On 6 May 2026, we held our first RPACT Cross-Industry Forum. What started as a focused exchange on implementation experience quickly turned into a highly engaged discussion across companies, teams, and roles.
In total, 58 participants joined the meeting. We had planned 75 minutes, but the discussion was so lively that we ran 10 minutes over time. Even better: most participants stayed until the end.
That was a strong signal that the topic resonates. Many organizations are no longer asking whether they should move toward open, transparent, and validated statistical tooling. The real question is now how to make that transition work in practice.
Why we organized the forum
The goal of the forum was to create a practical cross-industry exchange on the implementation and use of rpact and related solutions in real-world environments.
The discussion focused on questions such as:
- How is rpact introduced and embedded in an organization?
- What helps colleagues get started quickly?
- Which technical, procedural, and cultural hurdles need to be addressed?
- How can teams manage change successfully when other tools and established processes have been in place for years?
This last point came up repeatedly throughout the session. Successful adoption is not just about software functionality. It is also about training, trust, governance, internal sponsorship, and change management.
Many thanks to our speakers
A special thank-you goes to our six speakers, who agreed to contribute on short notice and shared highly practical insights from their organizations:
- Dominic Magirr (Novartis)
- Oliver Boix (Bayer)
- Godwin Yung (Roche)
- Johannes Krisam (Boehringer Ingelheim)
- Lars Andersen (Boehringer Ingelheim / RPACT)
- Kaspar Rufibach (Merck)
Together, these contributions painted a realistic and encouraging picture: there is no single implementation blueprint, but there are clear patterns that make adoption more successful.
What we heard across companies
Although each speaker described a different organizational setting, several common themes emerged.
1. Internal portals, examples, and FAQs matter a lot
One of the clearest messages was that adoption improves when users can easily find:
- practical examples,
- reusable code templates,
- internal guidance,
- case studies, and
- well-maintained FAQs.
This point came through strongly in the talks from Novartis, Roche, and Merck, and it was reinforced by Johannes Krisam’s internal survey at Boehringer Ingelheim. Across organizations, users seem to learn rpact best when they can start from examples that are close to their day-to-day use cases.
2. Training is important, but self-service learning is equally important
Formal training remains valuable, especially when organizations introduce adaptive and group sequential methods more broadly. At the same time, the forum showed that training alone is not enough.
Users need to be able to come back later and continue learning in a self-directed way. That is why vignettes, recorded examples, drop-in sessions, office hours, and structured internal resources play such a central role.
3. The real challenge is often organizational, not statistical
Several speakers highlighted that the main challenge is often not the methodology itself. Instead, it is the organizational transition:
- replacing long-established habits,
- giving users confidence,
- integrating new workflows into validated environments,
- and aligning teams around a common direction.
This is exactly why the forum topic resonated so strongly. The move toward rpact is not only a software choice. It is often part of a broader move toward modern, transparent, and open statistical workflows.
4. Validation and compliance are essential
Validation was one of the recurring discussion points during the talks and in the chat. That is no surprise.
For many organizations, adoption only scales when software is not just powerful and flexible, but also fit for use in regulated environments. The discussion made clear that this is one of the reasons why rpact is increasingly being used productively across companies.
At RPACT, validation has been part of the concept from the very beginning. Today, this includes extensive validation documentation, installation qualification support, and release-specific testing workflows for customers. The forum discussion confirmed that this matters in practice.
A few highlights from the individual contributions
Each presentation added a different perspective.
Dominic Magirr described how Novartis approached the transition with a clear timeline, internal alignment, targeted training, a central resource hub, and weekly drop-in sessions. His talk illustrated how important it is to combine method support with pragmatic deployment decisions.
Oliver Boix shared Bayer’s perspective on technical implementation and the path toward validated workbench-based environments. He also described how rpact is expected to play an increasing role in productive study planning going forward.
Godwin Yung explained how Roche built a broader internal ecosystem around rpact and other open-source statistical tools, including examples, case studies, FAQs, and learning resources. His contribution showed how adoption can succeed when open-source tools are embedded into a coherent internal support structure.
Johannes Krisam presented results from an internal mini-survey at Boehringer Ingelheim. One particularly interesting takeaway was that many users learn rpact primarily through self-exploration, peer support, and the public documentation. At the same time, the survey also highlighted demand for more training formats, more study templates, and even AI-assisted code generation.
Lars Andersen discussed containerized and centrally managed environments, including the role of validated images, package management, and cloud-based setups. His contribution added an important infrastructure perspective: adoption is easier when users can work in a simple, centrally governed environment with consistent package versions.
Kaspar Rufibach closed the speaker series with a particularly memorable perspective on implementation and change. Drawing on experience from both Roche and Merck, he emphasized that invention alone is not enough; successful adoption also requires embedding a validated, high-quality solution into organizational processes. He also made a very clear practical point: in his view, for pharmaceutical development, rpact covers the relevant needs so well that no additional general-purpose trial design software is required.
That perspective is closely aligned with the paper he referenced during the session: “Implementation of Statistical Innovation in a Pharmaceutical Company” by Rufibach and co-authors, which discusses how statistical innovation can move from invention to broad organizational use. You can find the paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19466315.2024.2327291.
The discussion was just as valuable as the talks
The chat and discussion showed a high level of engagement throughout the session. Participants raised questions about topics such as:
- the role of rpact as a primary sample size and design tool,
- validation expectations in regulated settings,
- rollout and maintenance of validated package versions,
- onboarding strategies,
- and how open-source adoption fits into broader organizational culture.
One question that stood out was whether any speaker had ever faced a regulatory challenge because a protocol had been developed using rpact. The answers in the room were reassuring: the speakers did not report such problems.
That matters. It reinforces a message that many of our customers already know from experience: rpact is not an experimental side tool. It is a solution that is actively used, discussed, validated, and trusted in practice.
What this means for RPACT users and future users
For us, the forum confirmed three things very clearly.
First, there is strong interest in practical peer exchange. People want to hear how others solved real implementation questions inside real organizations.
Second, adoption succeeds when software, documentation, training, and validation are treated as one integrated package.
Third, the RPACT ecosystem continues to grow in relevance. This includes not only rpact, but also related offerings such as RPACT Cloud and crmPack, which were also part of the discussion and the shared resources during the session.
For organizations looking for a modern and sustainable path forward, that ecosystem offers a compelling combination:
- rpact for trial design and sample size planning,
- RPACT Cloud for easier access and onboarding,
- crmPack for model-based dose escalation,
- and a validation concept designed for productive use in regulated settings.
In other words: this is not just powerful methodology. It is an implemented, supported, and field-tested solution.
We would like to continue this format
The feedback after the session was very positive, and the strong attendance until the very end encouraged us to think beyond a one-off event.
If interest remains high, we would be happy to repeat the RPACT Cross-Industry Forum regularly — for example once per year or whenever a new set of timely topics emerges.
If you would like to learn more about the RPACT ecosystem, take a look at:
- rpact: https://www.rpact.org/
- RPACT Cloud: https://www.rpact.com/products/rpact-cloud/
- crmPack: https://www.rpact.com/products/r-package-crmpack/
- Service and validation support: https://www.rpact.com/services/sla
And if you are currently thinking about how to introduce rpact in your own organization, one takeaway from this forum may be the most important of all:
You do not have to start from scratch.
The path has already been explored by multiple teams across the industry — and the experience shared in this forum shows that the move can be both practical and highly successful.