In.vision Research and netNumina Collaboration Brings Advanced XML Word Processing to Biopharmaceutical Industry
In.vision Research Corporation, the market leader for XML authoring in the Microsoft Office System, and netNumina, a strategic technology consulting firm, has announced the launch of a cooperative effort to bring the benefits of XML authoring and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to the biopharmaceutical industry.
“The role of Information Technology within the biopharmaceutical industry is changing from ‘neutral at best’ to the ‘primary enabler’,” said Pieter Muntendam, MD, Director of Biopharma and Healthcare at netNumina. “IT holds the key to industrialization of pharmaceutical R&D, and we are seeking technologies that have dramatically improved business processes in other industries and applying them to the biopharma space.”
“The theoretical benefits of XML-based authoring are widely known. The key question was ‘how can we use this knowledge to our clients’ benefit?’ Following the Defense Intelligence Agency’s selection of In.vision as the enterprise standard for XML authoring, we approached In.Vision to jointly bring this proven technology to our biopharma clients. It is very exciting to see how Xpress Author, with its easy MS Word interface, meets both the needs of the business and the user,” added Muntendam.”
“Every industry vertical has its own specific requirements and vocabulary. However, at the same time there are marked similarities in needs and business processes,” said David Dalton, Business Development Manager for In.vision. “Our model is for partners with strong domain expertise to localize the tremendous benefits of XML content to a specific industry. We are very pleased to have a partner of netNumina’s caliber focus on the biopharmaceutical market. Our combined efforts will dramatically reduce the entry barriers for companies that need to implement process and information improvements through XML and need to build the architecture to support this.”
Xpress Author for Microsoft Word allows biopharmaceutical professionals to author documents in the familiar Word environment without concern for the technical complexity of XML. In most cases the actual authoring is made easier than before by automatically pulling in required text objects as standard text. While this improves authoring and reuse of information, the true value may lie in the use of the structured XML information automatically extracted from these documents for use in portals, workflow and performance measurements – initiatives that enable an efficient information-driven enterprise.
The following customized implementations of Xpress Author for Microsoft Word are targeted for the biopharmaceutical industry:
— Clinical program and clinical trial protocols. Clinical protocols specify how a clinical trial is to be performed. Much of the protocol information related to study population, investigational compounds, and parameters studied are best expressed as semi-structured data elements. Xpress Author facilitates authoring and review, while the XML-based protocol information is immediately available for representations in summary tables, dependent documents such as clinical reports and regulatory submissions.
— Pharmaceutical Product Labeling. Maintaining accuracy and global consistency of pharmaceutical product information creates a material burden for the biopharmaceutical organization. Xpress Author allows labeling components to be managed as individual objects that are tagged at the concept level–while still providing a natural authoring experience for the user. This functionality allows companies to easily monitor labeling consistency across languages for important items such as product warnings.
— Biopharmaceutical Research Documentation. Research findings and interpretations are commonly shared in Microsoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations. With Xpress Author this information forms building blocks for a constantly growing enterprise knowledge base.
— Manufacturing and Process Documentation. Pharmaceutical process and manufacturing documents represent the combination of critical structured and unstructured information, commonly managed by multiple owners, with each responsible for steps in the process. Xpress offers a powerful alternative to create and manage such documents in a way that markedly reduces the risk of human error and inconsistencies, and ultimately the manufacturer’s risk and regulatory exposure.
About In.vision
Founded in 1996, In.vision is the leading provider of software for XML authoring of large-scale knowledge assets in the Microsoft Office System. Targeted for mission critical and highly secure applications, the company’s software is in use at an important array of government and commercial customers, including BankOne, UPS, United Technologies, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, the UK Ministry of Defense, and the Irish Prime Minister’s Office. For more information, visit www.invisionresearch.com .
About netNumina Solutions
netNumina, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. with an office in New York City, is a privately-owned strategic technology consulting firm dedicated to providing Global 2000 companies with customized, large-scale business solutions. Since its inception in 1997 netNumina has integrated hundreds of complex solutions. netNumina’s combination of deep domain knowledge and unparalleled technology expertise has helped clients such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Aventis, GSK, Fleet and Fidelity benefit from the best new technologies available. For more information, visit www.netnumina.com .
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