Our report gives guidance on accelerating the move to the cloud create value for life sciences companies.

1. The cloud
imperative in
life sciences

2. Why cloud? Why now?
| Moving to the cloud gives life sciences companies an
opportunity to deliver more effective treatments to patients
in a more economically viable way.
| COVID-19 has created a new inflection point and opportunity
to realize the impact a move to the cloud can have on their
business.
| Two-thirds of life sciences companies said they haven’t
achieved the results expected of their cloud initiatives to
date.
The cloud is one of the most value-creating
technologies of our time. It is the foundationfor the
digitaltransformation that is driving profound changes
in how businesses operate, compete and create value
for all their stakeholders.

3. For life sciences companies, the
cloud’s virtue is not just about
running a more streamlined business,
lowering costs and computing on
demand. It is about the ability to
unlock data, collaborate better across
the ecosystem,create more
meaningful patient and healthcare
provider engagement and transform
their culture to embrace these new
ways of working.

4. State of cloud in
Life Sciences today
Figure 3:
Extent to which life sciences respondents reportthey havefully
achieved their expected cloud outcomes.
34% 39%
46%
29% 33%
24%
Report fully
achievingtheir
expected cloud
outcomes
Cost
Fully
achieved
Speed
Fully
achieved
Business
Enablement
Fully achieved
Improved
Service Levels
Fully achieved
Resiliency/
Business
Continuity
Fully achieved
Lost in cloud? Navigating to maximumvalue. Accenture 2020
Very few life sciences companies are taking a
“cloud first” approachwhere the cloud is
primary and prioritized, extended beyond the
IT organizationandembraced by the whole
organization.
Just adoptingcloud technology or moving parts
of the business to the cloud does not ensure
business value.

5. The next major business disruptionwill see
those companies who overcame these
obstacles with a mature cloud strategy able to
respond in an agile, cost-effective fashion.
Five obstacles to cloud
adoption in life sciences
1. Competition for talent leaves the industry at a
disadvantage to access the best human capital.
2. Margin decline is so slow that it can be hard to
see, especially when profits are still high.
3. Data silos, different systems and security
concerns add complexity and risk.
4. Different groups have the responsibility and
funding for digital and cloud resulting in different
incentives and ways of measuring success.
5. Regulatory policies are slow and complex
compared to the more agile and faster IT
methods that cloud enables.

6. An intelligentcloudjourney needs to balance
speed and value. Each company should start
with defining the value, mapping out the
journey and determininghow cloud will enable
the overallbusiness strategy and ambition.For
life sciences companies, that means adopting
and adhering to the following key strategies:
Moving to action
| Embrace cloud as a CEO priority
| Build cross-functional teams
and partnerships
| Develop an innovation spirit
| Unify responsibility and success metrics
| Investin developing talent with
digital skills
| Reshape the regulatory environment

7. Reaching new heights and outcomes
To support the innovationand pace of New Science with the cloud, life sciences companies
need a digitalcapabilitywith speed and agilitythat can support acceleratedcycles of new
treatments and services. Moving to the cloud enables this to happenin multipleways:
1 2 3
Free the data
Managing and measuring patient
outcomes is impossiblewithout freeing
patient data while securely accessing it
across thecompany and partners.
Unify the value chain
Making the whole organization more
accessible and open can enable
everything fromattracting top talent to
advancing the discovery of New Science.
Ignite growth
The cloud allows companies to scale
computational resources to the volume
of genomic data being analyzed for
cutting-edge therapies in development.

8. Cloud isn’t some future aspiration—it’san urgent
mandate at the heart of the business. COVID-19 has
created an unprecedentedwake-up call and an
opportunityto embrace the promise of cloud in life
sciences.
It takes courage and investment to shape the near-term
progress of cloud technology in life sciences. It’s a big lift,
but those companies that do will lead the New Science
revolutionwith unparalleledresilience,agility,
adaptability andscalability.They will empower their
workforce, digitallytransform their company and improve
their abilityto deliver better patientoutcomes.
The view from
above

9. Let’s talk
Geoff Schmidt
Managing Director
Cloud First Life Sciences geoffrey.d.schmidt@accenture.com
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