All posts by Richard

Customer Relationship Management, Valeritas

Valeritas Replaces Client/Server CRM with Veeva CRM in the Cloud

With its innovative and simple-to-use insulin delivery device, the V-Go, Valeritas knows the importance of easy-to-use delivery mechanisms. Its CRM system is no exception. The medical technology company desperately wanted to replace its convoluted, problematic client/server CRM system with something more straightforward to deliver valuable physician information to its commercial teams and vice versa more efficiently. Valeritas turned to cloud-based Veeva CRM and Veeva iRep for the iPad, the same system used by its valued contract sales partner, inVentiv.

“Compared with other vendors, Veeva CRM seems to be the most logical – meaning it’s easy for users to figure out and fairly obvious how to do something new or different,” said Hokan Ojert, vice president of sales for Valeritas. “Even the analytics aspect of Veeva CRM is painless – what used to take multiple steps in and out of different applications with our previous system is now aggregated neatly within Veeva and accessible in a click or two. This streamlined technology approach allows us to focus on what we are supposed to be doing…supporting our physicians.”

In addition to Veeva CRM’s ease of use, Valeritas selected Veeva CRM for its well-documented flexibility and popular iRep application, the only cloud-based system to combine CRM and closed loop marketing on the Apple iPad. Veeva iRep has quickly become the industry’s choice for comprehensive CRM on the iPad with the largest installed base worldwide, according to recent numbers.

“The ability to seamlessly and quickly move back and forth between a customer profile in Veeva and a presentation on the iPad to answer a physician question during a call was very attractive for us,” added Ojert. “Like most sales teams these days, our time in front of the customer is extremely limited so we often need to access a presentation or other information to make a point quickly, without losing the physician’s attention. And, then to be able to record that interaction instantly to enhance future marketing efforts is very valuable. Veeva is the only company that offers this level of forward-thinking technology on the iPad.”

Built on an inherently flexible, multitenant cloud-based platform, Veeva CRM enables life sciences companies of all sizes to make changes with simple point-and-click configuration while also providing ongoing updates, transparently, that customers can “turn on” or off as needed. It also empowers customers with anytime, anywhere access via the customer’s choice of device. The complete suite delivers rich functionality that supports the unique needs of multiple commercial teams in a single solution and empowers management with advanced reporting capabilities – ideal for Valeritas, which relies heavily on its analytics.

“Also, I am very excited about the fact that we will no longer have to wait for ‘end-of-the-day’ or week syncing. We will have more accurate analytics from the field much faster. In the past, we might wait as long as a week for the data and only receive spotty call records. Veeva CRM with iRep is instant,” concluded Ojert


Business Processes, Document Management, Doxo, Government

12 State and County Governments Join doxo

Image representing Doxo as depicted in CrunchBase

doxo, the all-in-one digital file cabinet and payment provider, today announced that a dozen state and local government agencies have joined doxo. doxo enables these government agencies to send bills, tax statements and other notices directly into the doxo filing cabinets of their residential and commercial customers. In turn, their customers can now go paperfree, receive documents and bills, and set-up one time and recurring payments, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – using doxoPAY and doxo Mobile.

When governments connect with residential and commercial customers on doxo, they eliminate the costs associated with printing and postage, shorten payment collection cycles for treasuries, and provide their customers with a convenient free tool to receive statements, pay bills, and store important documents.

“Like many government entities, we have been evaluating opportunities to improve service and cut costs by leveraging cloud-based technologies. In just the first 60 days since we launched on doxo, more than a thousand of our residents have already connected with us to go paperfree, receive their tax statements directly to their doxo file cabinet, and make their tax payments,” said Doug Lasher, Treasurer, Clark County Washington. “Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Making sure property taxes are paid on time is a breeze with doxo and free for the taxpayer. doxo is the wave of the future.”

In addition to the State of Washington, the county agencies now on doxo include Benton County, Chelan County, Clallam County, Clark County, Franklin County, Island County, Lincoln County, Pend Oreille County, Stevens County, Thurston County and Walla Walla County. Collectively, these government entities serve millions of residents and deliver tens of millions of documents per year.

