The Hidden Costs of Using a Legacy CTMS
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that your legacy Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS) is still the sensible option. And you’re not alone: recent Tata surveys found that over 66% of polled organizations used mainframe/legacy applications for core business operations.
After all, your legacy system’s already in place, your teams know how to use it, and on paper it looks like it meets basic requirements. But as trials grow more complex, these systems show their age—and the real cost of sticking with outdated tech starts to add up.
Behind the familiar interface and established processes lie hours of manual work, data fragmentation, compliance risks, and limited flexibility. These issues don’t just slow things down, they increase risk and waste valuable resources.
Let’s take a closer look at where those hidden costs might be popping up, and why switching to a modern CTMS makes such a difference.
Manual Processes Waste Time
One of the most common frustrations with older CTMS platforms is the amount of manual effort they require. It happens when you have to re-enter data from an Electronic Data Capture (EDC) system. You’re manually attaching PDFs of monitoring visit reports, or updating milestones across spreadsheets and dashboards. These tasks take time and leave room for human error.
Consider a clinical operations team running a global Phase III study. Because their legacy CTMS isn’t connected to their EDC, they spend hours every week transferring enrollment numbers by hand. This not only slows things down, but creates a disconnect with the finance team, which relies on accurate visit data to issue payments.
These delays and duplications might seem minor day-to-day, but across a large trial portfolio, they quickly become a major resource drain. Switching to a modern CTMS significantly reduces this burden by connecting key systems and automating repetitive work. This frees teams to focus on what’s important: trial oversight, not data entry.
Siloed Data Equals Poor Visibility
Legacy systems often operate in isolation. They were built in a time when integration wasn’t the norm, and many still rely on outdated system architecture. This means that they don’t support easy connections with other platforms. Trial data becomes scattered across different tools: EDC, eTMF, safety reporting, finance. It makes it difficult to see the full picture.
What if your legacy CTMS can’t exchange data with your financial system? Your team has to review every site manually to match visit logs. Payments are delayed and site relationships are damaged. And worse, there are inconsistencies between what sponsors see in their budget reports and what CROs track on the ground.
It’s common sense: you just can’t keep up with everything manually in the same, efficient manner as an automated system.
A CTMS that can integrate (or at least interoperate) with your broader tech stack allows real-time visibility across functions. That means fewer surprises, faster decisions, and more consistent data from start to finish.
Compliance Risks Are Easy to Miss
Aging CTMS platforms often lack the necessary features to support audit readiness. Missing version control, incomplete audit trails, and fragmented doc storage make it hard to demonstrate clinical trial inspection compliance. The last place you want to learn this the hard way is during a regulatory audit.
If your CTMS doesn’t include built-in tracking, final ICFs and signed monitoring reports end up scattered across shared drives and personal emails. This isn’t something you want to handle when an auditor’s requesting documentation. If key files are missing timestamps or signatures and the updated versions are nowhere to be seen, it’s a one way ticket to a major finding. Why risk it?
Modern CTMS platforms are built to support compliance from day one. Centralized eTMF functionality, complete audit logs, automated document workflows? It’s not just a less stressful inspection, it’s peace of mind across the board.
Customization Comes at a Cost
Legacy CTMS vendors often charge extra for even the smallest changes. Want to add a new report? Modify a field? Create a dashboard? Be prepared for a ticket, a long wait, and a bill. It seriously slows down your ability to respond to new requirements or shift strategy mid-study.
Let’s say that a study manager’s running multiple trials across different reasons. She needs to report on monitoring frequency by country, but her legacy CTMS doesn’t support custom reports. So she engages the vendor, attends meetings, and handles the back-and-forth emails (on top of her daily tasks).
Three months and thousands of dollars later, it’s still not the exact view she needs. Back to the drawing board.
It’s just so much easier with a modern platform that offers built-in tools for CTMS customization, configuration, and reporting. Teams can adapt the system themselves without needing to wait or spend more money. That flexibility becomes invaluable when timelines are tight and decisions need to be made.
The Longer You Wait, the Pricier it Gets
It’s easy to put off switching systems. The upfront cost, the learning curve, and the internal change management can all feel daunting. But the longer a legacy system remains in place, the more damage it can quietly do.
Delaying moving from your legacy system to a modern CTMS opens your organization to a variety of risks. Delayed trial starts, findings related to incomplete documentation, and staff turnover due to burnout from repetitive manual tasks. When you finally transition to a modern platform, your cost savings in time, resources, and reduced audit exposure far outweigh the investment.
In many cases, the cost of maintaining the status quo is far higher than the cost of switching. The key is to find the right system for your team, a system to grow with you for years to come, and take the plunge.
Looking to Upgrade? Switch to the BSI CTMS
The BSI CTMS is the best on the market and we have the track record to prove it. Our modern CTMS solutions cover all aspects of your clinical trials.
BSI’s CTMS is the most innovative, function complete, and easy-to-use clinical trial management software on the market. It provides CTMS, eTMF, Study Startup and Trial Supply Management in one integrated, unified platform.
Standard interfaces (API) assure complete data oversight and easy integration with the external systems (e.g. EDC and eTMF) of your choice. The BSI CTMS is the central hub for all aspects of your clinical trials. It’s available as SaaS for ease of use, continuous improvement, and simplified infrastructure.
We’re modern, sleek, and designed with the user in mind for intuitive end-to-end clinical trial management. And the best part? We offer updates, upgrades, and scalability in-house with a full client support team for your legacy system migration and beyond.
There’s never been a better time to embrace a better CTMS. Book a call today!
