July 19, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN MATEO, Calif. – There are a number of financial software sources available for life science companies, but California-based R&D Logic has carved out a niche providing cutting-edge software to the life sciences industry. The company, which has been in business since 2000, chose to focus on the life sciences industry because the company founders and leadership have backgrounds in the industry. The company caters its services to each corner of the life sciences industry, including biotech, pharma and medical device companies.
“What we saw was that the traditional tools on the market for financial management were not meeting the needs of an R&D business,” Joyce Bellomo, R&D Logic’s chief finance and business development officer told BioSpace in an exclusive interview.
R&D Logic was one of the first companies to develop a web-based financial management program for companies. So far the concept and the program have proven to be successful. R&D Logic’s Chief Executive Officer Wanda Ionescu said the company currently has approximately 3,000 active users for its software.
Before developing the software, Ionescu said they looked around to see how R&D companies could benefit from new a new approach to financial software. Ultimately, R&D Logic settled on adding a new dimension to standard offerings, including packages offered by competitors. This “fourth dimension” is a project-based addition to planning, which she said provides a more accurate assessment of every penny spent by a company. The fourth dimension idea is not new in the industry, manufacturers used to “plan by job” as a way of breaking down expenses. Ionescu said traditional finance software tools did not match the life sciences business model, which is why R&D Logic developed their software. The extra layer, the fourth dimension, provides a more accurate account, Ionescu said.
“We bring the fourth dimension to the table, which is not something that many other financial planning companies bring in. People who use the software love it and tell us that it’s making their lives so much easier,” Ionescu said.
When founding the company, Ionescu said R&D Logic kept things in-house as much as possible, even when it came to financing. She said they opted to not look for financial support from venture capitalists because many of them were “not happy with the idea of R&D being focused on the niche industry of life sciences.”
The company launched slowly, one customer at a time. Each dollar R&D Logic earned was put back into the business. Ionescu said that model forced them to be highly efficient, allowing them to enhance and support its software and provide one-on-one relationships with their customers. Ionescu said she has a personal relationship with all of her company’s clients and she places greater emphasis on ensuring the happiness of her existing customers than in securing a new client. Because of that model, R&D Logic has been “cash profitable” from the beginning, Ionescu said.
For the next few years, Ionescu said R&D Logic is seeing accelerated growth. Some of the anticipated growth comes from a new platform that will help companies track clinical trial information and they are collecting tools that could replace the huge Excel spreadsheets. R&D Logic is working with its existing clientele, getting input from them on what best suits their needs. Eventually the new platform will be an automatic tool that is part of R&D Logic’s suite of software.
While the company is growing and Ionescu predicts the need for new blood, she said hiring has been difficult due to the streamlined nature of their operation. Because R&D Logic is a small company, Ionescu said her employees take on dual roles. As an example, she said coders have responsibilities beyond coding.
“It’s been a difficult task to find people interested in working in this kind of environment. The people we’re looking for should be people who like to make a difference and not just another pair of hands,” Ionescu said.
R&D Logic has seen little turnover in the way of its employees, which Ionescu said is part of the charm and appeal of the company.
