Case Study: Charles River Laboratories achieves streamlined process automation, saving 9,600 hours and $2.4M annually with M-Files

Charles River Laboratories

Charles River Laboratories, a global contract research organization supporting drug development for thousands of studies, was struggling with a fragmented, folder-based document management system across 20+ sites. The environment forced manual file placement and deep folder drilling, duplicated publishing tools after mergers, and made it hard to enforce consistent reporting, meet tight regulatory timelines, and maintain audit-ready histories.

By deploying M-Files’ metadata-driven platform and centralized vaults, CRL automated handoffs, e-signatures and publishing, consolidated multiple publishing systems into one, and gained searchable, auditable document views. The change saved more than 8,600–9,600 hours annually, cut DocuSign costs by $326,400, and delivered an estimated $2.4 million in yearly operational savings while speeding report delivery and strengthening compliance.

Charles River Laboratories

Jenith Charpentier

Senior Director, Data and Report Delivery Services