Flare Therapeutics

Flare Therapeutics is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, MA. With a mission to create cutting-edge medicines for patients, FlareTx’s work is exclusively focused on drugging transcription factors (TFs) to fully unlock the therapeutic potential of this previously elusive target class.

How has Pliancy helped make IT at FlareTx more user-centric?

Kevin [Schordine, primary consultant] and Ryan [Bickford, managing consultant] have a great understanding of how IT fits into the everyday employee experience. One of the first things we did was replace our ticketing system with something more user-friendly and more visible for end users. People can see what the status of a task is, so a lot of noise related to issue resolution went away. This initiative gives everyone confidence their IT needs are being addressed so they can focus on their FlareTx priorities.

Another user-friendly example came with our cybersecurity training. Everybody gets the blanket 15-minute overview that covers key concepts. People are busy, and 15 minutes isn’t a big ask. If anybody gets caught in a phishing test or clicks a bad link, then they’re enrolled in a longer 45- or 60-minute course to drive those important messages home. That way we’re not asking too much of everyone’s time, and the people who need more practice are able to get the customized training they need. It’s about meeting people where they are.

“With Pliancy, FlareTx didn’t have a minute of downtime. We handed over the keys to the old space, and we were done. No wasted time, no interruption to service.”

Through working with Pliancy, how has FlareTx been able to improve communication and compliance around IT initiatives?

As FlareTx matures as a company, Kevin has helped us author, draft, and understand policies for acceptable use, including but not limited to data privacy, bring your own device (BYOD), mobile, and password. But it’s not just creating these policies; you have to implement them, too. Putting those policies into practice is critical.

Instead of just sending everyone an email saying this required training is mandatory, we put Kevin in front of the company to explain the details and importance of these policies. He was able to say to everyone, “Here’s my face, here’s who I am, here’s what I do here. Let’s talk about what’s happening. Let’s discuss why these policies and training are important for you and for FlareTx. And if you have questions or want to learn more, I can help.”

And it just worked. We took the same approach for phishing and spam campaigns through [security awareness training platform] KnowBe4. Kevin did a brief live presentation before the campaign, explained why it was important, and how to reach out. We went from 19% phish-prone prior to the campaign to 3% after. The numbers speak for themselves.

For so many IT-related programs, it’s been continuously successful for us to have Kevin contextualize projects for the rest of the organization. He gets constant praise and kudos for everything that he’s working on.

What was it like to go through the office move and build-out process with Pliancy?

It was seamless. Nick Thomas [Pliancy’s infrastructure projects manager] was our point person, and he’s proven to our team that he is an all-star. Due to my role as associate operations and infrastructure director, I was leading the move and I’m directly connected to IT, so we were proactively talking about and working through our IT plans for the new space well in advance.

Nick came in to do a site survey and a wireless survey, and the Pliancy team partnered with LightPath [an external wiring vendor] on the details for wiring and connectivity in the new office. 

I was completely comfortable having [Pliancy] run the show, and I don’t think there was a single hiccup in the whole process of moving an entire company and a lab. It was sensational.

With Pliancy, FlareTx didn’t have a minute of downtime. We handed over the keys to the old space, and we were done. No wasted time, no interruption to service, which is very rare in my experience.

Everything went to plan, and it went as planned because we met weekly for three months talking about the whole thing, at Nick’s suggestion. We were perfectly prepared and it’s his attention to detail that got us there.

Have there been any instances where Pliancy has surprised you?

At FlareTx, we close our offices during the week of Fourth of July as an extended break for employees. So I said to Kevin, “If you have other clients you want to focus on for this week, please feel free.” But he said he had been keeping a list of things that he wanted to take care of. While the company was closed for the week, he and Cam [DiCecca, senior consultant] did tasks such as reorganizing the server rooms by cleaning up the racks and making everything more organized,  and he installed better patch cabling. It was so obvious to Kevin to do something like this without anyone asking, and I really admired that.

In the grand scheme of things—of all the other issues we rely on Pliancy to manage or help us handle—something like this is little. But that’s why it matters. If these details are important to him, then I know that the things that are critical to our business are getting even more care and attention. That said it all to me.

What do you think sets Pliancy apart from other IT providers or other business partners?

It all boils down to the team getting it done and getting it done well. Pliancy has always been extremely focused on making sure we have everything that we need. We trust that they know what to prioritize, who to prioritize, and how to reach out if they are needed. It really reflects the overlap between Pliancy’s values and FlareTx’s values that [the team] can proactively encounter a situation, analyze it, and do what needs to be done. 

We have not had one piece of constructive criticism in about three months, maybe more—and it’s not for lack of asking. Our relationship is as strong as ever, and the Pliancy reputation is strong within our whole organization.

“I don’t think there was a single hiccup in the whole process of moving an entire company and a lab. It was sensational.”