The inaugural Innovation Excellence chat

Innovation #ixchat

Recently Braden Kelley moderated the first Innovation Excellence tweetjam.

Braden and Rowan Gibson both host the Innovation Excellence site for the Global Innovation Community. This is a seemingly endless store of tips, articles, presentations, etc, etc to inspire innovation. Definitely worth a visit. (http://www.innovationexcellence.com/)
Anyway, there was some interesting discussion in the tweetjam. And there was an amazing amount of retweets as the participants shared the innovation wisdom that was appearing on their screen.
Below I have captured the main flow of tweets.
(To get to the raw stream, scroll to the bottom of the page).
Getting set to kick off inaugural Innovation Excellence Office Hours over on #ixchat – I’ll be doing #innovation Q&A – Questions to #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Welcome everyone to #ixchat ! I am the author of ‘Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire’ and co-founder of http://t.co/QmGa6KO #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Q1: What is one of the most overlooked parts of creating #innovation success? – #ixchat
IXchat
August 16, 2011
Internal and external communications are central to successful #innovation and too often they are left for the end #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Successful #Innovation = Value Creation * Value Access * Value Translation /// and value translation takes time and focus to do well #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Value Translation is about taking the value that you’ve created with your new #innovation and evangelizing it in a way people get #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Value Translation occurs along a continuum between explanation for more incremental #innovation to education for true disruptions #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Successful companies focus on Value Translation from the beginning, testing messages internally and adapting for external audiences #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Even a great company like #apple underestimated the importance of value translation in launching the iPad and suffered ridicule #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
But within three months, Apple came up with brilliant OOH advertising that translated the iPad’s value perfectly in a single image #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Backlash against iPad’s launch statement should serve as cautionary tale of why investments in #innovation value translation matter #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
#innovation value translation should also not be expected to happen over night or to be the need of a single audience… #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
What things are you seeing done in cultures to create the environment to foster fun and safety to lead to innovative risk? #ixchat
Niskir
August 16, 2011
Take Segway example. Incredible #invention – game changer. Failing so far because regulatory, political, etc hurdles underestimated #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Because #innovation value translation can take time, often you must begin effort at the same time you begin creating the solution #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Other necessary #innovation communications investments include defining innovation and creating a common language of innovation #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Every context and culture is different, so every organization needs its own customized common #innovation language #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Without common language of #innovation, organization will struggle to embed innovation into culture or to unlock employee passion #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
I started to have a bit of connectivity issues. I hope the time was useful. We will bring you office hours from others in future 🙂 #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Q2: What things are u seeing done in cultures to create environment to foster fun and safety to lead to innovative risk? #ixchat via @niskir
IXchat
August 16, 2011
Introducing greater flexibility into the organization and its environment can help to foster more fun and #innovation connectedness #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Many organizations are redesigning their work space to increase likelihood of chance encounters and side #innovation conversations #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
@innovate Education is caused by starting at the wrong place. Start at value, then you don’t have to translate to value. #innovation #ixchat
DavidWLocke
August 16, 2011
Work space design should always link to how work is done & integrate connectivity in a way that doesn’t interrupt creativity #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
But workspace is a small part – the ability to take innovative risk in an organization is much more cultural and measurement focused #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
@innovate…organizations will struggle to embed innovation in culture or unlock employee passion #ixchat http://t.co/GbcpHS1
GowerPublishing
August 16, 2011
Organizations committed to #innovation give employees flexibility & capability to experiment & to shift some time to this activity #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Some organizations even allocate part of management’s measurement and compensation to how they foster and create #innovation #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Budgets must also become more flexible to allow 4 execution of day-2-day while also allowing 4 experiments – some of which can fail #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
One way culture can shift to support more innovative risk taking is by working to instill a culture of learning from outcomes #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
Quietly checking the 1st Q & A session of #ixchat w/ @innovate this wk. Excellent Qs about how to create a culture for #innovation > #ixchat
CreativeSage
August 16, 2011
Engaging people in learning not just from failures but also successes, & providing the space and support for the learning to happen #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
[email protected]_Ishmael @bpluskowski & I wrote on #innovation #culture > Guide to #OpenInnovation & #Crowdsourcing http://t.co/NJNp3yd #ixchat
CreativeSage
August 16, 2011
Thank you all for attending our inaugural Innovation Excellence Office Hours – Sorry that things slowed down there at the end #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
@berkshire_ideas – #ixchat was 1st Innovation Excellence Office Hours giving people chance to tune in and ask #innovation questions #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011
@berkshire_ideas – We will begin listing future volunteer moderators here soon – http://ht.ly/64L3q – #innovation #ixchat
innovate
August 16, 2011

For a look at the raw #ixchat stream (along with a few interesting statistics about the tweetjam) click here.

