Building Better Products Together: How Strategic Customer Engagement Drives Innovation

As the complexity of clinical trials has grown, effective clinical data management has become more critical than ever. Contract research organizations (CROs) are increasingly expected to deliver not just operational support but strategic insights to sponsors. This means that CROs need digital systems that enable fast, efficient data processing and analysis. Furthermore, heightened regulatory scrutiny now makes timely, traceable data review a compliance imperative, adding urgency to digital transformation.

Today’s R&D environments demand more than off-the-shelf software; they require solutions built through real collaboration and tailored to the niche scientific problems being tackled.

But how does this get done? Developing a tailored software solution can take time that cannot be accounted for within your current timelines. In this blog, we dive into the challenges of creating better software platforms and how Revvity Signals engages with its customers to co-create solutions.

Challenge: Why One-Size-Fits-All Software Falls Short

Today’s labs no longer run linear, isolated workflows. They generate massive amounts of data that span multiple instruments. Data analysis can require cloud computing, AI, and various software solutions. Regulatory compliance with multiple frameworks may also be needed.

The limitations of traditional scientific software approaches simply don’t cut it, as they rarely meet the diverse and evolving needs of researchers across drug discovery; chemicals & materials; and the food, flavor, and fragrance industries. Customers expect SaaS partners to tailor solutions that are both flexible and scalable, ensuring they integrate seamlessly into existing ecosystems. Without this level of tailored engagement, SaaS can become a bottleneck rather than an enabler.

But creating a tailored SaaS solution takes time.

Traditional product feedback models in the life science industry – and in industries like chemicals & materials and food, flavor, and fragrance, often fall short because they prioritize incremental fixes over strategic outcomes. These models typically operate on long timelines, where customer insights are collected, collated, and implemented months after the original need was identified. As a result, progress gets delayed and disconnected from the larger business or scientific value customers are seeking. In fast-moving research and clinical research environments, this lag slows the adoption of better digital solutions and, ultimately, time to market.

The Solution: Developing a Strategic Partnership Through Meaningful Engagement 

To overcome these challenges, look for a scientific software SaaS provider that genuinely values engagement with you and is not focused solely on one-off meetings or checking boxes. Building a strategic partnership should be about defining a shared long-term goal and developing a roadmap to achieve it together. The result is a collaborative model where customers aren’t just users of the platform; they are co-creators.

Here are some core pillars that your SaaS provider should use to engage with you.

Forget Features, Solve Problems

Rather than focusing on adding features for the sake of it, your scientific SaaS provider should begin by asking you, “What scientific problem are you solving?” This reframes product development around real-world research challenges, rather than checklists of features that may not truly address your needs. By centering solutions on scientific outcomes, platforms become more scalable, adaptable, and sustainable over time.

Successful providers also work closely with customers to identify potential “showstoppers” – issues that could halt progress – and address them early in the implementation process. Enhancements are then prioritized through a balanced framework that considers impact, strategic alignment, scope, and timing. This approach ensures resources are invested in solutions that deliver the greatest value to both individual organizations and the broader scientific community

Welcome New Ideas and Continuous Communication

Your scientific SaaS provider should also have an “open-door” policy for ideas, suggestions, and recommendations on how to make the platform better.

At Revvity Signals, for instance, we started the Ideas Portal, where you can submit product improvement ideas directly to Signals Software for consideration. It provides a structured, visible channel for customers to submit suggestions, vote, and track progress. Revvity Signals also has a customer advisory panel and the Signals Innovators Exchange which is a regularly held forum to give customers insight into our latest roadmap progress.

More than 2,000 ideas have been submitted, and over 100 have been implemented, with more than 80% of the Continuous Improvement Roadmap influenced by customer input.

Yet the Portal is just one piece of a larger engagement toolkit. Every idea is evaluated and refined within the broader context of strategy and customer goals, ensuring enhancements add real value. We value a customer-driven approach to product development, and the impact of customer input extends far beyond the 100 ideas already implemented into our products.

Ongoing engagement, through regular check-ins with customer-facing and product teams, as well as transparent tools like shared roadmaps, keeps feedback loops between you and your SaaS provider active and visible.

Even if a specific idea isn’t directly implemented, many ideas help shape decision making of prioritization, feature enhancements, or often get combined into similar requests for more comprehensive solutions. Over 80% of our Continuous Improvement Roadmap is influenced by customer feedback in some form. Our commitment is not just to implement individual requests, but to understand the underlying needs they represent and address them in ways that benefit all users.

How Revvity Signals Engages with You

At Revvity Signals, customer engagement is about more than collecting feedback. It’s about building lasting partnerships that shape the direction of our software solutions.

From the very start of implementation, your scientific goals directly influence our product roadmaps, ensuring alignment with the outcomes that matter most to you. Our teams bring together scientists, customer success managers, and product leaders to co-create workflows that solve real-world problems, rather than simply adding features.

Transparency into prioritization decisions and upcoming development builds trust with our customers, while multiple input channels – from strategic initiatives and consortia to the Ideas Portal – ensure that customer voices are not only heard but central to driving innovation across the Revvity Signals ecosystem.

Learn more about our approach to collaborating with our customers to become Partners in Product.

Join the conversation and submit ideas, vote, or comment in the Ideas Portal.