How Seqera improved utilization and resource efficiency to support more projects with less overhead

About Seqera

Seqera is a bioinformatics software company that provides a platform to centralize data, streamline scientific workflows, and connect research teams in life sciences and biotech. It originated from the open-source tool Nextflow and enables reproducible, collaborative, and compliant data processing for research areas like genomics, drug discovery, and diagnostics.

Claire Wiggin, the Head of Customer Experience Operations at Seqera, leads initiatives to scale service delivery and improve customer outcomes. Her work bridges strategy and execution, from implementing platforms like Rocketlane to streamlining onboarding and support. Rene Larro, the Chief Customer Officer at Seqera, oversees the entire customer journey from onboarding to long-term success. With extensive experience in professional services and customer-facing operations, René plays a pivotal role in helping life sciences and bioinformatics teams adopt and scale Seqera's platform.

The Challenge

As Seqera entered a phase of rapid growth (transitioning from its Series A stage toward Series B), the team quickly realized that their existing systems for project management, time tracking, and service delivery were no longer sustainable. They were looking for a platform that could seamlessly integrate with their evolving tech stack, unify project management and time tracking in one place, and provide a dedicated client portal to collaborate and share progress updates with customers.

Operating in "DIY mode" before Rocketlane

Before adopting Rocketlane, Seqera's customer experience operations were entirely manual and fragmented across multiple tools, spreadsheets, Google Docs, PowerPoints, and long email chains. While this setup worked during their early Series A stage, it became unsustainable as the company grew. What once felt like flexible and fast-moving collaboration soon turned into operational chaos.

Outdated tools and disconnected workflows

Spreadsheets, HubSpot, NetSuite, and email threads formed a disjointed tech stack. Manual time tracking and reporting slowed down decision-making and added overhead. Without real-time insights into project hours, budgets, or delivery status, the team relied on "directional correct guesses." Customer sentiment was gauged purely by intuition, and projects often dragged on indefinitely without a structured close-out process.

Slow time-to-value for customers

The lack of structure also impacted the speed at which customers experienced value. Many of Seqera's customers are leading scientific teams making breakthroughs in research, so helping them get up and running quickly was critical. But without streamlined project management, onboarding took longer than desired. Without visibility, the team often discovered customer issues late, after delays or missed communication, rather than proactively addressing them.

Services couldn't scale without structure

As customer demand grew for onboarding packages and expert services hours, it became clear that Seqera's current setup couldn't support scale, especially as they prepared to raise their Series B. More complex enterprise engagements only highlighted the need for an operational overhaul.

How Seqera realized it needed a scalable delivery engine

Seqera needed to ensure operational rigor and a unified view of each customer's engagement across services, support, and implementation. Without a centralized system, it was nearly impossible to maintain a true 360° understanding of the customer journey. Recognizing these challenges, Claire and her team began evaluating potential solutions. They assessed five platforms, Baton, Ruddr, Kantata, and PSOhub, and Certinia, alongside Rocketlane. The evaluation criteria were clear: the tool had to integrate seamlessly with their tech stack, support both time tracking and project management, and most importantly, offer a client-facing portal to enable transparent collaboration. Rocketlane stood out immediately as the only platform that met all these requirements.

"Things were a bit DIY back then. Project management lived across Google Docs, PowerPoints, and long email threads with customers. Time tracking was done in gigantic Excel sheets that everyone feared and mostly avoided. Reporting was practically nonexistent and we had minimal visibility into project hours, budgets, or how we were spending our time. When I joined Seqera, one of my first mandates was to standardize how we managed projects." — Claire Wiggin, Head of Customer Experience Operations, Seqera

The Solution

Transformation with Rocketlane

What once felt like scattered manual effort has transformed into a data-backed, scalable operation. Rocketlane brought immediate structure to Seqera's services team, centralizing project management, improving reporting, and creating a foundation to scale. What started as a fix for fragmented project workflows quickly became a springboard for higher team utilization and measurable business results.

Structured onboarding and team-wide clarity

With Rocketlane, Seqera rolled out defined project templates, centralized time tracking, and consistent workflows. The team could now identify which project phases caused delays, such as benchmarking or custom setup, and the team could proactively course-correct them, all within one platform.

Seqera's Rocketlane playbook includes time tracking and capacity planning for utilization growth; tracking key events and intervals to optimize time-to-value; project dashboards for real-time visibility; custom reports for data-driven decision-making; automation and alerts for proactive management; and continuous improvement through templates and reporting.

The Impact

Team utilization elevated significantly

Rocketlane's reporting helped the team gather better workload visibility. Seqera tracked capacity and balanced assignments accordingly, driving utilization up from 88% in Q1 to 99% in Q2, and reaching 100% in Q3. Real-time dashboards gave leaders the data they needed to load-balance before burnout could happen.

Reduced manual reporting overhead

Previously, reporting was built manually, often requiring days of wrangling spreadsheets and internal updates. Now, Rocketlane provides instant access to metrics like time-to-value, project phase durations, and actual vs. planned timelines. What once took hours each week is now done in clicks. For Claire, having this level of transparency means she can back every conversation with data rather than intuition.

Foundation for cross-functional collaboration

With Rocketlane, Seqera's internal teams now work in one shared workspace. Customer sentiment is tracked through close-out surveys, and Rocketlane's project timelines provide shared clarity on ownership, due dates, and blockers, replacing email threads and guesswork. This level of visibility and structure allowed Seqera to support enterprise clients with multiple stakeholders, and confidently present delivery metrics to investors during their Series B.

"From day one, Rocketlane has treated us like true design partners. There have been multiple occasions where I've reached out to the support team with feature suggestions, and within 48 hours, they were live in the product. That level of responsiveness really proved to us that we made the right decision."

"It was like flipping on a light switch in a dark room of our services business. Suddenly, we had the data to make real business decisions. Internal teams and clients now work in the same system, creating shared visibility and accountability. We can actually track sentiment now and know if they're stuck and can reach out proactively." — Claire Wiggin, Head of Customer Experience Operations, Seqera