How Thermo Fisher Scientific Expanded its eCommerce Offering

The provision of products and services for research and development and other scientific services has long been stuck in the past, with few providers in the field offering modern and sophisticated digital ecommerce solutions.

Regardless of which field they are operating in, businesses looking to sell products to other companies need to have the best digital portal possible. Modern companies don't want to be visited by reps or manually thumb through old-fashioned product catalogs - they want access to all the products and services their business needs at the touch of a button at any time.

As a world-class provider of instruments, equipment, software, services, and consumables, Thermo Fisher Scientific understands this need all too well and has recently announced a collaboration with Science Exchange to build a new online services marketplace for its research and development services.

Thermo Fisher Scientific

The new strategic partnership with Science Exchange will allow Thermo Fisher Scientific to expand its capabilities to provide its industry-leading product and service offerings to its ever-growing customer base, while simultaneously allowing Science Exchange to extend its own comprehensive research and development service workflow through B2B ecommerce.

"Moving to an online services solution is a significant growth opportunity for Thermo Fisher's e-commerce-based business," said Vice President of Thermo Fisher, Richard Milne. "After reviewing potential strategic partners, it became obvious that Science Exchange was in a unique position to help us realize this change. They have spent more than seven years focused on building an optimized R&D services management solution and stood out as the partner best suited to help us more effectively market and deliver scientific services to our customers."

The new B2B online marketplace will enable Thermo Fisher Scientific to showcase its unique capabilities and resources in one easy-to-navigate space, as well as display client ratings to give prospects confidence in the products and services they are looking to acquire. Quotes and business proposals can be created, delivered, and stored digitally, streamlining the whole process and reducing the amount of paper consumed. The platform also allows invested parties to effortlessly collaborate on the status of their projects using built-in instant messaging and results delivery secured with the very latest in cybersecurity.

When it comes to payments, risks can be mitigated with guaranteed payment access and early payment options. By automating many of the tasks associated with accessing research and development services, the new marketplace platform will make it easier than ever for educational institutions, charities, and other research-based companies to access the products and services offered by Thermo Fisher.

"We are excited that Thermo Fisher has chosen us as their partner in this important initiative for their company," said Science Exchange Cofounder and CEO, Elizabeth Iorns, Ph.D. "Through this partnership, we can help Thermo Fisher achieve its goals in delivering a comprehensive R&D services offering to its customers."

Science Exchange

Elizabeth Iorns created the Science Exchange platform while working as an assistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. During her work on immunology experiments, she found it difficult to find and access collaborators to work with and had trouble acquiring the products and services she needed to bring projects to life.

Through the Science Exchange platform, companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific can easily find and be found, helping to bring life-saving research to fruition. Through partnerships such as the one with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Science Exchange now offers more than 7,000 services from a network of over 2,500 qualified research providers.

Funding is a huge concern for anyone involved in scientific research. As anyone who has worked in the field can attest, there is a great deal of pressure on researchers to not only acquire funding but also spend it carefully and responsibly. The bio-pharma industry alone spends approximately $250 billion on research and development each year, with roughly 40 percent being spent on outsourced services.

With its platform, Science Exchange can help researchers access multiple service providers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and massively streamline the procurement and management of outsourced research and development services. This will not only increase efficiencies but also enable more savings for researchers - ensuring that every penny being spent on developing critical healthcare solutions is done so wisely.

"Today, the industry as a whole is largely driven by manual processes with a majority of enterprises utilizing manual tools and processes to source, award, contract, and manage their R&D service providers," said Science Exchange in an interview. "One result is that while many companies in R&D-heavy businesses spend huge dollar amounts in the market, there tends to be limited visibility into the R&D spend and few opportunities to easily aggregate spend across a smaller subset of the existing supply base."

You can hear Thermo Fisher Scientific's Vice President of Global Market Development Stephanie Pike speak at B2B Online 2019, taking place this November at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, FL.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.