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Discover how Semaphore empowered a leading Informatics Provider with Scientific Software Development
Contact usIn 2020, Semaphore was approached by a leading vendor of a biotechnology informatics solution who needed to grow the capacity of their customer engineering team. This team is responsible for customizing their solution for high complexity enterprise customers. The customer engineering team is a vital component of the vendor’s strategy to extend market reach through expert customization of the existing product. The Semaphore team continues to support this strategy with a dedicated, full-time team provided via a convenient, cost-effective engagement model.
Meeting rising demand for tailored solutions required rapid expansion of a specialized informatics engineering team—without sacrificing quality or agility.
During the initial ramp-up phase, Semaphore team members were assigned to several projects and assimilated as full time members of the team, and given access to all the resources, knowledge and training for successful onboarding.
By combining the expertise and strategic thinking of a consultant with the practical on-the-ground execution of a contingent staffing assignment, the company was able to scale up quickly, meet its immediate project needs, and find additional ongoing value through the convenient staff augmentation model. Following the successful completion of the initial projects, the expert resources placed by Semaphore Solutions have played a much larger role in the operation of the company’s ongoing development efforts —applying their extensive experience and the knowledge acquired during their time working with the company to continuously generate value in form of leading, participating and contributing the important projects, helping to attract new clients and enhancing the offerings to existing clients. Thanks to their broad knowledge bases, all resources secured by Semaphore Solutions continue to engage the company through an extended full-time contingent staffing arrangement, and the company’s will to extend the contract for the 3rd time—is the best testament to the convenience and cost effectiveness of a quality staff in a sophisticated augmentation model when combined with niche life science expertise.
By combining the expertise and strategic thinking of a consultant with the practical on-the-ground execution of a contingent staffing assignment, the company was able to scale up quickly, meet its immediate project needs, and find additional ongoing value through the convenient staff augmentation model. Following the successful completion of the initial projects, the expert resources placed by Semaphore Solutions have played a much larger role in the operation of the company’s ongoing development efforts —applying their extensive experience and the knowledge acquired during their time working with the company to continuously generate value in form of leading, participating and contributing the important projects, helping to attract new clients and enhancing the offerings to existing clients. Thanks to their broad knowledge bases, all resources secured by Semaphore Solutions continue to engage the company through an extended full-time contingent staffing arrangement, and the company’s will to extend the contract for the 3rd time—is the best testament to the convenience and cost effectiveness of a quality staff in a sophisticated augmentation model when combined with niche life science expertise.
The client, a leading biotechnology informatics vendor, faced a growing challenge: how to scale their customer engineering function to support an expanding enterprise client base with increasingly complex implementation requirements. The complexity of their platform—and the configurability it offered—meant that each customer required bespoke solutions, often developed and delivered under tight timelines.
Hiring internally was slow and risked bottlenecks. What the company needed was a partner that could seamlessly integrate into their engineering culture, contribute immediately, and scale with demand. But finding such a partner wasn’t trivial. The required skill set was unique: a combination of software engineering capability, domain knowledge in laboratory operations, and direct experience with the client’s own extensible platform.
Semaphore Solutions filled this gap by delivering a team of informatics professionals—including software developers, field application scientists, and architects—who could function as embedded members of the client’s engineering team. This wasn’t typical staff augmentation. Semaphore consultants operated with full ownership of projects, collaborating directly with end customers, developing and delivering extensible platform customizations, and contributing to ongoing product refinement.
In some cases, Semaphore team members took lead engineering roles on customer delivery projects, functioning as technical architects and trusted advisors. In others, they extended platform capabilities through new APIs and microservices. Their contributions were instrumental in ensuring that client deadlines were met and that implementations remained aligned with enterprise IT standards and regulated data environments.
This engineering partnership model provided the client with on-demand scale, faster project delivery, and higher customer satisfaction, all without expanding their full-time headcount. It also helped mature their internal development processes by modeling modern DevOps and agile practices tailored to enterprise informatics delivery.
Over time, team structure evolved to best meet shifting customer demands. For example, two Semaphore team members soon formed a sub-team to independently customize a client solution. At a later date, another sub-team was formed including two of Semaphore team members to build a new subsystem for which many of the company’s clients expressed direct interest. A beta version of the subsystem was released successfully and the company attracted a list of interested clients.
The company now benefits from an established Semaphore team, capable of taking on the full scope of customer engineering responsibilities, including maintaining and upgrading existing projects and actively participating in new cutting edge development efforts.
In the rapidly evolving world of biotechnology and laboratory informatics, organizations must balance innovation with scalability. As demand for tailored solutions grows, the ability to rapidly expand engineering capacity—without compromising expertise or efficiency—becomes a critical differentiator. This case highlights the importance of having access to skilled professionals who not only understand enterprise software but also possess deep laboratory domain knowledge. By leveraging external expertise, the company was able to scale operations, improve implementation quality, and enhance customer satisfaction without the delays and risks associated with traditional hiring.
Beyond immediate operational benefits, this approach reinforces the broader trend of strategic partnerships in informatics. Companies that recognize the value of specialized, on-demand expertise can stay ahead of market demands, reduce implementation friction, and continuously refine their offerings. This case underscores how the right collaboration model can enable biotech and informatics vendors to meet complex customer needs while maintaining agility in an ever-changing landscape.
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