Great consulting for great business returns

Concluding this series of blogs, Dr Martin Slater, Director of Consulting services at Cresset, talks about what makes a great consulting project.

So far in this blog I’ve talked a lot about project based work that Cresset has undertaken for clients. This gives our customers access to our expertise without the cost and risk of hiring an in-house computational chemistry team.

In general Cresset does not benefit from downstream royalties on projects, although we have carried out some more collaborative drug discovery programs, particularly with charity and academic partners, in which we have retained some IP rights. In the majority of cases though we offer a very simple fee-for-service model in answering very specific questions and addressing key issues in the discovery and early development phases of a new drug.

In response to customer feedback, Cresset consultants have developed a very flexible model of working that we call ‘CompChem on demand’. Clients buy the number of days they need and then call on us to work for them anytime within the next year. We are often called in to help overcome obstacles on particular projects, and we’ve found that this model often leads to longer term collaborations.

Of course, different clients prefer different consulting models and we try to be as flexible as we can. As such, we even rent out our software on a per project basis. The scientists get access to state of the art software tools, but only pay for what they use. This model is particularly popular with contract research organizations since it makes it easy to bill clients for product usage.

In other words, you can hire the software for your chemists to use, you can hire our consultants on a daily basis, you can hire us on a project basis, or you can enter an ongoing collaboration with us. In a separate blog post we’ve described just such a collaboration between Cresset, Isogenica and Biolauncher.

Computational chemistry consulting is seeing significant growth. The drivers behind this trend are the wish to outsource in-house computational chemistry to get maximum value for money, and the increasing recognition of the scientific value of computational chemistry expertise for discovery research. In the end though, it’s the results that count. Cresset’s consulting team has demonstrated the value of outsourcing by delivering valuable results for many clients, proven in terms of patented scientific discoveries that have led to solid business returns.

If you would like more information about doing business and science with Cresset consultants, please contact us.

All posts in this series:

• The Trend to Outsource Computational Chemistry
• What Makes a Great Consulting Project
• Great Science Makes a Great Consulting Project
• Great Communication Makes a Great Consulting Project
• Great Business Returns

Dr Martin Slater,
Director of Consulting Services