Microsoft Knowledge Driven Life Sciences: Turning information into product innovation
Pharmaceutical companies enjoy a wealth of highly skilled information workers. But these workers are burdened by information infrastructures built on a complex mix of proprietary systems assembled over many years.
These infrastructures have served as the foundation for outstanding innovations during recent decades. But they now hamper the flow of information between people and organizations. Moreover, they increase the cost of new product development and limit the potential for innovation.
To respond to the industry's challenges, Microsoft created the Knowledge Driven Life Sciences vision and solutions framework. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences helps bridge the gap between people and applications. It enables pharmaceutical professionals to collaborate seamlessly, no matter where they are located. It also gives them quick access to information, no matter where it is stored.
Designed to enable the next generation of life sciences solutions, Knowledge Driven Life Sciences helps pharmaceutical companies to streamline operations and improve decision making across four business functions:
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Benefits of Microsoft Knowledge Driven Life Sciences
Knowledge Driven Life Sciences delivers tangible benefits across the entire pharmaceutical organization, including the following:
| • | Reduced complexity. Microsoft technologies enable solutions that are easy to learn, integrate, deploy, and manage. |
| • | Improved productivity. Solutions based on Knowledge Driven Life Sciences help information workers collaborate easily and make informed decisions quickly. |
| • | Integrated innovation. Based on industry standards, Microsoft technologies connect people and systems and provide a robust platform for adopting future innovations. |
| • | Increased value. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences ensures a high return on technology investment through price advantages of the Microsoft Windows platform. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences also enables companies to use commodity hardware and a complete set of rapid application development tools. |
The Microsoft technology foundation for Knowledge Driven Life Sciences
Knowledge Driven Life Sciences uses the Microsoft .NET Framework and industry standards–based software. These technologies help companies focus on solving business issues instead of dealing with integration and implementation challenges.
The .NET Framework also provides a standards-based foundation for interoperability between Microsoft solutions and legacy systems. This helps ensure that pharmaceutical companies can extend the value of their current technology investments.
Microsoft Knowledge Driven Life Sciences technologies and components
| • | Microsoft .NET. A framework for connecting people, information, systems, and devices through Web services, .NET enables pharmaceutical companies to exchange data anytime, anywhere, using any device. |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server. Windows Server delivers the reliability, availability, and scalability that pharmaceutical companies need to reduce costs and increase productivity. |
| • | Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server. SharePoint Portal Server makes it easy to create portals that integrate data from various systems. This enables pharmaceutical professionals to share information quickly. |
| • | Microsoft Biztalk Server. An integration tool for companies that want to extend the life of their legacy systems, BizTalk Server 2004 enables end-to-end integration and workflow along the pharmaceutical value chain. |
| • | Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server delivers a full range of capabilities for storing, accessing, and analyzing large volumes of data while offering the lowest implementation and maintenance costs in the industry. |
| • | Microsoft Office System. The Office System is a tightly integrated system of applications that delivers improved productivity, easier access to critical information, and enhanced collaboration. |
Solutions based on Knowledge Driven Life Sciences
Knowledge Driven Life Sciences takes advantage of Web services and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. In other words, Knowledge Driven Life Sciences offers a blueprint for Microsoft partners to develop solutions that help life sciences organizations solve business problems.
Solutions based on Knowledge Driven Life Sciences offer benefits in these areas:
| • | Productivity and Collaboration. With clinical data stored in a range of disparate systems, access to critical information can be difficult. Integrated Microsoft technologies and applications, such as SharePoint, Office System, and Microsoft Office InfoPath, can bridge these gaps. These products help researchers streamline processes, enhance productivity, and ease collaboration. |
| • | Integration. Microsoft technologies such as BizTalk Server 2004 and the .NET Framework help reduce the complexity that impedes systems integration. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences enables pharmaceutical companies to share data at any time and on any device. |
| • | Business Intelligence. The Knowledge Driven Life Sciences framework provides pharmaceutical companies with tools to help speed drug discovery, improve clinical trial efficiency, and streamline manufacturing. Built on Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence, Knowledge Driven Life Sciences links systems and data across departments and organizational boundaries. |
| • | Mobility. The ability to access and transmit business data and product information from anywhere is critical. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences enables companies to make the most of solutions that provide real-time access to information from mobile devices. Windows-based Tablet PCs, Smartphones, and Pocket PCs give sales teams new tools for delivering targeted, up-to-date marketing information to physicians. |
| • | Security. Ensuring the confidentiality of clinical information and medical records is critical. Knowledge Driven Life Sciences was designed with the latest generation of security technology. It helps protect computing environments through perimeter and host defense systems. It also simplifies deployment of the latest security updates. |
Implementing Knowledge Driven Life Sciences: An incremental approach
Pharmaceutical companies must strike a balance between the need to take advantage of innovation and the need to minimize the risks introduced by new technologies.
There is good news for pharmaceutical companies that want to achieve greater efficiencies at a reduced cost: The current technology pharmaceutical companies use provides the foundation for the next step. And today, the standards for these new capabilities—including Health Level 7 (HL7) and the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)—are in place.
Knowledge Driven Life Sciences lets pharmaceutical companies build on current systems and use existing and emerging industry standards to pursue an incremental approach to technology. This approach ensures that each solution delivers benefits that are carefully matched to strategic needs.
Knowledge Driven Life Sciences solutions enable incremental adoption in three ways:
| • | Built on the Microsoft platform, Knowledge Driven Life Sciences solutions employ a modular approach that enables pharmaceutical companies to adopt only features that meet specific needs. |
| • | Designed for the highest levels of flexibility, the Microsoft platform ensures that solutions built on the Knowledge Driven Life Sciences framework share a commonly managed infrastructure. |
| • | Built on industry standards, the Knowledge Driven Life Sciences framework ensures that new solutions can integrate with existing technology and provides a framework for adopting future innovations. |
Additional information
For more information about Knowledge Driven Life Sciences and related Microsoft products, technologies, and partners, please contact:
