures and workflows. With a scientific solution, however, onsite teams of expert scientists are fully embedded into your organisation. As a result, their motivations and values are closely aligned with your full-time employees to culminate in a harmonious laboratory setting.

7) Top science talent

In a competitive talent landscape beset by skills gaps, unlocking access to skilled scientists is increasingly challenging to achieve at pace.

Because specialist scientific solutions providers take over HR and recruitment functions, you’ll receive full access to their talent networks. At Synergy, for example, we manage the full recruitment effort and our time to hire (the time elapsed between first engaging a candidate and then accepting an offer) is typically six weeks or less.

All Synergy staff are hired on a permanent basis and come equipped with advanced IP and project knowledge, ensuring they are fully committed to each project. Indeed, our average retention rate is 4.5 years for scientists and 6.5 years for team leaders.

8) Skills and expertise

Calling on a scientific solutions provider like Synergy — and gaining access to our external talent pipelines — helps you address immediate skills and expertise gaps at your business.   Aside from providing teams of onsite scientists and dealing with HR issues, specialist scientific solutions providers also offer technical leadership and governance.

At Synergy, for example, all our dedicated account managers and senior management team have a scientific background and a wealth of experience from across the sector. Having this experience enables the team to fully understand the complexity of your requirements and allows both parties to pick up on the nuances of each conversation. Alongside this, Synergy's onsite teams benefit from job crafting guidance to align their abilities, as well as continuous development to ensure their skills evolve to match the ongoing needs of your wider organisation.

9) Improved project delivery

The specific skill sets and organisational knowledge of embedded scientific teams addresses some of the common pitfalls of outsourcing, including potential issues with communication (e.g. language barriers) and quality control (e.g. accountability). Overcoming these obstacles speeds up the delivery of a project and frees up time for your people to focus on what they do best.

10) Cost savings

By taking charge of medium complexity scientific and laboratory administrative tasks, an outsourced team of scientists enable you to redirect your own workforce to ROI-generating activities. Moreover, many scientific solutions providers offer monthly fixed prices, making the use (and burden) of timesheets irrelevant. As such, outsourcing to science specialists can save you substantial capital in the long run.

Break free, break through with Synergy

Synergy supply, manage, and cross-train talented teams of scientists, manufacturing specialists, and clinical professionals for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the UK and Europe.

By integrating trained scientists to perform routine laboratory tasks within laboratories, we help return critical time back to your own staff, enabling your wider scientific team to break free from manual tasks in the laboratory and accelerate break through innovations. 

Want to find out more about what Synergy can bring to your business? Read about our partnership with Cignpost Diagnostics, the leading COVID-19 screening and testing service.