A Life Sciences Company on the Verge of Hypergrowth Needed to Know Whether Its Technology Could Keep Up
An established biotech company with a breakthrough diagnostic technology on the cusp of commercial launch. The company had grown primarily as a research organization and was beginning to confront the scale requirements of a commercially-oriented enterprise, including process manufacturing, multinational operations, and high-volume laboratory processes.
Industry: Life Sciences / Diagnostics
Size: ~200 employees at engagement start; significant growth projected
Ownership: Venture-backed, private
Business Challenge
The company had built its technology infrastructure for a research environment, not commercial operations. Systems were fragmented across a legacy ERP, a heavily customized and antiquated laboratory information management system, and a collection of point solutions with limited integration. With more than 70 individuals across all functional areas using different tools and processes, there was no consolidated view of where the gaps were or how to address them.
The company was approaching a growth trajectory that could quickly outpace its operational capability. Leadership had seen what happened to other companies that tried to scale before their systems were ready. They needed a clear-eyed assessment of where things stood and a defensible, sequenced plan for what to do about it.
Legacy ERP and financial systems unable to support process manufacturing, traceability, or multinational requirements
LIMS was outdated, heavily customized, with growing technical debt and no clear modernization path
Fragmented collaboration tools undermining information security and adoption
IT function operating without formal governance, program management, or security framework
No roadmap for sequencing the multiple major system investments the company needed to make
Our Approach & Solution
CIO Source conducted a comprehensive Business Systems assessment over six weeks, interviewing more than 70 individuals across all major functional areas including operations, finance, manufacturing, R&D, regulatory, and commercial. The team evaluated the full application portfolio, mapped current business processes, and identified technology gaps relative to the company's growth and commercial plans.
Findings were organized across four major program areas: ERP replacement, LIMS modernization, IT function maturity, and a future digital and commercial platform strategy. Each area was analyzed for current-state readiness, gap severity, and strategic interdependencies to establish a sequenced roadmap that avoided conflicting or duplicative investments.
Business Results & Outcomes
Delivered a comprehensive assessment covering every major business function and 50-plus applications
Developed a multi-year business systems roadmap prioritizing four major program areas
Established sequencing logic that prevented expensive parallel investments in conflicting directions
Created a governance framework to guide future system selection and implementation decisions
Gave executive leadership and the board a shared, actionable view of technology investment priorities
Executive Takeaway
Before a company can execute technology transformation, it needs to understand where it stands. This assessment gave leadership the clarity to sequence years of technology investment in a logical, defensible order, avoiding the technology failures that have disrupted other high-growth companies at similar inflection points. The roadmap became the organizing framework for the company's next three years of technology work.