#ECMJam 3 – SharePoint & ECM

Yesterday, the third #ECMJam was held. A lot of people were involved and it was a very interesting discussion about

the place of SharePoint in the world of ECM.

Bryant Duhon was the Jam facilitator. Check out his “Introductory” post here (http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/ECMjam-SharePoint-and-ECM).

There were a number of Questions that formed the basis of the discussion. These were:

Q1: Is there problem with #sharepoint expectations, marketing, or the product itself?
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q2: #SharePoint / #governance — how to do it for real (in 140 characters or less!)
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q3: Is there/has there been a backlash vs. #SharePoint? http://ow.ly/60GnJ
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q4: What does #SharePoint do well ootb? What doesn’t it do?
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q5 Can #SharePoint solve #collab and DM problems for larger companies, as well as smaller? Can/does it really scale?
bduhon
August 11, 2011

Each question raised some interesting responses.

With regards Question 1, there was a feeling that SharePoint was not quite an ECM application:

#ECMjam A>Q1 Sharepoint is no #ECM system when you take the #AIIM definition as reference
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q1 Sharepoint claims to be #ECM, but a lot of ECM vendors make money enriching SPS2010 with ECM functionality
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
Q1: There’s a problem with expectations! #SharePoint isn’t the be-all/end-all too many folks seem to believe.
steveweissman
August 11, 2011

Others pointed out that the problem isn’t with what the product, itself, can do, but with the “misunderstanding” of what SharePoint actually is.

Q1: IMO, SharePoint “problem” is not with product as much as with misunderstanding of what, why, where, how it can/should be used.
lehawes
August 11, 2011
Q1 Agree that SP does a lot and what it does, it does well. TCM is the big gap. #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
Q1: #sharepoint is a platform, but was sold as a product. Leaves users spending $$$ to get what they were promised #ecmjam
danieloleary
August 11, 2011
Others expanded on this, and discussed what ECM should actually be, as well as pointing out that after the “purchase” of SharePoint, extra costs.
Q1 you can not achieve ECM with 1 product or a platform, SP still does not provide scanning OOTB #ecmjam + you need PM consulting & techserv
shadrachwhite
August 11, 2011
Q1 Saw recent data from a SP conf that for every $1 of SP license it sells, partners sell $6 of services. Underscore OOTB issue. #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
Q1: So expectations are over-hyped and fueled by microsoft to make #SharePoint out as more than it is. #ECM #ecmjam
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q1. As follow up to my previous comment, from my standpoint, people just seem to buy software as a panacea. Why not more plan 1st #ecmjam
bduhon
August 11, 2011
Q1. My theory, it’s from Microsoft, so folks believe it’s just going to be out of the box #ECM. #ecmjam
bduhon
August 11, 2011
And not just by Microsoft RT @bduhon: Q1: So expectations are over-hyped and fueled by microsoft #ECM #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
Too hard, too long, too obvious! RT @bduhon: Q1. people just seem to buy software as a panacea. Why not more plan 1st #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011

Question 2 (SharePoint and Governance) was met with a unaimous response – PLANNING & CONTROL

