Sanofi Pasteur: Program Management, Communications and Training

Accenture is helping Sanofi Pasteur launch a state-of-the-art R&D facility in China by providing program management, communications and training services.

Accenture helped Lyon, France-based vaccine producer Sanofi Pasteur establish a new research and development center in Beijing, China, by providing program management, communications and training services. With these services, Accenture helped facilitate the overall set-up process and coordinate Sanofi Pasteur’s resources in information technology, human resources, finance, procurement and training.

Within six months, this new center was fully operational. Today, it is an important component of Sanofi Pasteur’s global clinical research program, dedicated to develop and improve vaccines that will save more lives.

To augment its global R&D capabilities, and broaden its scope of clinical operations in China Sanofi Pasteur wanted to establish an R&D Biometry Center in Beijing devoted to the study design, data management and statistical analysis of global and local clinical trials.

For help in setting up the new Biometry Center, developing organizational processes and coordinating resources for the new R&D team in China, the company wanted to team with a provider skilled in organizational development, talent management and program management.

Ultimately, Sanofi Pasteur selected Accenture, which brought industry experience and broad functional skills to the project, along with a strong record of helping Sanofi Pasteur achieve high performance through previous projects.

Accenture’s primary role involved facilitating the overall set-up process by supporting management, reporting and training activities and also by coordinating and integrating the support provided by the steering committee, in key areas including information technology, human resources, finance, procurement and training.

Specifically, Accenture:

• Developed a master project plan, as well as specific action plans, to guide the set-up activities. These plans were used to keep the setup program on track and also to keep key Sanofi Pasteur stakeholders up to date on progress in weekly status meetings.
  
  
• Transferred set-up knowledge to Sanofi Pasteur resources and provided R&D project management templates and tools to enable the ongoing management of center operations.
  
  
• Coordinated the new center's staff training, which was delivered by global Sanofi Pasteur resources from other R&D sites. This coordination effort involved designing the overall training plan to make sure the targets would be met. It also involved creating a learning culture that enhanced the training experience and strengthened communications between new team members and the global training resources.
  
  
• Assisted in setting up the operational processes for internal "self-learning" workshops, which helped to strengthen the center's culture and is still in use today.
  
  

The set-up project for the Biometry Center in Beijing was completed in just six months. Today, the state-of-the-art center has operational processes in place to support a number of critical business activities, including finance, IT, procurement, and employee recruiting, onboarding and training.

Even before the project concluded, the center had initiated normal research activities. This was due, in large part, to the speed of knowledge transfer; the quality of the program management capabilities Accenture brought to bear; and the collaborative spirit exhibited by new employees.