Tercica automates the HR process, meets SOX compliance in only 2 weeks with the OutSystems Agile Platform

The Challenge:

Tercica, a US based biopharmaceutical company, had recently completed all research development phases and achieved its FDA approval and was starting to market an innovative drug, having evolved from a clinical trial environment to a successful market oriented positioning.

Tercica needed a system to manage employee absence. The geographic dispersion of the sales team and the expected company growth brought the need to automate this Human Resources related process. The new application would have to provide:

• Process automation - In very competitive markets such as Biotech, company employees must have all their available time committed to doing business. Having an excessive administrative workload could compromise their performance and create a roadblock to the company's growth targets;
• Sarbanes - Oxley compliance - As it happens with publicly traded companies in the US, Tercica is bound to SOX regulation. Ensuring transparency and traceability was a fundamental aspect to attain regulatory compliance;
• Time-to-market - On top of all demands related to the specifications of the business and regulation, Tercica needed to meet a tight schedule. This system would have to be ready in just two weeks in order to support the sales team's activity from the start. 

The Solution:

In two weeks, using the OutSystems Agile Platform, a new web business application was created to provide the necessary automation of HR process, complying with SOX regulation. This built-to-change application unified all processes, making them fully traceable and easy to configure:

• Employees can access the system anywhere and submit their time-off requests online, saving time and keeping a full track on their requests;
• The approver is notified via Email that there are pending requests; when the request is approved, the HR department receives a notification on a "daily digest" basis, to continue the approval workflow. If the request is rejected, a notification Email is sent back to the employee, with comments about the reasons for rejection or the necessary changes;
• Once approved by the HR department, the resulting information is integrated in the Payroll application, to automatically calculate the amount to deduct, should that be the case. This integration of processes not only saves time, but is also critical for complying with SOX traceability regulations;
• The easy-to-use interfaces require little or even no end-user training. This simplifies the roll-out to large teams and ultimately increases user adoption.

Results:

• In such a specific business, user feedback is very important. The OutSystems Agile Platform made it possible to reflect this feedback in the application during the whole implementation process. This iterative approach ensures that the end result was what users really needed, without increasing project risk;
• The OutSystems built-to-change support makes it easy to change existing web business applications at any time in a cost-effective way. This ensures that IT is always aligned with the business;
• The OutSystems Agile Platform allows companies to deliver their web business applications in a scalable way, deploying them as they become needed and avoiding large initial investments;
• Simplicity is a basic demand of today's business applications, while employees need to focus on the growing competitiveness of the businesses. The time they have available for studying or understanding software is decreasing, while the need for relevant and real-time information grows. To provide companies with easy-to-get information, web business applications built with the Agile Platform are user-friendly and intuitive.

About Tercica:

Tercica, Inc., based in Brisbane, CA, is a biopharmaceutical company committed to improving endocrine health. Tercica is helping patients by partnering with the endocrine community to develop and commercialize new therapeutics for short stature and associated metabolic disorders. Its first approved product is Increlex.

Visit Tercica website