Under the microscope: A global perspective – Eurofins Professional Scientific Services Insourcing Solutions

What is the Eurofins PSS Insourcing Solutions Global programme and how would you describe a typical customer?

Put simply, PSS provides managed laboratory testing services at our clients’ facilities using our management personnel and scientists that we hire, train and engage to provide high‑quality laboratory services. This involves insourcing our scientific expertise at the client’s site, rather than their outsourcing testing to another laboratory facility. This programme differs from staff augmentation, such as temporary staffing, and extends our insourced scope of work to running and managing lab operations, providing research and development, environmental monitoring support or essentially any lab function that is needed for extended periods of time, which enables clients to focus on their core drug development goals.

Our typical PSS customer is a bio/pharmaceutical company that has the space and equipment, yet prefers to keep specific scientific functions in‑house while also minimising headcount for their operations. PSS provides the complete range of scientific services our clients need from early phase development to finished product testing and support. Eurofins PSS Insourcing Solutions is an extension of Eurofins’ outsourcing division – Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing – the largest global network of harmonised good manufacturing practice (GMP) product testing laboratories. Our PSS teams currently range in size from two to over 300 employees at 70 client locations around the world. Our first client has been utilising and expanding our insourcing solutions continuously for the last 17 years upon PSS inception in R&D.

When you mention global, how far reaching do PSS services span?

PSS has expanded exponentially on a global basis, particularly during the last 10 years of our 17 years of service. We provide services in nearly 20 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and currently have approximately 2,000 Eurofins employees serving our clients in their worldwide sites.

Much of this growth was driven by two factors. First and foremost, we have grown to meet our clients’ needs. Clients have come to rely upon PSS strategically and have asked us to expand into other countries where they are located. This provides our clients with uniformity in services and the ability to take advantage of our best practices and resources deployments where our PSS employees may travel to support projects and technology transfers in other countries. Secondly, we have expanded to align our insourcing solutions with our global GMP BioPharma Product Testing network of laboratories worldwide.

How do you ensure that clients can rely upon the same quality and level of service globally?

I had the opportunity to be with PSS from its inception 17 years ago. That continuity has helped establish a clear vision and passion for delighting our clients. As President and Global Head of PSS Insourcing Solutions, I ensure our leadership team globally is aligned with the same founding mission to make certain we have happy employees serving happy clients. Our philosophy is simple, but powerful: find great people and take great care of them so they will take great care of our clients. We take a servanthood leadership approach to both serving our employees and clients in our goal to help make the world a healthier and safer place. All PSS employees receive consistent training and development, including required core individual development plans that include technical, safety, regulatory, LEAN and behavioural training. We also offer positivity training to all PSS employees to ensure we create the most positive team environment for serving our clients.

Our clients have said that our training sets us apart in our service offering. In addition, our PSS leadership ensures we manage our services consistently through governance with key metrics that we measure to show our value and confirm we are exceeding our clients’ expectations.

In addition to offering comprehensive technical and quality training, what other features are unique in PSS Insourcing Solutions?

In addition to our comprehensive training there are two very important and clear priorities: our people and operational excellence.

We place a strong emphasis on creating a culture of positivity and support to our employees. We are proactive in employee engagement, development and reward and recognition. The foundation of PSS is our people. We want to inspire, support and appreciate our PSS employees. That is core to our vision and everyday philosophy.

Secondly, we foster strong operational excellence and process improvements through our LEAN culture that greatly benefits our clients. Our philosophy is to find ways to do it faster, better and more cost effectively. We invest in dedicated resources to not only ensure that all employees are trained on LEAN best practices, but also to designate LEAN champions and projects at each client site. We then align with our clients on our process improvements, and track and report savings to our clients during governance. We also recognise our PSS employees for making a positive impact to our clients and expanding their skills through LEAN and operational excellence.

How are you different from other companies that provide insourcing services?

Eurofins PSS Insourcing Solutions has been recognised 12 times in the last 11 years with Strategic Partner Awards from our clients – the only insourcing solutions provider with such a designation in the biopharmaceutical industry. We have been delivering these services successfully for the last 17 years with significant growth, which demonstrates our success in exceeding our clients’ expectations. We have never lost a client due to dissatisfaction.