Well-aligned teams focusing on business needs, this is how Cerba collaborates with external IT specialists

A federal testing platform for COVID-19 is bringing labs together to process samples from triage residential care centres on a large scale. They analyse tens of thousands of tests per day. Cerba handles the logistics of the samples for three of the eight lab partners in Belgium. “Medical labs and logistics are our domain,” says Peter Vermeylen. “Cerba has considerable in-house IT expertise dedicated to supporting these services. For anything outside our comfort zone, we draw on the knowledge and expertise of external specialists. We prefer well-aligned teams, led by people with a good understanding of our business needs.”

“In March 2020, Cerba joined the federal testing platform task force,” explains Peter Vermeylen, head of IT at Cerba Research. “That news was greeted with great enthusiasm by our employees. This was especially the case among our laboratory technologists and clinical biologists. Today, our entire team is really making a great difference. We are extremely proud of that.”

Medical labs
Cerba Medical Labs is a French group comprised of two core businesses. Cerba Healthcare is the largest division, with 150 medical labs and more than 30 technical platforms in France. It has branches in Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg. They analyse samples based on 300 common medical parameters. In Belgium, Cerba collects the samples from the doctors. It analyses them and sends back a research report. The two Belgian labs each handle up to 1,500 patient records per day.

The Specialty Testing business unit goes even further: they test samples based on 3,000 parameters. These are expensive tests or tests for which ‘ordinary’ labs are not equipped. The Specialty Testing lab in Paris processes 25,000 to 30,000 patient records per day.

Clinical studies
The group’s second core business is Cerba Research, which originated in Belgium. “Cerba Research provides support for clinical studies,” explains Peter. “They examine the effectiveness and safety of new treatments in healthy volunteers and patients. Their clients include biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies, and developers of diagnostic techniques.”

“Doctors take samples during a clinical trial. Cerba Research provides them with the resources to do that properly. We put together complete kits, distribute them, collect the samples later and process them in one of the labs in our global network. We compile all analysis results and report them to the doctors so that they can treat the patients appropriately. We also provide consolidated reports to the party commissioning the study.”

Health data is sensitive information. “Cerba Research does not know the identity of the patients,” notes Peter. “The samples are labelled with an identification code and according to a number of parameters such as age and gender. The clients need this information in order to correctly interpret the results. We offer our clients the highest guarantees with respect to information security and privacy.”

Consistent approach and quality
Cerba has considerable in-house IT knowledge to support the medical labs, clinical trials, and data transfers. However, it also works with third parties for specific expertise. For example, for software testing.

“Cerba Research developed its own application for managing our processes,” says Peter, “but software testing is truly a specialised profession. Working with freelancers proved limiting. You need a consistent approach: in the communication between developers and testers, for creating testing protocols, and with respect to test automation. Quality is paramount. With one testing partner, that becomes easier to achieve. All consultants have the same approach and the same quality standard. You have one point of contact with whom you establish a system. We chose Brightest.”

Infrastructure specialists
Cerba also enlists the help of specialists for its IT infrastructure. “In an international organisation, it is essential to have standards,” Peter explains. “That streamlines the oversight, management, and maintenance of the organisation. New consultants settle in more quickly. In order to achieve this, you need people who think beyond servers and switches. You need people who understand your organisation, who ask the right questions, and who challenge your team with their knowledge and experience. They help determine the architecture you implement, and help safeguard your infrastructure investments. We entrusted this task to Rank 1.”

“There is an additional advantage to this sort of collaboration. You can strengthen your own team with specialist knowledge outside your own comfort zone. An example? When setting up the Azure Foundation, one of the external consultants immediately involved a colleague with Azure expertise. Cerba Research has different security and data privacy standards than Cerba Healthcare. Setting up Azure is fundamentally different. The Azure expert ensured proper arrangements were made between Microsoft, Cerba Healthcare, and Cerba Research, without compromising our group policies. Hats off.”

In-house analytics
“We also use an external party for reporting purposes. Data is the core of our business. Our own staff must understand: what data do we have, how are the data models constructed, and what can we do with this data? When we invested in Power BI for analytics, we were also searching for a partner to train us to becomes specialists. Bmatix did that with verve. We regularly have soundboard meetings with them about our approach, methodologies, and technology. We maintain control of the systems, supported by a knowledgeable partner.”

Having each other’s backs
Is the collaboration with three Gumption companies a coincidence? “No,” says Peter. It’s all about the cultural fit. Down-to-earth. Brightest, Rank 1, Bmatix - all three have your back. They are committed, they listen, and they think in terms of solutions. They have a lot in common. We discuss things openly. We all want just one thing: to succeed. I believe in their co-creative vision for the future: together toward the common goal.”