Looking Ahead: Businesses Must Invest In People And Technology

Looking Ahead:
Businesses Must Invest In People And Technology

R&D is not the only department that drives innovation at most businesses – the work of regulatory affairs is a critical component in how quickly a company can develop a new product and get it to market.

As regulatory professionals think about what they need in order to do their jobs better, it all comes down to investment in people and technology. With their mounting responsibilities, regulatory professionals say they would benefit from more staff in general, employees with greater technical skills, and better software to automate time-consuming processes and allow them to work more nimbly. But it’s not always so simple – even when they get the tools they need, they often face challenges regarding integration with legacy systems at their organizations.

How efficiently regulatory affairs can operate has a major impact on business innovation.

There are some aspects of a regulatory professional’s job that they cannot control: close to 9 in 10 (86%) professionals acknowledge that government regulations have a big effect on innovation at their business.

86%

Of Regulatory Professionals Acknowledge that Government Regulation Impacts Innovation at their Business

While adapting to evolving government rules is a part of any company’s life, how an organization goes about it can be a major factor in whether staying compliant means slowing down.

The software solutions (80%) and budgets (77%) allocated to regulatory teams significantly impact how efficiently regulatory affairs carries out their work, as do the people – both in terms of technical expertise (84%) and overall staffing levels (78%).

All of this ultimately affects how agile a company’s innovation to market can be.

80%

Of Regulatory Professionals Report that Regulatory Software Solutions Impact Innovation at their Business

I think what is most needed at this stage is new software solutions, because the traditional software solutions are no longer suitable for our development route, and we also need to provide more professional technical personnel

- VP, Consumer Goods, Pennsylvania, USA

Despite the challenges of the past several years, investment in regulatory technology is expected to increase.

Given the increasing complexity of regulatory workloads – and the need to collaborate more efficiently than ever, often remotely - most businesses are poised to invest in their regulatory technology.

These budgets are overseen by a variety of stakeholders, including C-Suite (44%), Regulatory Affairs (43%), and Legal (41%).

Corporate investment in regulatory technology is expected to grow across industries.

More than three-quarters (77%) of regulatory professionals expect their company’s investment in regulatory technology to grow (50%) or stay the same (27%).

The average budget increase for regulatory tech is expected to be 33%.

Professionals in the food & beverage industry are expecting an even larger increase of 41% on average (vs. 27% across chemical and consumer goods).

Regulatory Technology Budgets Are Expected To Increase

33%

Average Expected Increase In Regulatory Technology Budget

41%

Average Expected Budget Increase In Food & Beverage Sector

Beyond increased automation across processes, mobility and simplicity of regulatory functions is on the wish list.

Nearly 9 in 10 (87%) regulatory professionals believe that having access to their regulatory systems via mobile devices like phones or tablets would allow them to work more efficiently.

One big roadblock to implementing new regulatory technology is integration with current systems.

Despite the strong desire to upgrade the tools they use to manage mounting workloads, sometimes it can be a challenge to deploy. One of the biggest obstacles they typically encounter is difficulty integrating new approaches with legacy technologies and processes (36%). This challenge may contribute to the desire for both digital transformation and technology consolidation.

Staffing is also critical. Tools are nothing without the people who use them – especially true when it comes to regulatory affairs.

To carry out their work, almost half (45%) of regulatory professionals argue they need more staff at a higher level of technical capability. And 53% say their teams also need more people resources at the same level of technical capability.

Training is critical – top barriers regulatory professionals encounter when upgrading regulatory technology at their organizations include challenges training staff (39%) and lack of technical expertise (37%).

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Regulatory Affairs Faces Existing and New Challenges, withNew Technology Positioned to Transform How Work is Done

57%

Of Regulatory Professionals Report that Accelerating Digital Transformation is a Key Priority this Year

9 In 10

Regulatory Professionals Feel Confident that Their Company's Regulatory Strategy is the Right One

80%

Of Regulatory Professionals Report that Regulatory Software Solutions Impact Innovation at their Business

91%

Of Regulatory Professionals Say their Company Expects them to Do More with Less Right Now

43%

Of Regulatory Professionals Say that Suppliers, Regulatory Authorities, and Third-Party Testing Labs Typically Cause Delays

33%

Average Expected Increase In Regulatory Technology Budget

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