Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - (Page 17) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe May 2008 IT/Technology 17 business discussion as an IT discussion. The topic of architecture is very broad, but we can summarise it by noting that architecture can hold the collection of standards needed to support an electronic business process. The maturity of an organisation’s architecture in large measure determines the relative contribution information technology is able to make to the business. Companies with well-developed enterprise architectures can more readily implement new technology, automate their business processes, ensure timely quality data and draw information from multiple sources to make educated decisions. Consider that the retail industry uses real-time transactions to manage product stock levels. Stores are able to monitor product availability, automatically reorder the product as needed and estimate product availability date. Whether you know anything about technology or not, it is fairly easy to see that if a company has defined “rules of the road” through an architecture plan, it is much easier for a business to navigate that road. One of the reasons that architecture is so important relates to the growing need for life sciences organisations to interoperate with the broader healthcare ecosystem. These organisations must be able to embrace a dramatically growing diversity of structured and unstructured data from healthcare providers, payers and other external sources (for example, government, academia). Without a standards-based architecture, not only is it more difficult to get consistent and timely access to data, it is also unlikely that organisations will have enough context around the data for it to be fully useful. Consider also that in a business climate characterised by increasing business partnerships, good architecture provides flexibility in who does work and how it gets done. The Web 2.0 technology buzz (for example, social networking, blogs) often overlooks the fact that the power of these technologies is not just in what they do for the user — connect people, allow people to publish their ideas, etc. These technologies share common architecture standards that allow them to interoperate in real time. Want to see blog postings in your e-mail client? No problem. Want to see social networking data in your portal? Done. The intelligent use of architecture creates considerable opportunities for information aggregation and sharing — two challenges we all face today. Of course, even if you have access to the data and its relevant context, you still need a way to draw conclusions from it. In our financial services example, operational efficiencies accrue in process automation and data quality through the use of standards and architecture. But considerable new value comes from the use of business analytics to detect and prevent financial fraud. By using pattern analysis, data mining, and predictive models, banks can stop improper transactions before incurring considerable damage and losses. Similarly, in our retail example, retailers apply advanced business analytics to predict inventory levels over time and thereby optimise their spending, storage and shipping. For these organisations, analytics is not seen as a specialist area — it is seen as an enterprise competency. The opportunity for leveraging predictive models in patient recruitment, adaptive clinical trials, manufacturing demand forecasting and promotional response modelling rests firmly on the assumption that standards, architecture and analytics become enterprise competencies. I have been pleased to be a part of a CDISC team exploring the idea of an industry-level architecture. Such an architecture would allow life sciences organisations to leverage standardised data and analytics to much greater effect. Until we have such industry architectures, there is much that can be done within organisations today to move us in this direction. Under the guise of regulatory compliance, we should not insulate ourselves from how other industries are leveraging technology. Rather, we should be actively exploring how to take these concepts and make them compliant in the service of patients. About the Author Jason Burke is the global director of the health and life sciences market segments at SAS. Jason co-ordinates the development and execution of the company’s industry strategy and solutions portfolio across pharmaceutical, healthcare provider, health plan, biotechnology and regulatory organisations around the world. Prior to joining SAS, Jason held leadership positions in companies such as Microsoft, Quintiles Transnational and Glaxo Wellcome. A scientist by training, Jason holds a Master of Arts in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Missouri-Columbia. http://www.sas.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 Contents From the Editor News and Analysis Calendar Rising in the East Use Your Strategic Discretion A Blueprint for Success Market Access and the Patient Activating Effective Product Differentiation What Doctors Want IC Success in Four Steps Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - (Page Bellyband1) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - (Page Bellyband2) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 (Page Cover1) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 (Page Cover2) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - From the Editor (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - From the Editor (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - News and Analysis (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Calendar (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Calendar (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Calendar (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Calendar (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Rising in the East (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Rising in the East (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Use Your Strategic Discretion (Page 14) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Use Your Strategic Discretion (Page 15) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - A Blueprint for Success (Page 16) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - A Blueprint for Success (Page 17) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Market Access and the Patient (Page 18) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Market Access and the Patient (Page 19) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Market Access and the Patient (Page 20) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Market Access and the Patient (Page 21) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Activating Effective Product Differentiation (Page 22) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Activating Effective Product Differentiation (Page 23) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - Activating Effective Product Differentiation (Page 24) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - What Doctors Want (Page 25) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - What Doctors Want (Page 26) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - What Doctors Want (Page 27) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - IC Success in Four Steps (Page 28) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - IC Success in Four Steps (Page 29) Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - May 2008 - IC Success in Four Steps (Page 30)
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