In addition to receiving documents, bills, and tax statements from their participating government entity, customers can use doxo as a free online file cabinet to store documents and manage critical account information. Each time a customer connects to a service provider, paper mail is turned off completely, and documents are thereafter delivered directly to their digital file cabinet. Documents can be filed, printed, or downloaded at any time, and are securely stored without time limits.

“doxo makes it easy for state and county governments to reduce the expense of paper mail, eliminate environmental waste, and speed collection of payments,” said Steve Shivers, co-founder and CEO of doxo. “With very little IT hassle, government agencies and other providers can join doxo, and start improving service for residents and cutting costs in a matter of weeks. It’s extremely gratifying to already see both the magnitude of savings and the positive response from both residents and organizations alike.”

doxo empowers businesses and government organizations of all sizes to lower operating expenses and dramatically increase paperless adoption. As a cloud-based service doxo requires no software, installed infrastructure, or IT services for providers to join the network. More information for governments and other organizations looking to connect with their customers on doxo is available at www.doxoconnect.com.


eLearning, Human Resources, Learning Management System, Lumesse, Talent management

Lumesse Adds New Usability, Integration Features to Lumesse Learning Gateway

Lumesse today announced the latest version of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) learning management system, Lumesse Learning Gateway 5.7, with a wide range of new capabilities that include enhanced reporting, additional languages, improved navigation and full integration with Lumesse ETWeb talent management.

The integration (announced earlier this month) with Lumesse ETWeb, delivered using the new Lumesse ETWeb Exchange service-oriented architecture, offers users fast and easy access to learning from a wide range of e-learning vendors anywhere in the world. Personalized, relevant learning content can be selected and delivered directly from the cloud within the familiar, web-based user experience of Lumesse ETWeb.

“Lumesse Learning Gateway takes the pain out of managing learning,” said Lumesse CEO Matthew Parker. “This release helps both learners and learning managers to find and manage the training they need. Learners can identify and start training that is directly relevant to their career goals and their company objectives through a familiar talent management environment. Training managers can control the process, workflow and reporting of learning with less effort and greater oversight. Organizations get better trained, more motivated people with lower costs and less administrative overhead.”

Lumesse Learning Gateway is a powerful and affordable cloud-based learning management system that delivers and manages sophisticated blended learning programmes that can include mobile and social learning, tests and assessments, personalized e-learning, and instructor-led training. Lumesse Learning Gateway is delivered as a SaaS solution configurable to exact needs to encourage high completion rates, and scalable for any number of learners and any amount of learning.

Among the improvements in Lumesse Learning Gateway 5.7 are:

A new scalable reporting framework generates attractive reports –
from a standard, categorized library — that are easy to understand
and use.
Added language support for learners: Chinese and Japanese for a total
of 22 supported learner languages; and French and Italian for a total
of seven supported administrator languages.
A redesigned administrative portal offers simpler, more intuitive
navigation of the powerful learning management capabilities in Lumesse
Learning Gateway.

In addition, tight integration with Lumesse ETWeb talent management allows a learner-centric, consumerized user experience with single sign-on and a common look-and-feel that increases user adoption by making access and navigation simple and intuitive for all users. Users can quickly find best-match learning activities that support career development and objectives, start e-learning from within the talent management system, and easily identify recommended and mandatory training – supporting increased completion ratios. Direct access to development history and development plans from a Talent Profile give a clear overview of training taken and required, while integrated reporting measures and analyzes progress and completion against planned and mandatory learning, as well as cost breakdowns. Configurable workflows allow managers easy approval of learning activities.

Lumesse Learning Gateway 5.7 is available immediately.


