By Glenn Johnson, Senior Vice President, Magic Software Enterprises Americas
Innovation and constant research are the hallmarks of the Life Sciences industry (which operates in research and development of new drugs and in biopharmaceutical production). In Brazil, we can call these companies in a simplified way the Life Science Industry.
Companies of all sizes in this sector, from startups to large pharmaceutical companies, known as Big Pharma, must continually invest in collaboration to guarantee product quality, comply with industry regulations and reduce risks at each stage of the product's life cycle. development of a new drug. Data and documentation from various systems, including manufacturing, product life cycle, financial and customer data, must be integrated and streamlined. In addition, this information needs to be shared efficiently with internal and external shareholders, including consumers, suppliers, collaborative organizations and regulatory agencies.
Despite the impressive intentions of business management systems (ERP), most companies in the industry in this sector still use management systems only to manage accounting transactions. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems emerged, then, to fill one of the gaps that these traditional systems have: the need for a system that manages the complete product life cycle from its idea through research and development , prototype, manufacture and interruption. Unfortunately, much of the information managed by the ERP and PLM systems overlap and the systems end up not sharing information easily.
Here are six key requirements for a future-proof integration platform to help meet the demand of companies and organizations in this sector.
1. Scalability in Memory
Regulatory agencies in the Life Sciences industry often require massive amounts of data related to clinical research, manufacturing and the supply chain. The best way to guarantee high performance and a high level of confidence is to use an In Memory Computing architecture (data in the computer's memory), which distributes processing across multiple cores, each with dedicated memory and processing power. With this architecture, if a core fails, the integrated management system automatically switches the processing to a different core, avoiding any data loss. As processing requirements increase, the management system automatically recruits more cores, adding scales as needed.
2. Certification for Cloud and Local Systems
Most companies and organizations operating in the Life Science industry use a variety of cloud systems, which are often obtained under short-term contracts and often switched from one supplier to another. However, at the same time, many companies are dependent on local solutions, built and cultivated over several years, maintaining extensive experience or providing solutions for special niches. This mix and profusion of applications and databases form a highly complex and heterogeneous IT environment. The application of an integration platform must be able to manipulate multiple clouds, as well as local architectures, and also to manage data following users' workflow and business logic. Running the firewall integration platform allows IT to manage and regulate with the peace of mind they need to keep certain systems and data secure.
No integration solution can exist in a vacuum: by definition, its value depends on its ability to connect with a wide range of back-end systems. Since companies in this sector work in cooperation with various partners and suppliers and need to comply with regulatory requirements, a systems integration platform must be able to connect in a predictable way with other databases, structures , applications, and exit points from system networks.
Certified integration connectors are highly recommended, as they ensure that maintenance, support and upgrade contracts with suppliers are honored. Using integration solutions from unapproved suppliers can leave companies in trouble if the supplier rejects or does not approve the systems integrator.
3. Real-time monitoring and recording of permanent data
With so much information traveling through the systems, organizations in this industry need to be able to monitor their business processes in real time. Those employing In Memory Computing architecture integration platforms, with the ability to run multiple processes in parallel and with automatic recovery capabilities, will encounter significantly less problems as they virtually eliminate bottlenecks and errors. However, regulators rarely work in real time. To meet regulations, it means that integration platforms must have complete Operational Databases (SDGs) that can record data and metadata for future review by auditors and regulators. Memory data networks are the ideal capacitor for recording data in real time so that information can be processed as quickly as possible.
4. Business Process Integration via Mobile Device
As the Life Sciences industry becomes more competitive, the ability of mobile applications to view and run business processes in this segment becomes increasingly critical. In addition to allowing immediate responses and systems updates from anywhere, mobile applications allow companies to reinvent and automate processes, reducing costs and making their businesses more efficient.
An integration platform should allow developers to deliver business information to users of mobile devices and allow key business processes to be performed by authenticated users on secure devices. Therefore, the ability of applications to work offline in fully encrypted mode is essential. Policy management for the use of devices with demarcated areas, remote wipe and other control features may also be required in regulated environments. While not all processes can be mobilized, those that are must be highly secure and tightly integrated based on SOA principles.
5. Secure Integration Processes
Maintaining privacy, confidentiality and security are absolute in the Life Sciences industry. Threats to business processes can come from competitors, foreign governments, current or former disillusioned employees, and hackers. The agents of these threats are generally trained, well-funded and persistent. Integration platforms must comply with the industry's best practice approach to data security and integrity. Native security features and support for industry standards in the area of authentication and user rights, support for the Transport Layer Security Protocol (TLS), and encryption capabilities are among the essential requirements. Running the firewall-protected integration platform is highly recommended, even when many of the systems may be integrated in the cloud.
6. Unique set of features
Manual, non-automated development of integration systems makes maintenance, restart, or error correction difficult. In every company, this is already a problem, but in the Life Science industry this has serious consequences. Well-designed integration platforms can avoid the need for manual programming as a whole. Either way, avoid integration approaches that require programming or scripting in multiple languages for different mobile platforms, devices and operating systems.
A user-friendly and code-free integration platform, with a visual orchestration process and with connectors ready for the most well-known IT systems, allows you to connect multiple systems using the same set of capabilities and functionality. This facilitates and speeds up the completion of major integration projects. This not only reduces the high costs of skilled professionals and labor, it also increases the ROI of your platform. Regardless of where your company fits into the Life Science spectrum - or even in other sectors - you may find that you will be better served with a right-sized integration platform and the modern capabilities described above. The faster and more efficiently you can connect information through systems, the more easily you will be able to share information with your employees, partners and shareholders, overcome the challenges of regulatory policies in your compliance segment and increase competitiveness.
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