Determine the 3rd party vendor and platform of best fit for you
Is this company local or remote?
What is the company structure?
The following team infrastructure is ideal:
Project/Product management
User interface (UI) design and user experience (UX) design
Software development
Hardware development
Quality assurance testing
What areas of expertise will your project require from the 3rd party vendor?
Usability testing
User interface (UI) and user experience (UE) design
Mobile app and web development
Backend database and server set-up and management
Applied programming interface (API) set-up and management
State of the art technology features:
Geofencing
Sensor integration
Machine learning / Deep learning
Data analysis
Contract research organization (CRO) services
Study management of the technology
Regulatory compliance of the systems and procedures related to the technology
How much relevant experience does the 3rd party vendor have?
How long has the product been on the market?
The more established, the more relevant work experience the company can provide – the better.
What is the company’s software development life cycle?
Meaning, what is their system for development and testing of a product?
How frequently do their products require bug fixes and updates?
Frequent bug fixes is concerning.
The more frequently the platform is updated, the more risk of introducing bugs?
What compliance standards are met in the design of the platform?
Review the platform cost model
Are you building a new platform?
Create a master services agreement and scope of work with the 3rd party vendor to determine the project deliverables, timeline, and cost.
Establish ownership.
Agree to hourly rate / cost modeling, deliverables, and the time it takes to provide the deliverables at the agreed upon cost.
You may need to keep an open dialogue between the 3rd party vendor while also checking with the WUSTL Office of Technology Management (OTM) to better determine ownership in this innovative partnership.
Are you using or licensing an existing platform?
Are you using an established platform “as-is”?
Are you tailoring an existing platform to meet your study needs?
Either way, you will need to complete a license agreement and scope of work with the 3rd party vendor to determine the project deliverables, timeline, and cost.
Review the platform privacy policy
If you are building a new platform with the vendor, determine who will write the privacy policy?
Ensure the privacy policy meet regulatory standards that govern the study.