IT Management, SUMMUS

SUMMUS Software Launches New Release of Cloud-based IT Management Solution

SUMMUS Software, a provider of cost-effective, comprehensive, cloud-based IT operations management solutions, today announced the latest release of Summus IT Management Suite powered by Summit Platform 4.0, an integrated suite of applications for IT service management, IT asset management, and availability management. This latest release delivers the IT contextual dashboard, together with robust enhancements to incident, service level agreement (SLA), change, configuration management database (CMDB), knowledge, event, release, availability and project management.

SUMMUS Software’s new release of Summus IT Management Suite and Summit Platform are designed to support the growing and maturing IT service management, IT asset management and IT availability management requirements of small and midsized businesses (SMB) and managed service providers (MSP). By supporting IT organization’s on-going efforts to optimize their costs, resources and processes, this release ensures customers can better maximize IT management efficiencies.

“Summus IT Management Suite is helping IT organizations to achieve greater cost and operational efficiencies using the power of Summit Platform,” said Wai Wong, president and CEO of SUMMUS Software. “This latest release represents the industry’s most comprehensive cloud-based IT management solution with built-in IT intelligence. SUMMUS is helping customers to better optimize their IT operations, and establish a more productive relationship between IT and business.”

The new release of Summus IT Management Suite is powered by the latest version of SUMMUS Software’s unified and integrated IT operations management platform, Summit Platform 4.0. Based on extensive work with customers, key IT industry experts and standards organizations, this release delivers features representing key IT management technology advances in the areas of Incident Management, SLA Management, Knowledge Management, Change Management, CMDB, Availability Management, Event Management, Release Management and Project Management.

Key features of the new release of Summus IT Management Suite include:

Summus Service Management

Incident Management: Fine-grained per-incident cost management, and
simplified end-user request management via templates
SLA Management: Fine-grained control and monitoring of customer SLAs,
vendor SLAs and operations level agreements (OLA)
Knowledge Management: Enhanced knowledge relevance and effectiveness
management
Change Management: Enhanced reliability and availability with powerful
change control and configuration
CMDB: Increased high availability with version control management,
faster and easier implementation and simplified integration with other
IT management systems via open Web Services APIs
Release Management: Comprehensive management of release costs,
versions, builds, and workflows

Summus Availability Management

Server & Network Monitoring: Flexible and fine-grained monitoring,
reporting and alerts based on multiple thresholds, and utilization
trends
Event Management: Automatic, event correlation management

IT Intelligence

IT Contextual Dashboard: Holistic side-by-side, contextually
comparative view of the entire IT operations environment


appRenaissance, DreamIt Ventures, M&A Activity, Mobile, Mobile application development, User interface, UXFLIP

appRenaissance Acquires Mobile UX/UI Innovator UXFLIP

appRenaissance, a provider of mobile applications, tools and infrastructure, announced today that it has acquired UXFLIP, an innovator in dynamic mobile interface capabilities. UXFLIP’s patent-pending dynamic UX/UI creation, deployment and management capabilities will be merged with the company’s mobile middleware platform, Unifeed™.

“We’re very excited to announce this acquisition today and to have founder Michael Raber join the appRenaissance team,” said Bob Moul, appRenaissance CEO. “The capabilities of UXFLIP are highly complementary to our middleware platform and Michael will be an awesome addition to the team.”

UXFLIP was a participant in the Fall 2011 accelerator program at DreamIt Ventures and recently won “best in show” at the Phorum tech conference in Philadelphia. UXFLIP allows users to dynamically build, deploy and manage the user interface and experience of mobile applications as a cloud-delivered service. A beta version of the offering will be available this summer.

“I am excited to be joining the team at appRenaissance and to help lead the development of next generation revolutionary mobile tools and infrastructure,” said Raber. “Bob was our advisor at DreamIt and immediately saw the value of what we were building. appRenaissance provides the perfect platform to continue to build out the vision we had when we launched UXFLIP.”


Cancer Genome Atlas, Clinical trial, Medical, NextBio, Translational medicine

NextBio Clinical Extends Life Sciences Platform From the Bench to Translational Medicine

Image representing nextbio as depicted in Crun...

