Companies in the pharmaceutical industry have specific needs when it comes to content management.
The success of a pharmaceutical/biopharma organization relies on a long-term focus to the research, development and clinical cycle that it takes to develop a novel drug, device or supporting methodology. Whether an organization plays a role in a specific part of the R&D process or is a conglomerate that supports the entire lifecycle, a smart approach to content management could significantly reduce its costs.
One of the challenges for the pharmaceutical industry is managing content with different levels of regulation. On the most basic level, a pharmaceutical company has the same types of administrative content you’d find at any organization. But you also have content that may differ dramatically from what an accounting firm would need, in terms of policies and procedures for building codes, environmental impact, safety and security.
While this content is covered by government regulations, it’s technically not “regulated content” that contains sensitive information and personal data. That means this level of documentation could be stored in almost any system at any time. Regulated content is a different story, and the technology to support it is more stringent and costly, as it must provide additional levels of access control and auditing capabilities that track any type of user access or editing.
As a result, pharmaceutical companies often use mixed environments with different tools for different content management needs. For example, companies might use Microsoft products like SharePoint and Office 365 for team sites, email, enterprise social and other non-regulated content. For regulated content, they might use tools like Documentum or OpenText that are hosted and managed separately to provide higher levels of security and auditing functions.
While SharePoint is usually used for supporting documentation that’s not regulated, it could be used for both roles, typically in conjunction with a third-party product that allows SharePoint to meet all of the regulations.
The reason these distinctions are important from a cost perspective is the sheer volume of content managed by pharmaceutical companies. The typical development cycle for a drug is at least seven years long from initial concept to clinical testing, and the process creates vast amounts of data, lists and supporting documentation. Due to the high volume, the cost would be astronomical for a company to manage all of its information in a regulated environment.
It makes economic sense to host as much data as possible in lower-cost environments such, as multiple SharePoint farms, OneDrive for Business or Office 365. For instance, medical companies use protocols to describe the steps you perform to achieve a certain result, whether it’s to clean a lab instrument or combine two molecules, and these may or may not be regulated.
Administrative content such as a corporate intranet could be easily and affordably managed in Office 365. In fact, many pharmaceutical companies have already invested in this platform because its cloud-based Exchange servers help them to lower their email infrastructure costs. In other words, they already have thetools, but may not have determined the best ways to use them.
The most effective content management technologies and processes to adopt vary, depending on the nature of the pharmaceutical company. People working in a marketing organization or sales organization are going to need different technology than laboratory technicians, for example. But whether you’re developing drugs or playing a supporting role in the industry, taking a smart, strategic approach to content management is a great opportunity for reducing costs.
To learn more about lower-cost content management through SharePoint and Office 365, contact Portal Solutions.
