NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEBBASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES
Edge Dynamics has added a flexible desktop module within its Demand Management Suite that offers lifesciences manufacturers a way to easily monitor and analyze channel activity data for their products. The Edge Dynamics Demand Dashboard interface allows individuals across the enterprise to quickly answer the most crit ical questions about the flow of their products through the channel. This enables the manufacturer to take realtime corrective actions to improve efficiency and profitability, including maximizing new prod uct sales performance and avoiding product shortages and stockouts. The Edge Dynamics Demand Dashboard is being offered as a new module in the Edge Dynam ics Demand Management Suite Release 4.5. Through the dashboard, users can choose precon figured views of content or change the dashboard themselves, without IT assistance, to display the most relevant views and alerts for their specific roles.The dashboard also offers more actionable alerts and options that allow for more effective presentation of channel performance information across the enterprise, such as the ability to view daily inven tory levels or shipments on a local, regional, or national level. Users also can take direct actions via the dash board, including the approval or rejec tion of orders,or the holding of inven tory. “Years of ERP implementation experience showed our industry two important things,” says Josh Green baum, principal, enterprise applica tions consulting. “First, employees often missed opportunities to take corrective action because they could n’t get their hands on the right data quickly enough. Second, poor usability prevented enterprise soft ware from delivering on its promise; even when employees had technology to help them access crit ical data, they simply wouldn’t use an unfriendly interface.” Edge Dynamics Updates DEMANDMANAGEMENT SYSTEM Cognos Launches PHARMACEUTICAL SALES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Cognos, an IBM company, has added a perfor mance solution to its Blueprint line designed to help pharmaceutical companies more effectively manage their territorial sales quotas, enabling them to identify new sales opportunities and quickly adjust to new market conditions. The framework of the Cognos Sales Quota Allocation Blueprint incorporates dashboards, as well as best practices in quota fore casting and modeling, to assist pharmaceutical companies in set ting and maintaining quotas in line with corporate revenue objectives. The Blueprint solution also provides incentive compen sation analysts and sales man agers with enhanced visibility into their distributed sales man agement processes, ensuring each salesforce is maximizing rev enue by focusing on the right mix of products for their territory, and is working toward the most appropriate performance incentives. “Managing salesforce quota can be a complex undertaking, particularly in large enterprise pharma ceutical organizations with hundreds or thousands of sales people across different territories,each focus ing on a different array of products they need to bring to market,”says Paul Hake, industry director, life sciences, Cognos. “ The Sales Quota Allocation Blueprint offers our customers the tools they need to ensure sales quotas are allocated fairly, aligned with revenue objectives, and completed in a timely man ner, freeing up management’s time to focus on driv ing revenue and profitability.” Employees often miss opportunities to take corrective action because they can’t get their hands on the right data quickly enough, says Josh Greenbaum, Principal, Enterprise Applications Consulting, at Edge Dynamics. Managing salesforce quotas can be a complex undertaking, particularly in large enterprise pharmaceutical organizations, says Paul Hake, Industry Director, Life Sciences, Cognos, an IBM company. Verispan Products Track PHARMACYCLINIC AND PRODUCT LAUNCHDATA Verispan’s healthcare list division has introduced a comprehensive database of pharmacy retail clin ics and the allied healthcare practitioners affiliated with these facilities. While the pharmacy/retail clinic industry has yet to fully establish itself, these clin ics — primarily staffed by nurse practitioners, physician assis tants,and sometimes physicians — have shown tremendous potential in providing inexpen sive and exceptional healthcare to consumers. The Pharmacy/Retail Clinic Database from Verispan offers more than 830 clinic locations and parent/satellite relation ships.The file includes all practi tioner demographics, including clinic names and locations. The service pinpoints the number of retail clinics and how many practitioners are affiliated with them. For example, there are 921 clinics operating in 36 states today. Verispan also has announced the availability of VS Launch Predictor, a Webbased tool that inte grates Verispan’s patented longitudinal, patient level data with its promotional data to allow users to forecast market penetration for new product launches. VS Launch Predictor includes historical product launch data dating back to 1991,and allows users to analyze new product launch performance by com paring it to analogous product pene tration curves. The data can be ana lyzed using historical longitudinal patient data going back to 2002. Historical patient data include traditional total prescriptions, new prescriptions and Verispan’s True Patient Measures, which differenti ates between new to therapy,new to brand, and continuing patient trans actions. As a Webbased service, VS Launch Predictor provides 24hour access and reporting capabilities. Its userfriendly database has multiple selection criteria, allowing clients to analyze competitors’ strategies dur ing their product launch phases. Results and graphical displays can be created and exported, facilitating strategic business deci sions for analysts, forecasters, and product/brand managers.It allows them to forecast new