#ECMjam A>Q2 #Sharepoint governance needs good planning and administration esp. in distributed environments
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
4 characters: P-L-A-N. 5 characters: T-H-I-N-K RT @bduhon: Q2: #SharePoint/#governance: how to do it (in 140 characters) #ECM #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam Q2-You can define segments of SP with different technical restrictions to assist in governance (e.g. size quotas for team sites)
DerekPunaro
August 11, 2011
Q2: #sharepoint governance must be both centralized and distributed. Policies set by org, solution design by business units. #ecmjam
lehawes
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q2 Viral, uncontrolled installation and usage of #Sharepoint is the death of every information management governance!
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
One of the advantages of SharePoint is that is puts the administration, and “growth” of a site into the hands of the end-users (empowers). But this is also a disadvantage. Sites can expand and spread “virally”. The discussion touched upon this.
Q2: Governace requires planning up front and RIM on the back. Can’t be done with a full featured ECM #ECMJAM
incontextmag
August 11, 2011
Q2 @piewords “Viral w governance can work.” Sort of like a organizational social media policy? #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
More involved but yes RT @inoldland: Q2 @piewords “Viral w governance can work.” Sort of like a organizational social media policy? #ECMjam
piewords
August 11, 2011
Q2 so how do you explain governance to an end user and get them involved? Easy to say, hard to do #ecmjam
danieloleary
August 11, 2011
There, and in CIO office (and in Redmond?) RT @bduhon: Q2. So #governance is where a hammer is needed? #ECM #SharePoint #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
Q2. So, @danieloleary @jessewilkins: #governance is where a hammer is needed? #ECM #SharePoint #ecmjam
bduhon
August 11, 2011
The discussion surrounding this question ended with a few good points that summed up the use of governance in a SP environment. It is useful, but needs to be applied sensibly.
So what kills #SharePoint? RT @incontextmag: Q2: SP doesnt kill governance. People kill governance. #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
Q2: SP doesn’t kill governance. People kill governance. #ECMJAM
incontextmag
August 11, 2011
(Answer) So what kills #SharePoint? Governance! (sometimes) RT @incontextmag: Q2: SP doesnt kill governance. People kill governance. #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
Question 3 (Is there/will there be a backlash against SharePoint) was very much related to expectations.
Only against over-inflated expectations. RT @bduhon: Q3. Is there/will there be a backlash against #SharePoint? #ECM #AIIM #ecmjam
lptacek
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q3 #Sharepoint is already outdated compared to mobile and apps
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
After 10 yrs? Seems to me we should have seen one already. #ECM #AIIM #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q3 #Sharepoint is too complex in relation to consumerisation of #collaboration & #ECM
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
Q3: There surely is a @sharepoint backlash, but it’s misguided, because it’s based on the misunderstandings we discussed re: Q1. #ecmjam
lehawes
August 11, 2011
Q3 Backlash will come only if SP doesn’t deliver value. Same reason there’s backlash against anything. (Apologies to Susan Faludi.). #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
Q3: SharePoint has a place, but it’s not a mass market tool. It won’t ever be the Facebook of ECM #ecmjam
danieloleary
August 11, 2011
In the end, this comment was made:
Q3: The problem is that they market it as ECM but ECM is a category and no one product is all ECM. #ECMJAM
incontextmag
August 11, 2011

But someone pointed out:

Only in our circles; elsewhere they promote other stuff (eg, collab) RT @incontextmag: Q3 The problem is that they market it as #ECM #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011

Question 4 discussed what SharePoint did well, and what it did not do well.

While this question didn’t generate the same discussion as others, there were some interesting comments.

The “does well” comments included:

Q4 SP does sharing, collaboration and portals very well OOTB. It does not handle high-volume, transactional stuff well. #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
Easy way to share Office docs. Replacement for file shares. RT @bduhon: Q4: What does #SharePoint do well ootb? #ECM #AIIM #SP2010 #ecmjam
lptacek
August 11, 2011
Q4 – Collab & portals are good. Governance, transactional content, capture weak. #ecmjam #ecmjam
mtwessel
August 11, 2011
#ecmjam Q4: Good: Basic document management. Huge improvement over shared drives. Bad: Dependent metadata and field validation.
DerekPunaro
August 11, 2011
Q4 SEARCH! In 2010 they nailed it, wish every platform was as functional #ecmjam
danieloleary
August 11, 2011

Whereas, the “does not do well” included:

Q4 SP doesn’t do BPM well. Managing docs from outside an org’s four walls that need to be processed. #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
Q4: Doesn’t physical records management, BPM, transactional content management, scanning & capture, archiving & library services #ECMJAM
incontextmag
August 11, 2011
Q4 – Weakness: Seen many orgs empower depts to make their own teamsites, but result is too many silos and no enterprise governance #ecmjam
mtwessel
August 11, 2011
Q4: SP default is to store as blobs, inflating the DB, but if you do much you need a SP work around. #ECMJAM
incontextmag
August 11, 2011

Question 5 asked “Can SharePoint solve collaboration and DM problems for larger companies as well as for smaller?

Generally it seemed that while SharePoint was useful for a small company, the administration, and maintenance requirements were too high to make it practical.

