The Path to Smarter, Streamlined Alliance Management
This best practice Playbook on Alliance Management operations provides actionable guidelines and frameworks, empowering AM teams to extract the full scientific and commercial value from every partnership.
Drawing on contributions from Alliance Management leaders at top pharma companies, including Novo Nordisk, and 20+ years of experience developing programs of change for partnering teams through Inpart, this Playbook aims to serve as a blueprint for operational excellence in Alliance Management.
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What’s Inside the Alliance Management Best Practice Playbook?
Part I: Delivering excellence in Alliance Management
Actionable frameworks and best practices for creating excellence in AM operations.
This section of the Playbook sets out five foundational pillars that combine into a unified strategy for operational success.
Information management
Managing information is at the core of efficient Alliance Management. This playbook provides information management goals to abide by, as well as a comprehensive operational & digital solutions checklist.
Agreement adherence
The playbook provides resources for AM teams to gain more control over their alliances by turning agreements into actionable and trackable workflows, removing inefficiencies, and delivering on every obligation.
Relationships & collaborations
This section identifies typical blockers with internal stakeholders and external collaborators - such as siloed departments and incomplete handovers - recommending changes for healthier, more functional relationships.
Governance & stakeholder management
A downloadable governance health spot-check enables Alliance Managers to mark key alliance metrics out of five to help identify early-warning signs and opportunities for development.
Risk & issue management
Using an alliance risk management profile - covering operational, strategic, and relational issues - AM teams can proactively address potential issues before they surface to minimize conflict.
Part II: Where to start building change
Recommendations for rolling out programs of change across the organization.
This section of the Playbook outlines how change can be implemented from the ground up, starting within Alliance Management teams and creating momentum across other departments.
Within teams
An informal audit to help identify areas for improvement as the basis for a project plan to get started. Measuring the success of said plan can then be established with foundational KPIs used widely by AM teams
Organizational change
The playbook identifies ways to optimize key integration points with BD, R&D, finance, and legal departments, and recommendations on creating a cross-departmental working group to implement change.
Building digital excellence
The Playbook outlines the three steps towards building digital excellence that will transform partner delivery and experience through automation and intelligence.
Measuring performance
Measuring the performance of alliances is key to identifying areas for operational improvement. This section of the playbook provides a framework for setting up an alliance performance dashboard.
Creating a narrative for change
Alliance Managers work at the front line of dealmaking, ensuring the full scientific and commercial potential of every opportunity is realized.
Real-world case studies from leading biopharma partnerships
These aren’t theoretical models, they’re field-tested frameworks shaped by real alliances. See how organizations such as Novo Nordisk and a leading biotech company have turned best practices into measurable impact across their partnership portfolios.
Novo Nordisk: Centralizing operations for a growing portfolio
Daniel Goday Sagarra - Associate Project Manager, External Innovation
Learn how Novo Nordisk’s External Innovation team centralized their rapidly expanding alliance portfolio using a centralized partnering platform to integrated fragmented data, enhance strategic visibility, and enable more efficient senior oversight.
Anonymized: Streamlining financial obligations
Alliance Manager - International biotechnology company
Learn how one global biotech alleviated the burden of managing 600+ financial obligations across 20+ partnerships through structured information flow and organizing across departments while expanding into new areas of business.
Download the Alliance Management Playbook
Unlock the full potential of every partnership
Who the Alliance Management playbook is for, and how it can help you
This playbook is designed for professionals across the life sciences — including biopharma, medical, consumer health, animal health, crop science, agriculture, food, and FMCG — who work at the intersection of science, strategy, and collaboration.
This resource should be particularly valuable for:
- Alliance Managers looking to streamline governance and extract more value from partnerships
- Business Development & Licensing teams aiming to strengthen partner alignment and post-deal execution
- R&D and External Innovation leaders seeking operational models that enhance collaboration across complex ecosystems
- Strategic Partnership or Alliance Offices responsible for embedding best practices across global portfolios
How Inpart supports next-generation Alliance Management
Inpart helps leading biopharma companies such as Daiichi Sankyo, GSK, and Pfizer to deliver world class AM operations with Deal; an all-in-one, integrated, end-to-end platform.
Co-designed with life science Alliance Managers, our ready-to-use solution is a dedicated companion for Alliance Management. Streamline the fundamentals, centralize key partner insights, enhance collaboration, and ensure seamless coordination, with everything in one place to focus on strengthening partnerships and driving impact.
Inpart’s Deal platform enables AM teams to:
- Get a comprehensive overview of all alliances and strategic partnerships
- Monitor agreements, obligations & milestones
- Map, manage & collaborate with all stakeholders
- Generate automated strategic reports and dashboards
- Gather insights and conduct regular alliance health checks
- Manage alliance related issues and build mitigation plans
Explore more Alliance Management resources
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Whitepaper | Driving successful alliance management
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Article | Generic CRMs fail Biopharma: The Need for a Specialized Life Science CRMs
This article outlines the limitations of off-the-shelf generic CRMs, and explores how specialized life science CRMs such as Inpart Deal, can help biopharma to source innovation, evaluate opportunities, and manage alliances.