Creating A Content Journey for Your Pharmaceutical Company

Each organizations strategic content management journey will be different; however as it is possible to plot a number of typical journeys for companies in the pharmaceutical industry. Let me illustrate a journey which begins with regulatory submissions and controlled content. This journey begins with the adoption of an electronic document management system to address 21 CFR Part 11 requirements for the electronic signature and electronic management of records. As the adoption of the document management system increases from strictly controlled document processes to non-controlled content, organizations begin to use their ECM platform for improved business processes through workflow, increasing content collaboration and information sharing through-out the organization.

With the increased use of electronic documents versus paper documents, there becomes an increased risk associated with the management of corporate records. What may have been a departmental strategy for records management of controlled content must now become an enterprise program for the appropriate retention, storage and disposition of records. As the records management strategy of any organization evolves additional forms of media are encompassed within that strategy, these include; content from other document management systems, documents and data from structured data sources such as ERP and CRM systems, email and other electronic communication content, web and social networking content, and digital assets and marketing media.

An enterprise approach to content reflects the evolution of content management from simply tracking and controlling information to leveraging it for business advantage – setting it in action to drive business processes, create content-centric business applications, bridge structured and unstructured content repositories, and unleash information workers to make better, faster decisions based on a holistic, centralized view of business content.

The enterprise content management suite assists organizations in establishing an enterprise strategy for content centric applications. Industry specific applications for life sciences must be part of the suite and should include regulatory content and submissions, quality management, and clinical trials. Other business related applications supported by the suite could include; contract management, litigation support, email management, records management, Web content management, and ERP / CRM archiving. Organizations in the life sciences industry deal with millions of documents, and hundreds of millions of pages of information; ECM gives these organizations the ability to gather, process, and manage these documents more effectively.