NextBio today unveiled NextBio Clinical, an extension of the company’s existing life sciences platform to translational medicine applications such as biomarker discovery and clinical trial optimization. Adding curated genomic, molecular and clinical profiles from thousands of individual patients to the platform’s existing repository of data from animal and cell line models, NextBio Clinical enables the earlier application of clinical information to enhance research and development.

“Since 2004, NextBio has been addressing the research needs of scientists at academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotech companies with our cross-technology platform for integrative data analysis,” says Saeid Akhtari, NextBio President and Chief Executive Officer. “Now, with NextBio Clinical, we directly address the challenges of taking genomics into clinical research for the development of therapeutics and companion diagnostics. By providing patient-centric data and analysis, we facilitate biomarker-driven research that can accelerate the process of translational drug discovery.”

Mr. Akhtari concluded, “With the growing availability and decreasing cost of obtaining individual patient data moving genomics into clinical applications, NextBio Clinical is a natural extension for both our platform and our clients who have been using NextBio in their research for many years.”

NextBio Clinical aggregates and correlates terabyte-scale collections of private and public cross-platform ‘omics’ data, experimental data from cell lines and other sources, and clinical data from individual patients and population studies. Controlled vocabularies and the platform’s semantic framework eliminate confounding gene, disease and compound annotations, facilitating applications of this content at all stages of research, from early stage experimentation to repositioning approved drugs.

“With efforts such as The Cancer Genome Atlas, the International Cancer Genome Consortium and others, the growth of patient-level data in the public domain has been enormous. Simultaneously, efforts like the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia are transforming our understanding of pharmacogenomics with cell line models. We are excited about the potential of integrating these diverse data within the framework of NextBio Clinical,” said Ilya Kupershmidt, co-founder and Vice President of Products at NextBio.

Organizations can use the NextBio Clinical platform to accelerate drug discovery by applying human biology earlier in the discovery process, to discover and develop predictive biomarkers, and to optimize clinical trial design and patient selection to reduce development timelines and increase the chance of successful approval for new therapies.

Mr. Kupershmidt added, “By enabling our users to bring patient genomic data into the clinical development process at an early stage, we hope to help improve the pace and success rate at which biomarker-based therapeutics are approved for clinical use.”

Ilya Kupershmidt, Co-founder and VP of Products at NextBio, will describe NextBio Clinical in his talk at Bio-IT World 2012, titled “Patient-centered solutions for translational medicine” on Wednesday April 25, 2012 from 3:00-3:15 p.m. The meeting is being held in Boston, MA at the World Trade Center from April 24-26.

NextBio representatives are also available for additional information or product demos at Booth 326 in the exhibit hall.


Cancer Genome Atlas, Clinical trial, Medical, NextBio, Translational medicine

NextBio Clinical Extends Life Sciences Platform From the Bench to Translational Medicine

Image representing nextbio as depicted in Crun...

NextBio today unveiled NextBio Clinical, an extension of the company’s existing life sciences platform to translational medicine applications such as biomarker discovery and clinical trial optimization. Adding curated genomic, molecular and clinical profiles from thousands of individual patients to the platform’s existing repository of data from animal and cell line models, NextBio Clinical enables the earlier application of clinical information to enhance research and development.

“Since 2004, NextBio has been addressing the research needs of scientists at academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotech companies with our cross-technology platform for integrative data analysis,” says Saeid Akhtari, NextBio President and Chief Executive Officer. “Now, with NextBio Clinical, we directly address the challenges of taking genomics into clinical research for the development of therapeutics and companion diagnostics. By providing patient-centric data and analysis, we facilitate biomarker-driven research that can accelerate the process of translational drug discovery.”

Mr. Akhtari concluded, “With the growing availability and decreasing cost of obtaining individual patient data moving genomics into clinical applications, NextBio Clinical is a natural extension for both our platform and our clients who have been using NextBio in their research for many years.”

