In today’s rapidly evolving life sciences landscape, a company’s digital presence is no longer a differentiator; it’s an expectation. For Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), the ability to provide real-time visibility, streamlined operations, and seamless collaboration defines the standard of partnership clients now demand.
At PCI, this transformation began as a strategic vision to revolutionize how customers experience clinical and commercial supply management. The result was pci | bridge™, a dynamic digital platform that continues to redefine what’s possible through connectivity, transparency, and innovation.
Laying the Groundwork: A Vision for Digital Empowerment
PCI’s digital transformation journey commenced with the goal of creating a unified digital experience that delivers agility, data-centricity, and future readiness across its global network. Before the first line of code was written, extensive research guided the initiative; identifying key industry trends and technological opportunities shaping the pharmaceutical supply chain from development to commercialization.
Among these findings, two insights stood out. First, the need for enhanced digital interaction where clients could engage with PCI more effectively and intuitively. Second, the demand for real-time supply chain data and a shift away from manual reporting toward instantaneous, actionable insights.
In response, PCI launched pci | bridge™ in September 2020, marking a defining milestone in delivering operational transparency and customer empowerment.
Building Together: Collaboration as the Cornerstone
From inception, collaboration was at the heart of the journey. PCI partnered directly with four key clients to co-create the platform, gathering feedback through immersive workshops that illuminated common challenges like fragmented visibility, redundant manual tasks, and limited automation.
These insights fueled a partnership with a digital product development firm, translating customer needs into practical, user-friendly features. Every prototype, from dashboard design to reporting tools, was refined through iterative testing with subject matter experts and client partners. This process ensured pci | bridge™ would be more than a data portal, but a powerful collaboration hub for clinical and commercial programs.
Implementation: Connecting Systems and Driving Value
Unlike traditional systems that refresh data once daily, pci | bridge™ provides a real-time, unified view across production, inventory, and distribution operations. The platform allows clients to access live project data, track documentation, and monitor key performance indicators all within a single, secure environment.
Over time, PCI expanded the platform’s capabilities with integrations such as DocuSign for electronic signature routing and Smartsheet for project timeline management. These tools empower clients to manage milestones and approvals directly within the same interface where they track manufacturing and logistics data.
This resulted in a platform that doesn’t just report progress but accelerates it.
Evolving the Platform: Clinical Feature Releases
As pci | bridge™ continues to mature, its evolution remains driven by three guiding principles—listen, learn, and innovate. Several major feature releases reinforced this commitment, delivering tangible efficiencies for clinical customers and further simplifying digital collaboration.
1. Electronic Clinical Order Submission
Many clinical teams still rely on manual order forms and email-based workflows. The new Electronic Forms Order Submission feature eliminated these inefficiencies by enabling clients to submit clinical distribution orders for sites directly within pci | bridge™.
Integrated data validation ensures orders can only be placed against available inventory in PCI’s enterprise system, providing real-time visibility into stock availability. Every submission automatically generates both PDF and CSV confirmations, securely stored and traceable for 12 months.
2. Protocol Spend Widget
Financial transparency is essential in today’s complex trial environment. The new Protocol Spend Widget brings real-time cost visibility directly to the user’s dashboard.
Clients can now monitor protocol-specific spending dynamically, capturing costs from packaging and labeling to distribution and returns without waiting for manual reports. This visibility enables proactive budget management and data-driven decision-making, enhancing confidence and control across the clinical portfolio.
3. QP Release and PSF Document Review
The QP Release feature reimagines how batch documentation and Qualified Person (QP) reviews are managed. Project Managers can now create, link, and track bulk batch lot releases within the platform, with automated checklists guiding document submission and approval.
As documentation progresses through review gates, pci | bridge™ updates statuses in real time, ensuring teams always know where they stand. In addition, the PSF Document Review functionality supports digital approval workflows, complete with feedback comments to help compile the required documetnation correctly the first time.
Together, these enhancements simplify compliance, shorten release cycles, and deliver end-to-end visibility.
Continuing the Journey
pci | bridge™ is more than a digital platform, it’s a shared vision between PCI and its clients to build a smarter, more connected future for clinical and commercial supply management. Each enhancement reflects years of partnership, innovation, and commitment to continuous improvement.
As PCI advances toward becoming a fully smart CDMO enterprise, pci | bridge™ remains the cornerstone of that evolution; an ecosystem designed not just to connect data, but to connect people, ideas, and progress.
We are committed to supporting clients at every stage of the manufacturing cycle, delivering best-in-class services efficiently and effectively.
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