Information to Pharmaceutical Business Management

There are several basic prerequisites of an effective information strategy within a pharmaceutical organization  

This chapter deals principally with the systems to support the first four prerequisites and will concentrate on IT aspects and the aucial foundation of computer support in the organization. 

A distinction should immediately be made between information technology and information systems. The IT infrastrurture comprises the cables, hubs, switches and servers on which the systems run. It is also necessary to add to this the basic set of desktop tools, e.g., Miaosoft Office Professional . There can be cases where the business application drives major step changes in infrastructure direction. These instances, almost by definition, will be very large, strategic, high risk and infrequent opportunities. 

Whilst the basic hardware and desktop software strategy is a given in most major organizations, this is not invariably the case unless conscious effort has been made. Without such a strategy, simple tools like E-mail may not work and certainly will fail to meet their potential. 

IS refers to the software packages and databases that provide the functionality to implement the business processes. These include such packages as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) and Maintenance Management Systems. 

---