NextBio Clinical aggregates and correlates terabyte-scale collections of private and public cross-platform ‘omics’ data, experimental data from cell lines and other sources, and clinical data from individual patients and population studies. Controlled vocabularies and the platform’s semantic framework eliminate confounding gene, disease and compound annotations, facilitating applications of this content at all stages of research, from early stage experimentation to repositioning approved drugs.

“With efforts such as The Cancer Genome Atlas, the International Cancer Genome Consortium and others, the growth of patient-level data in the public domain has been enormous. Simultaneously, efforts like the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia are transforming our understanding of pharmacogenomics with cell line models. We are excited about the potential of integrating these diverse data within the framework of NextBio Clinical,” said Ilya Kupershmidt, co-founder and Vice President of Products at NextBio.

Organizations can use the NextBio Clinical platform to accelerate drug discovery by applying human biology earlier in the discovery process, to discover and develop predictive biomarkers, and to optimize clinical trial design and patient selection to reduce development timelines and increase the chance of successful approval for new therapies.

Mr. Kupershmidt added, “By enabling our users to bring patient genomic data into the clinical development process at an early stage, we hope to help improve the pace and success rate at which biomarker-based therapeutics are approved for clinical use.”

Ilya Kupershmidt, Co-founder and VP of Products at NextBio, will describe NextBio Clinical in his talk at Bio-IT World 2012, titled “Patient-centered solutions for translational medicine” on Wednesday April 25, 2012 from 3:00-3:15 p.m. The meeting is being held in Boston, MA at the World Trade Center from April 24-26.

NextBio representatives are also available for additional information or product demos at Booth 326 in the exhibit hall.


AutoCAD, AutoDesk, Autodesk 360, Autodesk Subscription, Partnerships

Autodesk VARs Go to Suites, Cloud, Subscriptions

Image representing Autodesk as depicted in Cr...

Autodesk, Inc. is enhancing the Autodesk Partner Advantage Program to better enable the company’s already prominent global partner network to sell a more complete range of Autodesk Design Suites, Autodesk 360 services and Autodesk Subscription.

For the first time, Autodesk Value Added Resellers (VARs) will be able to provide customers with a complete Autodesk 3D design portfolio of software products and help differentiate their solutions by targeting industry specializations and product focus. The expanded scope better aligns members of the Autodesk global partner network to become mission critical solution providers through services such as consulting, technical training, support and industry expertise.

“Customer needs and technology trends are evolving rapidly, and Autodesk is delivering the tools, training and resources our partners need to help their customers take full advantage of 3D design, engineering and entertainment technologies,” said Bill Griffin, vice president, Worldwide Channel Sales at Autodesk. “Never before has there been this kind of global opportunity for our partners to target entirely new industries and grow their businesses by using the complete Autodesk portfolio.”

Autodesk, Inc. is continually evolving by developing the company’s Partner Advantage Program to provide better customer and partner experiences, building on the Autodesk vision to always deliver the best products and solutions to customers, wherever they are. VARs who participate in the Autodesk Partner Advantage Program benefit from:

Access to the complete product portfolio: Partners can now provide their customers with the complete Autodesk 3D design product portfolio, and more complete solutions to address a fuller range of business needs.

Simplified tiering: There is now one tier for Autodesk VARs, which includes Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. This simplified tiering will help make it easier for customers to identify an ideal partner match for their needs.

Partner locator: A new online partner locator tool helps customers to find the right partner expertise and helps enable partners to share best practices and more easily locate each other to collaborate on customer engagements.

Improved business processes: Better global coordination helps facilitate better customer relationship management and more accurate sales pipeline visibility.

New online training platform: The newly upgraded Autodesk Learning Central online training program provides online tools and training to help partners develop expertise.

“As a consultant to the AECO industry, our partnership with Autodesk enables us to provide the best possible business and technology solutions to our clients,” said Microdesk President, Michael DeLacey. “Together we are able to combine resources and expertise in order to fully address our customers’ challenges, as well as develop longer term strategies for improving the way the industry plans, designs, builds and operates our nation’s buildings and infrastructure. That is a level of partnership that we truly value, and our clients feel the benefit of as well.”


