Sapphiros UK is a fast‑growing life sciences company combining R&D, production manufacturing, and engineering under one roof. As Operations Manager, Sam Hicks is responsible for facilities, health and safety, purchasing, IT, and equipment maintenance – essentially “everything that keeps the place up and running.”
When Sam joined Sapphiros UK, the business was scaling quickly, but its purchasing and inventory processes hadn’t kept up.
Before MyAmici, Sapphiros UK had no purchasing platform. Like many biotech’s in the area, they relied on a shared Excel spreadsheet to manage orders.
For an R&D‑plus‑manufacturing organization moving toward validation and clinical build, this approach was no longer sustainable.
Sam first encountered MyAmici while working at a biotechnology company in Cambridge. At that time she came from an environment with a full purchasing department and hadn’t used a platform like MyAmici before.
Once she got familiar with it, the benefits were immediately clear:
So when she arrived at Sapphiros UK and found “the dreaded Excel sheet,” the decision was obvious:
“It was a no brainer that I needed to get MyAmici in – and I needed to get it in ASAP.”
“I highly recommend MyAmici. There’s no other platform like it in the world, and certainly nothing that can save time and money for biotech companies like my own the way MyAmici can.”
One initial challenge was that Sapphiros UK’s senior leadership team had never heard of MyAmici. Sam tackled this by:
The contrast between the spreadsheet‑based approach and a dedicated LabOps platform was so stark that the leadership team needed little convincing. After a short presentation, they told her:
“Go for it. Do it straight away, Sam. We need it.”
Sapphiros UK became the third company where Sam has implemented MyAmici.
With approval secured, Sam reached out to her MyAmici contact to kick off implementation.
Within a matter of weeks – “maybe even less” – the platform was live, staff were trained, and the old Excel sheet was retired.
Sam describes the whole process as:
“Incredibly quick, incredibly easy… we were up and running in no time and very happy with it.”
This was not her first MyAmici rollout, and once again she “could not fault it.”
Beyond the purchasing platform, Sapphiros UK now uses additional MyAmici modules:
Inventory management for V&V and clinical build
As Sapphiros moves through verification, validation, and into clinical build, a solid inventory management system has become critical.
“New request” and sourcing
Sapphiros UK is not a typical single‑function facility – it combines R&D, production manufacturing, and engineering. That means frequent “weird and wonderful” requests for atypical items.
Each year, Sam reviews performance with the MyAmici team. They provide clear statistics on spend through the platform – and, crucially, on time and money saved.
In total, that’s 89 working days of time saved in one year – more than the workload of a full‑time employee.
“It’s an entire person, it’s an entire salary, pretty much.”
For a fast‑growing R&D‑driven biotech, being able to demonstrate that level of savings is rare:
“Particularly for an R&D company, you very rarely get to celebrate saving money… so to be able to present average savings of £17,000 a month is just incredible.”
Sam expects the numbers for 2025 to be even higher as Sapphiros UK’s activity has grown significantly.
Sapphiros UK is the third company where Sam has implemented MyAmici, and she is clear about why:
“I highly recommend MyAmici. There’s no other platform like it in the world, and certainly nothing that can save time and money for biotech companies like my own the way MyAmici can.”
For Sapphiros UK, that combination of visibility, control, and ease of use has turned procurement and inventory from a “dreaded Excel sheet” into a strategic advantage.
For labs looking to reduce admin overhead and improve control of spend, MyAmici can deliver the same kind of time and cost savings Sapphiros UK now enjoys. To learn more about how we can unlock this for your lab, get in touch with the team today.