Scalability of Research Management Software

Overspending, underspending, and spending outside what was planned all sound too familiar for research institutions. It is challenging to manage awards and funds when your data is in different systems, usually disparate, and your general accounting solution cannot help you predict and prevent these issues.

To streamline and optimise the distinct aspects of the research process, research organisations, institutions, and universities need to invest in research management software. This will allow them to effectively manage their research activities, grand and fund management collaboration between researchers and departments, and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Research management software is vital for the research industry to optimise operations, improve decision-making and drive the desired results. But nowadays, it is not only sufficient to have a technological solution that helps you with this; your software needs to allow your organisation to grow.

It’s all about scalability

Gartner defines scalability as measuring a system’s ability to increase or decrease performance and cost in response to changes in application and system processing demands.

Software scalability isn’t a characteristic on which companies focus from a project’s inception, as this isn’t something tangible in the first days of using a new software solution when your team is concentrating on streamlining your organisation’s operations. But it becomes vitally important as challenges begin to appear, and businesses want to accommodate growth.

In the research industry, this translates into securing a software that can be cloud-based, offers great ability to respond to changes and has excellent support. It is about finding a research management software that meets the so-called “triple-S framework” (scalable, sustainable, and serviceable).

In summary, scalable research management software provides the foundation for efficient and effective research operations as organisations grow. It ensures that the software can accommodate increasing workloads, support collaboration, adapt to changing requirements, streamline project management, ensure compliance, facilitate data management and analytics, and integrate with external systems, enhancing the overall research management process.

At Arribatec, we have developed a holistic fiscal management system, Instipro, with your research projects in focus, which is offered as a cloud solution and fully tailored to your institution’s needs. The solution’s engine is a function that supports the research project and its cycle from creation to closure, taking care of all the processes in the cycle.