What information do I need to justify my drug discovery software renewal?

Author

Lauren Hartley

Your drug discovery software licence is up for renewal, and you need to provide evidence to decision makers who may not be familiar with your day-to-day operations or hands-on software usage. Here’s how to build a compelling, evidence-based case.

Justifying software renewal requires more than highlighting features; you need quantifiable ROI data that resonates with budget holders. Whether it’s StarDrop, Cerella, BioPharmics or any other tool that’s central to your workflow, you know the value your software brings to your projects: the insights, the time saved, the missed dead ends. The challenge is communicating this value to stakeholders who aren’t involved in the daily technical work but hold the purse strings.

For product owners (often the most frequent software users), making the case for renewal means bridging the gap between science and business. This isn’t just about keeping a tool you like; it’s about showing how your tools directly contribute towards your organisation’s goals and delivering a case that resonates with decision‑makers.

Here’s a practical framework to help you build your renewal justification:

1. Get involved early in the budgeting cycle

Budget approvals start earlier than many realise. The decision‑making process may be underway months before you’re asked for a formal justification.

Know who to approach:

Identify budget holders and influencers early. Consider line managers, R&D leadership, finance and procurement.

Understand their priorities and speak their language:

Finance: Focus on ROI, reduced cost-per-candidate, and cost avoidance metrics

R&D leadership: Emphasise faster cycles, reduced risk and strategic capabilities

Senior management: Highlight competitive edge, pipeline delivery and differentiation

Frame your case by asking yourself:

What do they personally want to achieve this year?

What are the objectives of my organisation?

How can the software help achieve these?

By aligning the benefits of your software to each group’s goals and priorities, your renewal conversation becomes more persuasive.

2. Document your impact year‑round

The best renewal cases are based on evidence collected over time. This is where our collaborative partnership approach makes the difference; you don’t have to do this alone. Our Account Management and Application Science teams are here to help you:

Track key metrics: Project outcomes, time saved, improved hit‑to‑lead ratios

Capture critical examples: Toxic liabilities avoided, better leads identified earlier, faster identification of promising drug candidates

Record efficiency gains: More compounds evaluated per researcher, reduced decision turnaround, improved team collaboration

Following this approach, you should have a portfolio of evidence showing your renewal isn’t a “cost” but an investment with proven returns.

3. Translate science into business value

To secure budget approval, connect your software’s scientific impact to measurable organisational benefits:

Cost avoidance: Making better, more informed decisions in hit-to-lead workflows saves thousands in synthesis, testing, and staff time.

Productivity gains: More promising compounds assessed per researcher without additional headcount.

Risk reduction: Early identification of liabilities reduces costly late-stage failures and project derailment risk.

Instead of saying: “This software helped us identify our lead compound series.”

Say: Based on insights gained from StarDrop, we focused our efforts on the most promising chemical series, while designating others as backup series. This saved our project $50,000 in synthesis and testing costs that would have been spent on compounds with a low likelihood of progression. Our focus on the most promising series helped us achieve clinical candidate selection months earlier.”

4. Anticipate likely follow-up questions

Even strong cases can meet resistance, especially if organisations are actively looking to save costs. Having evidence‑based answers ready to address anticipated questions can speed things along.

“Can we use a free alternative?”

Free tools may seem attractive but often come with hidden costs in time, validation, integration and importantly, lack professional support. Show capability gaps and demonstrate the total cost of ownership. We’ve covered this in more detail in our recent blog “Open Source Drug Discovery Software: It’s Free, Right?”.

“Can we reduce the number of licenses to save costs?”

Evaluate your current usage patterns, peak demand times, and potential workflow bottlenecks that could emerge from reduced access. Consider how your team size and project requirements may change in the coming year.

With our flexible licensing options, you can match your configuration to your actual operational needs. Whether through floating licences that allow sharing based on concurrent usage, site-wide access for collaborative teams, or dedicated single-user licences for specialists, you can optimise your licensing structure around your usage and needs.

“Do we need all these features?”

Understand which modules have contributed to each of your documented improvements and highlight what would be lost without each component. It’s also important to anticipate how your projects may evolve in the future and factor this into your case. While some capabilities, such as metabolism predictions, might traditionally be considered as part of the lead optimisation stage, it can actually add more value to incorporate these earlier on. Running metabolism models during hit-to-lead can flag issues and inform design decisions before significant investments are made.

The benefit of modular software like StarDrop is the flexibility to adapt your licence cost-effectively with changing company objectives and requirements. Whether new strategic directions would benefit from added functionalities, or you find that certain modules are no longer needed, or you can modify your licence to align with your evolving research priorities, without overpaying for unused capabilities.

How Optibrium can support you in your software renewal

By getting involved early in the budgeting cycle, documenting your impact, framing your case in stakeholder language, and preparing for follow-up questions, you can build a case that’s hard to ignore.

And you’re not alone. When you purchase Optibrium software, we become a partner and not just a vendor. Our team can help you gather the data, connect it to organisational priorities, and demonstrate how your software is an essential partner in your discovery success. We can help with:

Providing testimonials and case studies that demonstrate real-world value

ROI modelling to quantify tangible and intangible benefits

Workflow advice to identify under‑used features or potential new modules

Refresher training and catch-up meetings with our Application Science team to ensure you continue to maximise ROI

Our goal is to help you present a compelling, evidence-driven case that gets the green light.

Lauren Hartley

Account Manager

Lauren brings over a decade of experience in customer engagement, account management and business development to her role at Optibrium.

Before joining Optibrium, Lauren held commercial roles at Oracle and Cytel, where she partnered with healthcare organisations, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies to deliver tech & software solutions. She also gained extensive experience in the CRO sector with Quanticate, supporting global pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients across Europe and beyond.

At Optibrium, Lauren is dedicated to building trusted relationships with customers, ensuring their continued success, and helping them to maximise the value of Optibrium’s software in accelerating drug discovery. With a strong background spanning clinical research, and enterprise technology, she combines commercial expertise with a genuine passion for supporting scientific innovation.

Cookies