#ecmjam Q5 SharePoint has always been able to scale the difference is it puts it in the users hands front end, versus other ECM backend
rileybeebs
August 11, 2011
#ecmjam Q5 so scaling requires more planning, but absolutely can scale for large companies
rileybeebs
August 11, 2011
Q5 the time to live and staffing requirements are too much for small business, #sharepoint is a better fit for larger orgs #ecmjam
danieloleary
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q5 #Sharepoint can solve DM problems in smaller orgs but is some overkill in regard to admin
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
Q5 no 4 SMB’s. lack time and IT resources. rely on specific OOTB and references to their biz/problems that dont exist #ecmjam
SteveatFB
August 11, 2011
Q5: Technically (performance, scaling) Yes, but for the features and manageability No. #ecmjam
Tomkan
August 11, 2011
The discussion also touched upon the scalability of SharePoint, as well as its use in the Cloud.
Short ans: yes. Better ans: yes, but, with “but” = may require 3rd pty apps RT @bduhon: Q5 Can #SharePoint really scale? #ECM #AIIM #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
Q5 the best way to scale sharepoint is to run in the cloud #ecmjam
shadrachwhite
August 11, 2011
What kind of cloud? Cloud cloud or VM? [email protected] : Q5 the best way to scale sharepoint is to run in the cloud #ECMJAM
juliecolgan
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam A>Q5 #Sharepoint as Office365 SaaS might be the solution for SMEs
PROJECTCONSULT_
August 11, 2011
@bduhon q5 Not yet. There is promise for the future for SP for SMBs with Azure and the future cloud platformed SP in dev. #ecmjam #AIIM
nickinglis
August 11, 2011
Q5 Wondering if performance is an issue as SP scales (when it does). #ECMjam
inoldland
August 11, 2011
#ECMjam Q5: We’re 26,000 people. SP scales, but it needs careful focus and planning.
DerekPunaro
August 11, 2011
Q5: hmmm. Scale in what way? functionality … no. of users … geography … ? #ecmjam
steveweissman
August 11, 2011
So it was  a very interesting discussion with a lot of interesting comments.

For a read of the actual tweet stream, click here (http://www.hashtracking.com/fast-report/?hashtag=ecmjam)

  • TakingAIIM
  • A meeting of the great ECM minds – the #ECMJam (markjowen.com)
  • AIIM White Paper on SharePoint Deployment (arnoldit.com)
  • A Tip for Adding Muscle to SharePoint (arnoldit.com)

Social Media in Business

Life is social.” …  “Business is social.  People buy from people they like and they like people who know them.  When we meet someone in their office we look at pictures on their wall so we can share something in common.  We want to build intimacy and trust.  Social media is just an electronic way to listen and engage…extending the old school way of going to someone’s office.

The above is a quote from a Forbes article (by Gene Marks) that I recently read. The article was discussing the adoption of social media in business.

While it seems that there is certainly a lot of interest in using social media in a business sense, there just hasn’t been that “compelling reason” to adopt it without question.

However there are still those that seem to see a real benefit (as seen in the quote above”, there are still a lot of people who don’t.

From what I’ve seen, business is still being run by a generation that hasn’t grown up with the web2.0 “idea”. And…there still isn’t a real business use that makes “C” level staff decide to implement it, without trying to work out first what they are going to use it for. (For some ideas on this, check out one of my earlier posts “ESS (Enterprise Social Software) – user adoption“)

Here’s the link to Gene’s post: Am I Wasting My Time On Social Media?

  • My Social Media posts
  • 3 Critical Twitter Tools for Your Social Media Strategy
  • Social Media: Making it Work for You
  • Wanted: A social media expert?!
  • Five Fundamentals of a Social Media Strategy

FirstDoc User Group 2011 – a look back at the conference – Part 2

Previous PostFirstDoc User Group 2011 – a look back at the conference – Part 1

In Part 1 of the FDUG 2011 series, I described the location of the meeting, and gave an overview of CSC’s plan and strategies. In Part 2, I’ll talk about the rest of the conference.

Going thin

After the break, two of the Pharma companies gave a presentation on a project that they were each involved with to upgrade their document management system.

I’m not at liberty to discuss the details, but it is obvious that the drivers in the pharmaceutical world are the same as in any other business. Namely,

  • Try and get as much functionality out of a product without writing customized code.
  • Aim to increase the useability of a solution
  • Make use of “thin” technology – (Portals).

