An Obvious Advantage Pharmaceutical Brand Managers certainly understand the value of knowledge management, for they are constantly barraged with information from many diverse sources, all of it mission-critical. Like the pieces of a puzzle, clinical trials, opinion leaders, medical science, vendors, publications, medical meetings and customer relationships must all work in concert in order for a brand to succeed. An Enormous Burden The pharmaceutical market is one of the most costly, competitive and risky business environments that can be found. The costs of discovery, research, clinical trials, approval and manufacturing often reach into the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars. These up-front costs place an enormous burden on companies to efficiently and effectively promote the relatively few drugs that actually make it to market. This overwhelming responsibility necessitates the optimal use of every salient fact, resource and relationship that affect one's brand. The “burden” lies in using the suboptimal methods that are common today to coordinate these assets: Discrete, personal spreadsheets kept by managers in each department Phone-based relationships with important advocates and opinion leaders Personal calendars Impromptu discussions and infrequent interdepartmental meetings The list is familiar and so, too, is the frustration felt by those responsible for a brand's success. Many have already taken the first step in lifting this burden by aggregating information into tactical databases, but even these Brand Managers will admit that data doesn't equal knowledge (let alone strategic insight). Beyond Databases and Into Groupware Among Brand Managers, many early adopters embraced first-generation knowledge management tools: groupware, intranets and extranets. Few of the solutions, however, were well-suited to the healthcare environment. Off-the-shelf programs lacked the flexibility to integrate with legacy systems and the scalability to fit the full range of pharmacetical applications. Custom-built programs were cost-prohibitive to both pharmaceutical companies and the IT vendors who could build the code, but not re-use it. Next-Generation Knowledge Management In this environment of outdated practices and insufficient tools, optimal knowledge management is almost non-existent. Room, therefore, exists at the top for opportunistic, forward-thinking Brand Managers who adopt a next-generation knowledge management system developed specifically to work in the healthcare environment. There are only a few of these next-generation applications available today (Publicis eHealth Solutions' KMAP™ is one). Setting a new standard, this application is scalable; it can expand from a single department to an entire enterprise and from small companies to large. It is built to be completely customizable and it can readily integrate into existing IT environments (it is even HIPAA compliant), and because it is designed specifically to provide on-the-fly managerial oversight and communication within the healthcare space, it can be more intuitive and easy to use than its predecessors. Here's a video example. It is of critical importance to the success of any pharmaceutical brand to remember that knowledge management is already taking place within their organization. Whether it is effective (at least) or optimal (at best) will determine, in part, the profitability of their efforts. — Contact us to learn more about knowledge management

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