- The decision
- Continue funding a flagship content automation platform that promised faster, lower-cost regulatory submissions, or redirect scarce regulatory experts to a submission calendar that was about to expand significantly?
- What made it hard
- The business case was compelling on paper and the program had executive sponsorship. In practice, the output still required heavy expert review, and the experts needed to correct it were the same people needed for active submissions.
- Our approach
- We tested the vendor's time, cost and quality claims against the platform's actual performance. We assessed readiness across content standards, governance, data and change ownership. We then compared three paths: continuing with the platform, accelerating submissions through improved ways of working, and AI-assisted authoring with expert review.
- What leadership gained
- A clear case to avoid an estimated $2 million to $6 million in first-year licensing and implementation costs by stopping before further commitment. Scarce expert capacity stayed on active submissions that protect launch timelines, and leaders gained explicit criteria for revisiting the investment. The decision rested on evidence, not on sunk cost.
Services
Operating Model and Investment Priorities
Talon Group Consulting helps life science leaders decide how their operating models, governance, and capabilities should evolve to support the strategy. That includes which automation and other technology investments the strategy depends on across R&D, clinical, regulatory, and commercial functions. Your teams and chosen partners carry out the work. Talon Group Consulting tests the plan's assumptions, compares the options, and clarifies the conditions required for execution.
Common pressures
What leaders tell us they are facing
- Operating models and governance that need to change as the strategy changes
- Scaling globally while maintaining compliance and quality
- Unclear measures for whether operational investments are paying off
- Automation and technology requests competing for the same budget
- Adoption risk that has to be priced into the plan
- Pressure on cost and timelines in a highly regulated environment
What you receive
Outputs built for the decision
Each output is an input to the decision in front of you, not a standalone report.
Operating model options
The realistic ways a function could be organized and governed to deliver the strategy, with the trade-offs of each.
Investment priorities
Which technology and capability investments the strategy depends on, and what to fund, stop, or sequence, and in what order.
Readiness assessment
Whether process, governance, data, and change ownership are in place for an investment to deliver what it promises.
Decision conditions
The measures and review points that tell leadership whether an investment is earning its place.
Client success
Knowing When to Stop a Flagship Technology Investment
Global biopharma, Regulatory Affairs
Other services
01
Growth and Portfolio Decisions
For decisions about which markets, indications, and launches to fund. Talon Group Consulting tests the opportunity and its assumptions, and whether digital and AI belong in the plan.
03Partnership and Collaboration Decisions
For decisions about whether and how to partner, and which pilots deserve further investment. Talon Group Consulting tests each option and defines what it must prove before it scales.
Facing a consequential strategy decision?
Bring the decision in front of you. We will help you frame it, test it and decide where technology belongs in the answer.