The business cases presented described how CSC technology was being used to allow these goals to be met.  Always interesting to see, as this is a common theme.

Partnership Program

In the session  CSC described their “Partner Program” plans.

CSC’s goal here is to “put more effort into Partnerships to increase their usefulness.”  That is, with a good network of “CSC Partners”, CSC can meet client requirements, be able to offer more, and be more responsive (i.e. have more resources available) .

Companies that partner with CSC will fall into of three areas: Technology; Sales; Solution. Each area has its own “model” and KPIs that need to be met to be able to retain their status. “Customer Satisfaction” being the most important.

The message was that CSC want to seriously lift their game here. This will include certification, KPIs, working with the Partners to bring over a “unified” message.

Certification

As mentioned, CSC will be offering a certification program.

This will be made up of 4-tiered capabilities (Installation, Configuration, Customization, and Architecture). CSC are looking at some type of “boot camp” experience where individuals attend a week long course for each capability. This will be followed by several weeks of “shadowing” on client projects.

The fact that CSC mention this, signals that they want to set a standard that people that partner with them will meet. Which is encouraging. The “certification” is for the individual (that is, it’s not transferable to other people at the Partnersite).

Curious to see how this one will pan out.

Total Regulatory Solution

In the keynote presentation, there was mention of CSC’s “Total Regulatory Solution”.

Jennifer Wemstrom (who flew over to this year’s European FDUG) presented CSC’s overview of their “Total Regulatory Solution”.

Underpinning this is CSC’s aim to provide the “Total Business Solution” that supports the creation, management and consumption of regulatory documentation in the Life Sciences industry.

In simple words, CSC have got all the tools (especially since their acquisition of ISI and their Publishing tools) to achieve this, but the tools are still disparate applications. CSC’s goal is that all these disparate systems will be unified. They will have a common interface, and a use a shared data model.

This is definitely the right move. In my years as a ECM specialist I have seen companies grow through the acquisition of other companies that offer a solution that compliments, or even enhances, the parent companies offerings. The next logical step is to integrate the applications that make up the suite so that the user is presented with a seamless “solution”.

At the same time CSC seem to be actively investigating offering more than just a suite of technical products. They have realised that they have a lot of skill and knowledge in this area, and are talking about Business Process Outsourcing, and offering their Total Regulatory Solution as a managed service. (This ties in with CSC’s goal to dive into the cloud.)

New Product Offerings

CSC realise that there are still a few “gaps” in their offering. They are busy with  three new products. These are all to do with the submission end of the process. It looks like CSC are really listening to their customers.

Business Process Outsourcing

In this area CSC have three offerings:

  • Staff Augmentation – where CSC staff will work “side by side” with the customer;
  • Tactical Outsourcing – where CSC will handle specific aspects of the regulatory process.
  • Functional Outsourcing of regulatory activity.

As mentioned above, CSC definitely want to make good use of the skills & experience they have built up, and want to expand into offering services rather than just technology.

To back this up, CSC described how they will be tackling staff training (resource development). They have three levels which includes a sort of “orientation/induction” level, “core training” for regulatory activities, and then, “client specific training” which addresses the activities that a client has outsourced to CSC.

Managed Services

CSC have a series of Managed Service Models. These include the traditional models of “on premise” or “hosted” through to “As a service” which includes “Dedicated”, “Private Cloud”, and “Public Cloud”.  A flavor to suit all requirements.

FirstDocs 6.3

Bill Meier spent some time discussing the CSC’s latest version of FirstDoc (version 6.3) which include a large number of enhancements.

A few of the high points include the fact that this version will be certified on Linux.

…continued in Part 3

Next Post: FirstDoc User Group 2011 – a look back at the conference – Part 3

FirstDoc User Group 2011 – a look back at the conference – Part 1

Previous Post: FDUG – Europe – Review of the Agenda

In this post I discuss the recently held 2011 FirstDoc User Group conference. Because there was so much content I am doing this in multiple posts.

Location and Venue

As described in my earlier post, this year’s FDUG was held in Vienna. At the end of each FDUG Conference , the organizers ask the attendees where they would like the next one to be held. Vienna came up on the list two years ago as a favourite, and clearly made its way to the top of the list. Not a bad choice.

The conference was held at the Marriott Hotel. The conference rooms were great, and the catering was superb. The breakfast available at the beginning of each day was an excellent idea!

