CIOTechOutlook >> Magazine >> June - 2013 issue

New Modes of Technology play a Monumental Role in Life Sciences Organization

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is engaged in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of pharmaceutical and nutritional products. Headquartered in New York City, the company has a market cap of $77.86 billion.

Whether it is using data to analyze the best targeted and most effective therapeutic techniques, or using social media to engage with customers, new modes of technology will continue to play a role in life sciences organization.

Current Trends in the Industry

From a technology standpoint, there is a wide array of technology trends that are relevant to the Pharmaceutical industry. Information Security, digital identity management, collaboration enablers such as video conferencing and Sharepoint, social media, cloud computing, big data and mobile computing are some of the areas that appear to be vibrant. Big data analytics is a particularly interesting one considering its potential to help address real-world issues such as cost of healthcare, with potential benefits across the healthcare value chain beginning with the patient. This is a particularly interesting area considering that it can be a confluence of patient medical records, genomic data and other data managed by other participants in this value chain. Starting with patient enrollment for clinical trials all the way through to helping patients and care providers determining course of treatment, this is one very interesting area.

Bridging Business and Service

Research and Development is the main business activity in a pharmaceutical company. There are two main drivers that help determine priorities. To begin with, one must ensure that they can provide an appropriate workplace computing environment where scientists can concentrate on their core competencies, without other distractions. The other dimension that is relevant is the fact that we operate in a globalized environment. Therefore, from an Information Technology function's priorities standpoint that translates to understanding and being aligned with the global business' needs, being able to provide the appropriate infrastructure, and business/scientific capabilities and collaboration tools for scientists to be successful.

In a cost-disciplined environment, that means that one has to be prudent about the types and timing of Information Technology investments that need to be made in order to get the best possible returns for the business. All this needs to be done in a manner that does not compromise the levels of quality of service delivered to the scientific community; this requires learning and continuous improvement in all aspects of the operation.

Major Challenges Faced

Working in a globalized environment poses its own set of challenges. In situations where traditional organizational boundaries have either been removed or become blurred, one has to acknowledge that these types of environments require creative solutions. Some of the issues that pose challenges – not in any particular order- are as follows:

Information Security

Security is paramount when it comes to the business being successful and cannot be compromised. Relevant policies are necessary and need to be scalable enough to support the local operating environment. Capabilities and services need to be delivered keeping this in mind. At the same time, this needs to be balanced against productivity requirements.

Performance

It is a very real fact that distances need to be bridged with appropriate technology solutions.

Process

Differences in local business processes sometimes require localized solutions within a global context.

Cohesive IT Operations in a globalized environment

It is necessary to shield the end user from the complexities of a globalized IT operating environment.


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