Social Computing for the Life Sciences

Common Challenges in Life Sciences

The Pharma/Biotech industry is entering a new era. Patents on many high-revenue drugs are expiring, and demand for innovation is increasing. Costs and risks associated with the development of new drugs are on the rise, the pipeline for new drugs is uncertain, and generics, government policies and low-cost medicines are forcing the industry to discount branded medications or risk losing market share.

• Increased Need for Innovation

  As patents on high-revenue drugs are expiring and new competitors enter the market, the demand for Pharma/Biotech companies to innovate is increasing.

• Client Choices Are Expanding

  With the increased availability of generics and low-cost medicines, the development of new, differentiated drugs and revenue streams is crucial.

• Recruiting, Retaining, Retiring

  During a time of acquisitions, consolidations, and high turnover, finding and keeping quality hires and capturing retiring employees’ expertise are critical for success.

• Widely Distributed Workforces

  Difficult to facilitate communication and collaboration among employees that span different geographic locations and time zones.

• Information Overload and Lack of Collaboration Tools

  Employees spend too much time looking for information they need to do their jobs.

• Changing Regulations

  In a time of changing government policies and increased regulatory demands it is critical to keep up-to-date with the latest regulations and policies.

The Benefits of Social Computing

NewsGator’s Enterprise RSS and Social Networking solutions help you overcome business challenges by providing an integrated, behind-the-firewall, social computing platform that supports collaboration, facilitates communication, and improves worker knowledge. These solutions have helped our Pharma/Biotech customer to realize the following business benefits:

• Better innovation
• Increased worker knowledge
• Improved productivity
• Higher revenues
• Lower IT investment and support costs
• Better customer service/satisfaction
• Enhanced recruiting and retention
• Improved communication

Sample Social Computing Use Cases for Life Sciences Companies

A wide range of solutions are possible with NewsGator’s social networking products. A few examples of the use cases we have implemented for the Pharma/Biotech industry include:

• Community Builder

  Using Social Sites Communities, employees can form online groups around a research topic, drug development, or common interest in order to share information and documents, engage in rich discussions, and discover subject matter experts – resulting in improved collaboration and increased drug innovation.

• Drug Trial Extranet

  With Social Sites Communities, employees can communicate and collaborate with drug trial participants real time, leading to better knowledge about drug effectiveness, side effects, and dosage levels.

• Expert Locator

  With Social Sites profile pages and tacit behavior data collection, employees can easily locate colleagues that may be working on similar research or drug developments.

• Industry Tracker

  With Social Sites' Enterprise RSS capabilities, management can subscribe employees to relevant news and developments about specific drugs, drug classes, competitors, trials, partners, and regulatory details. This aggregated and timely information can be delivered to any device/location the employee selects, including SharePoint, mobile, web, and desktop.