Attendees

Pharma Customers

There was a lot of people at this years user group. There were 53 attendees, representing 21 of CSC’s 47 Pharma customers.

CSC Team

  • Marty Magazzolo – Global Practice Director, ECCM Life Sciences
  • Paul Attridge – Head of Life Sciences ECCM Product Development
  • Jennifer Wemstrom – Director, Regulatory Solutions
  • Bill Meier – FirstDoc Product Manager
  • Franciska Darmer – Life Sciences Solution Specialist
  • Christopher Langebner – Senior Account Executive
  • Steve Scrace – Senior Account Executive
  • Pablo Santiago – Manager, CSC Spain
  • Rober Svanetti – Life Sciences Manager, CSC Italy
  • Tobia Griessel – Account Executive, CSC Germany

Sessions

In my last FDUG post I talked about the proposed agenda. Fortunately there weren’t many changes.

You can view the agenda here.

KeyNote & Strategy Update

After a warm welcome by Bill Meier,  the Conference kicked off with the KeyNote.

Marty Magazzolo, the Global Practice Director, took to the stage and gave an update on CSC’s strategy, as well as describing a little bit of the original goal of their purchase of FCG. Namely, it was to “be more inline with their customers’ business needs than rather being a pure IT vendor” (Even though in quotes, the previous statement is, most likely not exact, but gets the same message across.)

Business – CSC nows considers itself a “Global Technology and Business Services Company”, and operates in three lines of business:

  • Business Solutions & Services
  • Managed Services Sector
  • North American Public Sector

Software Strategy – With it’s recent acquisition of ISI, CSC now has a range of products that allow it to offer “Total Business Solutions”.

In fact their Mission Statement is:

Provide end to end business solutions for processes involving the creation, review, approval, consumption & exchange of regulated and mission critical documents and content within a Life Sciences organization

To achieve this, CSC have created several “Total” solutions – These include one for Regulatory, one for Clinical, and one for Quality. These played a large role in this year’s conference.

At the same time, CSC admitted that the solutions are still made up of disparate systems. The goals for the future are to streamline them so that they use a common interface, a common database structure, and work together seamlessly.

Business Process Outsourcing – CSC feel that they can offer the expertise necessary to handle customer’s regulatory, and other, requirements. A benefit of this outsourcing model is that “skills are sharpened and rotated” allowing their (CSC’s) staff to gain skills in a wide area, and these resources can then be called upon, when necessary, for specific tasks. The cost savings, CSC claim, are seen when you compare to having specialist skills in-house full-time.

Cloud – Paul Attridge said “Everyone’s got a cloud”, and  CSC are also “clouding up” and are looking at offering both private and public cloud service models.

System Integration – CSC’s message was that they intend to create better integration with other products. The goal is to be able to offer solutions to their customers that match the “real world” situation. Even if the solution requires integrating with other ECM related products (and is achieved through partnerships).

CSC are also trying to keeping an eye on the progress of the SAFE-BioPharma® Digital Identity and Signature Standard, to determine whether they will need to offer suitable integration capabilities.

User Interface – CSC add FirstDoc functionality to EMC’s “fat” client for Documentum – WebTop. EMC have announced WebTop is being phased out after Version 7 of Documentum. CSC are working to ensure that their SharePoint web part technology (SPX) will have the same features as offered by WebTop.  At the same time CSC will be investing in creating an interface using EMC’s  rapid application development technology, xCP.  (In fact, EMC have asked CSC to help ensure that version 2.1 of xCP will provide complete content management capabilities.)

This brought us to the end of the Keynote and Strategy session. Before the coffee break Bill Meier shared with us an interesting article he had read over  the effects of coffee – caffeine increase alertness in woman, but, in men, there is a drop in performance and confidence. (This link describes a little of what Bill was talking about).

I will cover the other sessions in a later post.

Next post: FirstDoc User Group 2011 – a look back at the conference – Part 2

Social Media and Pharma Industry, a Paradoxical Oxymoron?

The following is an article that was originally posted on PharmaIQ.

The author is Cristina Falcão.

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The world’s most highly regulated industry seems doomed to “forward retreat” tiptoeing into social media. Why? The reason lies on social media’s gist – user generated content (UGC) is the raison d’être but also the main drawback, since the lack of rules on the accuracy of online content (written by the users of websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) makes pharma accountable.

