IT consultancy Accenture has expanded its presence in the healthcare market with the acquisition of Octagon Research Solutions, a company that deals with clinical data management and offers regulatory services.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Octagon employs a staff of 380, and has a fairly impressive portfolio under its belt.  It’s the fifth largest user of the FDA’s electronic submission gateway and collaborates with the agency on the development of clinical data conversion and training standards. The firm also maintains active relationships with other authorities as well.

“We believe that the timing is perfect for this acquisition as our clients are increasingly under pressure to reduce the drug development and approval timelines to get products to market more quickly, safely and cost effectively,” said David Boath, North American managing director for Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group.  “Our clients have an urgent need to focus resources on the scientific breakthroughs and also to improve the efficiency of their clinical and regulatory operations.”

Octagon will be integrated into Life Sciences business, and the company said it will also make use of the new assets that it received through the deal to extend its pharmaceutical services portfolio.

Big data is an accelerating trend in quite a few key verticals, and healthcare is among the industries that are adopting this new technological shift.  Information is at the heart of Octagon’s business, and the same goes for Relay.

The software maker offers a visualization platform for pharmaceutical companies that it says can be used to speed up the R&D stage and to some extent simplify regulatory processes as well. In July it entered into an agreement with TIBCO to use the vendor’s in-memory analytics tech to strengthen its own offering’s capabilities.