Client Stories

Client Stories > Business & Professional Services > Validant

Founded in 2005, Validant is a San Francisco-based, full-service global regulatory, compliance, and quality consultancy within the pharmaceutical space. To support their plans for growth, Validant acquired a number of businesses during 2020 and 2021 across North America, Europe, and Asia, with further thoughts of expansion on the horizon.

Challenges and opportunities

Private equity investors GHO Capital, with a strong presence and background within the pharmaceutical industry, purchased Validant with a clear vision and design for the future growth of the business. In order to realize and accelerate this vision, the investors and Validant retained Freeman Clarke to review and manage technology integration projects to ensure work continued at velocity.

A part of the brief was to define a clear, multi-year technology strategy for current and future acquisitions that also clearly communicated the concept of “World Class” to employees and customers alike. This brief was similar to that of a previous Freeman Clarke client that had been procured by the same equity investors.

Solutions and benefits

The work started with a wide-ranging strategic review and a two-year program of work to address everything from cybersecurity, infrastructure, CRM, ERP, telephony, intranet and contract document management, as well as a thorough review of the IT team structure, including supporting the introduction of a new CIO and the expansion and upskilling of the existing team.

Freeman Clarke, to date, have been able to resolve several technology issues as well as define, plan, and deliver significant infrastructure and technology projects. This process started with the introduction of a vCISO to assess the global footprint of the company and compliance risk requirements.

The future

The most notable project is a significant migration of all acquired entities into the Microsoft 365 and Azure Cloud platform within a one-year timeframe. Other significant projects have included: a network transformation to improve cybersecurity and connectivity; introducing a new managed service provider; introducing a global CRM platform; supporting the move to the Oracle NetSuite ERP platform and a migration to the latest Windows and Apple operating systems, as well as introducing a more security-focused approach to the company.

Validant’s CIO, Nathaniel Cartagena, described Freeman Clarke as significantly enhancing the internal team’s delivery:

“The support we received from Freeman Clarke helped expedite and elevate our IT integration transformation project work by leveraging their unmatched experience, world-class partnership relationships, and deep technical expertise. The speed and high-level of delivery we achieved would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of their team.”