AutoCAD, Autodesk 360, Autodesk Subscription, Partnerships

Autodesk VARs Go to Suites, Cloud, Subscriptions

Image representing Autodesk as depicted in Cr...

Autodesk, Inc. is enhancing the Autodesk Partner Advantage Program to better enable the company’s already prominent global partner network to sell a more complete range of Autodesk Design Suites, Autodesk 360 services and Autodesk Subscription.

For the first time, Autodesk Value Added Resellers (VARs) will be able to provide customers with a complete Autodesk 3D design portfolio of software products and help differentiate their solutions by targeting industry specializations and product focus. The expanded scope better aligns members of the Autodesk global partner network to become mission critical solution providers through services such as consulting, technical training, support and industry expertise.

“Customer needs and technology trends are evolving rapidly, and Autodesk is delivering the tools, training and resources our partners need to help their customers take full advantage of 3D design, engineering and entertainment technologies,” said Bill Griffin, vice president, Worldwide Channel Sales at Autodesk. “Never before has there been this kind of global opportunity for our partners to target entirely new industries and grow their businesses by using the complete Autodesk portfolio.”

Autodesk, Inc. is continually evolving by developing the company’s Partner Advantage Program to provide better customer and partner experiences, building on the Autodesk vision to always deliver the best products and solutions to customers, wherever they are. VARs who participate in the Autodesk Partner Advantage Program benefit from:

Access to the complete product portfolio: Partners can now provide their customers with the complete Autodesk 3D design product portfolio, and more complete solutions to address a fuller range of business needs.

Simplified tiering: There is now one tier for Autodesk VARs, which includes Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. This simplified tiering will help make it easier for customers to identify an ideal partner match for their needs.

Partner locator: A new online partner locator tool helps customers to find the right partner expertise and helps enable partners to share best practices and more easily locate each other to collaborate on customer engagements.

Improved business processes: Better global coordination helps facilitate better customer relationship management and more accurate sales pipeline visibility.

New online training platform: The newly upgraded Autodesk Learning Central online training program provides online tools and training to help partners develop expertise.

“As a consultant to the AECO industry, our partnership with Autodesk enables us to provide the best possible business and technology solutions to our clients,” said Microdesk President, Michael DeLacey. “Together we are able to combine resources and expertise in order to fully address our customers’ challenges, as well as develop longer term strategies for improving the way the industry plans, designs, builds and operates our nation’s buildings and infrastructure. That is a level of partnership that we truly value, and our clients feel the benefit of as well.”


Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, AWS, AWS Marketplace, CA ARCserve, CA Technologies

CA ARCserve Now Available on Amazon Web Services Marketplace

Image representing Amazon Web Services as depi...

CA Technologies today announced that CA ARCserve Backup and CA ARCserve D2D are now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace.

AWS Marketplace is an online store that makes it easy for customers to find, buy, and immediately start using the software and services that they need to build products and run their businesses. CA Technologies software products sold on AWS Marketplace are fulfilled on and billed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), simplifying customer deployment of CA ARCserve Backup and CA ARCserve D2D.

“AWS Marketplace offers IT buyers a great way to quickly zero in on the products they need to meet their business technology challenges,” said Steve Fairbanks, vice president of product management at CA Technologies. “By making CA ARCserve available on AWS Marketplace, CA Technologies is making it as easy as possible for customers to access a complete solution for protecting data across both conventional and cloud-based environments.”

Customers can purchase multiple data protection functionalities of CA ARCserve Backup and CA ARCserve D2D with a single license based on the total amount of data they need to protect. They also can acquire the products through traditional licensing models.

“It’s a pleasure to work with CA Technologies and we are excited for their participation in AWS Marketplace,” said Terry Hanold, VP of New Business Initiatives at AWS. “Combining CA Technologies data protection products with AWS’s highly scalable, secure and flexible platform provides our joint customers an easy way to use CA ARCserve software on the AWS platform.”