Published on the 15/09/2014 | Written by Newsdesk

The experts at UXC Eclipse say there are a number of technologies that are driving the Life Sciences market forward…

Research and businesses in the Life Sciences industry have given us many breakthroughs over the years. With the challenges associated with quality control and regulatory compliance, where failure is non-negotiable, and continual pressure on margin that leaves little scope for innovative business strategies, things are getting more difficult. With these challenges come opportunities for manufacturers to use technology as an enabler of business strategy – as a means, for example, of innovation, or to simplify and improve business processes to better meet industry and regulatory demands.

Technology savvy business leaders and CIOs are already adopting new technologies that directly align and support their more nimble business strategies. In the Life Sciences field the most popular technologies are as follows:

1. Cloud technologies
Medical device manufacturers are leveraging cloud solutions to gain greater business agility, faster deployments, predictable investments and even moving expenditure from CapEx to OpEx. Whether they are communication and collaboration tools or mission critical business systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) or customer relationship management (CRM) applications, every system is being considered for deployment in the cloud. Life Sciences manufacturers are also becoming more decentralised.

However, scaling IT resources to every new location, or delivering IT support services across time zones and cultures creates a services challenge and cost burden. Using cloud solutions to offload application installation, operation and support across locations can help to manage costs, improve services and rid a non-core competency.

2. Lean manufacturing
Since the 1990s, lean manufacturing has sought to eliminate waste and non-value added expenditures from anything in the production process that doesn’t create value. However, only in the last several years have the market leading manufacturing business systems fully enabled this production practice from a technology perspective. This technology enablement is now being adopted by medical device manufacturers in a big way.

For example, manufacturing systems such as Microsoft Dynamics ERP have enhanced their project accounting and cost accounting modules thanks to deep integration with both finance (receivables, payables, ledger) and core manufacturing processes (master planning, shop floor control, WMS, TMS, etc.) to identify waste and thereby preserve value with less work.

3. Supply chain optimisation
According to Gartner, the supply chain management software market grew 7.1 percent to reach $8.3 billion in 2012. While that’s solid growth, the real technology trend here is the continued morphing of manufacturing systems and supply chain management systems into single solutions. In fact, this trend is part of an even bigger trend in which best-of-breed business applications are being replaced by integrated business suite solutions.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to the supply chain to reduce cycle times, lower inventory (and related working capital), accelerate customer fulfillment and decrease distribution costs. ERP business applications are enabling these more strategic goals thanks to their strategic capabilities. These include such things as leveraging customer segmentation for improved demand planning, integrating multiple supply chain strategies (including Responsive, Agile, Lean and Replenishment) for more accurate forecasting, and simulating buying patterns and modeling ‘What-If’ analysis to better align the supply chain with current market conditions.

4. Customer relationship management
Manufacturing companies have a reputation of using CRM systems for the bare minimum.

Essentially they are used as ‘systems of record’ for prospects and customers. However, in medical fields where patients are now more connected with others in the same boat, are more informed and have more options than ever before, companies must rethink their CRM strategy, processes and software.

For example, patients are now more active in determining what medical equipment, surgical instruments and surgical appliances they believe are right for them. They are sharing their findings with other patients and entire online communities in social networks and internet forums. To meet these patients where they congregate, CRM software systems have evolved to include ’social CRM’ tools that leverage social listening and collaboration apps to better identify and engage with patients where they digitally congregate. Early adopters are using these engagement techniques to acquire new customers and deepen their relationships with existing customers. Laggards are sitting on the sidelines, not knowing that customers are talking about them and their products and unaware as to why they are losing customers to competitors.

5. Business intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) solutions have evolved. Historical BI systems have fallen short of delivering (near) real-time information with easy–to-read analytics and actionable insights. But that’s changing. The scope of BI has advanced from simple dashboards on the frontend and sophisticated data warehouses on the backend to also include rapid and self-service BI.

Like all technology trends, this advancement is heavily dependent upon business process and, in this case, knowing what measures most impact business performance. Life Sciences manufacturers that can identify the most salient metrics, and deliver the right information to the right people at the right time, will empower those people to make better business decisions, and the company will improve its business performance.

While each of these technology trends delivers specific benefits, there’s an overarching trend that seeks to leverage their collective advantages in an all-encompassing solution, while at the same time avoiding the decades-old problems of inefficient, disparate and siloed information systems.

This change has led to increased adoption of packaged ERP systems because they are able to deliver the benefits of cloud, lean manufacturing, SCM, CRM and BI without needing to create and maintain complex system integration and software customisation.