product performance and determine promotional require ments. Verispan’s healthcare list division has introduced a comprehensive database of pharmacy retail clinics and the allied healthcare practitioners affiliated with these facilities. PV0308 LAYOUT 2/14/08 5:44 PM Page 81 82 M a r c h 200 8 PharmaVOICE Emedia Acsis has launched PharmaTrak, an application that provides a costeffective way to comply with California’s electronic pedigree requirements. Effective Jan. 1, 2009, the California epedigree law requires pharmamanufacturers to create unique identifiers for products, track each product’s pedi gree, and maintain electronic supplychain records. PharmaTrak is designed to meet those mandates and improve efficiency across the entire supply chain by providing automated device management, epedigree generation, and serialization at the case and pallet level. The product also can be integrated with users’existing SAP management software. The system manages serialized drug product in warehouse and distribution centers to support the ability to generate epedigree documents and auto mate product movement and transfers. Acsis Introduces SUPPLYCHAIN SOLUTION PharmaTrak derives business value beyond the regulations by automating supply chain execution, as well as aiding in improving product integrity, inventory management, and product movement visibility, says Andre Pino, Chief Marketing Officer at Acsis. Market researchers at lifesciences companies are under increasing pres sure to deliver commer cially applicable analysis reports in a timely, efficient manner. But these groups have found that academic developed software plat forms tend to fall short when used in commercial settings. Observant’s new online software tool, Questrill, has been designed specifically to address these challenges by providing researchers with the speed, flexibility, and accessibility necessary to apply research findings in a commercial setting. “Market research groups in pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms increasingly push for speed in the delivery of reports, and the challenge is to deliver rapid insight gleaned through sophisticated analysis, rather than simply reporting `this is what we heard,”’says Observant CEO Michael Feehan,Ph.D. Market research groups increasingly push for speed in the delivery of reports, and the challenge is to deliver rapid insight gleaned through sophisticated analysis, rather than simply reporting, says Observant CEO Michael Feehan, Ph.D. ACSIS INC., Marlton,N.J., provides automated manufacturing and supplychain technology.For more information, visit acsisinc.com. COGNOS,Burlington,Mass.,an IBM company,develops enterprise software solutions for business intelligence and performance planning.For more information, visit cognos.com. EDGEDYNAMICS INC., Redwood City, Calif., is a provider of demand management solutions for the lifesciences Follow up industry. For more information, visit edgedynamics.com. OBSERVANT LLC,Waltham,Mass., manages custom research engagements in the United States, Europe,and Asia. For more information, visit observant.biz. VERISPAN,Yardley,Pa.,a joint venture of Quintiles Transnational and McKesson, provides information products and services and patientcentric longitudinal data to the healthcare industry. For more information, visit verispan.com. # Take Solutions,Princeton,N.J.,has released a new version of its OneClinical clinical data management solution that optimizes the process of transforming collected clinical data to the open industry standard known as CDISC SDTM (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium — Study Data Tabulation Model). The new solution guides the end user to easily profile, analyze, and specify data mappings, while also performing in situ and realtime validation, feedback,and error correction.The emerging SDTMcompliant dataset is then validated and packaged along with the data definition document to be submitted to the appropriate regulatory body.The standardized domains are also used for interim data analysis, standardsbased clinical study reports generation,and clinical safety analysis portal. For more information, visit takesolutions.com. # Words+,a Lancaster,Calif.based subsidiary of Simulations Plus focused on hardware and software communications devices for the disabled, has released Version 2 of the Sayit! SAM Communicator, its voiceoutputaugmented personal digital assistant (PDA).For the new version,Words+ has added a NeoSpeech voice option to the PDA’s traditional DECtalk voice simulator.The new version also includes a new ergonomic design with a more responsive touch screen and a larger speaker, as well as longer battery life and a faster processor. In addition to individuals who require advanced audio coding devices for communications assistance, potential users of the Sayit! SAM Communicator Version 2 include speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and special education teachers.Words+ also offers a version of the communications device without the PDA functions to meet Medicare spending cap requirements. For more information, visit wordsplus.com. THE LATESTVERSIONS Qualitative research tends to produce volumi nous data,often in the form of uncodedhandwritten or typed notes.These data must then be processed and coded by the researcher before and during in depth analysis. “This timeconsuming activity can limit qualita tive research in circumstances that require rapid analysis and dissemination to address critical issues,” says President Richard Durante,Ph.D.“The problem is particularly acute in international studies with multi ple cities and researchers.” Questrill is flexible and accommodates prefer ences for note taking, analysis, and reporting. It is interoperable with Microsoft Word and is easily nav igable through simple key strokes. Data can be directly uploaded to an Internetbased project database and be available to team members regard less of location. Observant Launches MARKETRESEARCHTOOL PV0308 LAYOUT 2/14/08 5:44 PM Page 82