Effective guidance, equally issued by the EU and US drug agencies, is urgently needed, before pharma companies can use social media’s valuable contribution in areas such as pharma-vigilance, clinical trials, R&D, and employee- recruitment.

What is the current guidance situation?

Unlike in the US, the European Directive 2001/83 (Community Code) forbids public advertising of “prescription-only medicines”. On the other hand, EU offers little specific guidance on social media (apart from some EFPIA -guidelines on websites, and the PMCPA’s (UK) “Brief guideline on blogs”), and waits for the US approach; however, FDA rules on pharma, internet and social media, which draft was due at the end of 2010, still have not been issued.

Major concerns

Pharma companies are responsible for the contents of a sponsored website (sponsorship can simply be advertising); yet, it is virtually impossible for the industry to control a website’s UGC without undermining the dynamic nature of social media. Adverse events reporting (AER) is a nightmare: the law states pharma companies must report all those events to the respective regulatory agencies, where they are stored in databases to monitor drug safety. It is impossible for the industry to monitor all AER’s, and marketers fear that user-generated content will include complaints about their drugs’ side effects; what makes it even worse, is the fact that FDA’s databases are regularly searched by lawyers for potential class-action suits.

Nevertheless, there are many pharma companies using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media tools; the only way out, is to monitor activity on any social media platform where they are present, using disclaimers, reserving the right to remove unwanted comments and redirecting drug questions to the company’s website.

Clinical trials

Patient-recruiting for clinical trials through social media, grants decreased R&D costs to the industry. However, clinical trials have several types, designs, and sample groups; social media, alone, is not the universal source. It can prove to be a double-edge sword, if patients interact and exchange information before the whole trial is completed; also it does not ensure evaluable data in the end. Patient- recruiting outside the physician’s own pool of patients has high dropout rates; tweeting about a clinical trial may build awareness of the opportunity, but does not guarantee an engaged PI, who will lead the patient through the clinical trial, thus assuring collection of meaningful data.

Although ‘social media’ is the overhyped buzzword of our time, for pharmaceuticals it will be a treacherous route: regulations will undoubtedly limit (further) interaction with the public, but increase accountability – it not being worth the effort or risk.

All we know for sure is that the debate has only started.

 

Click on this image for the original post

 

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Relationships in social media

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Seth Godin was once asked about the value of social networking for business.

In response to this Seth discussed the “value” of having so many “friends” on Facebook, or “followers” on Twitter.

I want to have a solid connection with someone based on something more than just the effort it takes to click on a button.

He goes on to question whether these people would go out of their way to help you. One interesting example he gives is that he knows people in NZ that, if he needed it, would give him a place to stay. He’s never met these people, but a strong relationship has been built up online because they have helped each other at some stage. They have taken the time to do something for the other.

Seth’s comment really resonate with my thoughts on relationships in Social Media. I don’t want to have hundreds of “Friends”, or thousands of “Followers”. I don’t want to be a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker).

I want to have a solid connection with someone based on something more than just the effort it takes to click on a button.

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The Vendor Client relationship – in real world situations

This is a funny video – funny because it is true.

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The Vendor Client relationship – in real world …, posted with vodpod

 

Business Truth!

Hah!!!

Discovered Tom Fishburne’s website the other night. (I now see that he has been drawing since 2002!)

Tom is a cartoonist who draws cartoons that focus on business, and marketing. What first caught my attention was this cartoon:


If you don’t know about Tom Fishburne, you can read about him here.

He did a presentation called “Innovation: Lessons from Cartooning“. Really good to watch (although the camera work is a bit shaky).

If you haven’t seen it already – check out his site: http://www.tomfishburne.com/tomfishburne/.

(I wish I had discovered him earlier! This guy really captures Business!)

  • “Growth Hackers” cartoon | Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist
  • Join me laughing at the mistakes made by marketers and advertisers!
  • “Pinterest Marketing” Cartoon
  • Latest Post by Tom Fishburne

Enterprise 2.0 and Enterprise Collaboration Alignment

E2.0 Enterprise 2.0 communication social network

Originally from “Enterprise Collaboration – What’s Your Problem?”

  • Social Collaboration to Spread Enterprise Wide (prweb.com)
  • Inching Towards Enterprise 2.0 (serve4impact.com)
  • The First Two Steps Toward Breaking Down Silos in Your Organization (blogs.hbr.org)
  • Designing the Collaborative Enterprise (fastforwardblog.com)