Oracle's Prescription for Pharma Contact Centers

Software conglomerate Oracle Corp. has added a vertical-specific solution to its contact center options for the pharmaceutical industry. The Siebel Contact Center Integration Pack (CCIP) for Oracle Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), available now, is designed to aid the capture, reporting, and management of adverse events and product complaints, a mission-critical effort in that sector. The CCIP is designed not only to help pharmaceutical companies streamline the handling of adverse events, but also to bolster data integrity. Oracle AERS is the company's solution for product-safety monitoring and compliance for the medical-device and pharmaceutical industries. The CCIP is the latest addition to the company's Oracle Application Integration Architecture (OAIA), a set of products that integrate proprietary, third-party, and custom applications, and leverages the Oracle Fusion Middleware services-oriented architecture (SOA) suite. "Siebel Contact Center Integration Pack for Oracle AERS seamlessly passes customer, product complaint and potential adverse event information from Siebel Contact Center to Oracle AERS, automatically escalating reports, as appropriate," says Neil de Crescenzo, group vice president of healthcare and life sciences at Oracle. "These capabilities drive faster event processing to help pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers promptly report accurate adverse event and complaint information to the appropriate safety and regulatory [groups] for further evaluation." The integration pack's closed-loop solution facilitates compliance and more effective management, according to de Crescenzo. "To help ensure product safety, [companies in this sector] are required by regulatory agencies to track and report potential product issues and adverse events both during clinical trials and after a product is introduced to the market," he says. "Rapid detection of events and issues is critical to safety and compliance. Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers receive [this] information...from many different channels. Without a closed-loop solution, information on potential product issues or adverse events coming into a contact center has to be collected and then re-entered into an organization's [AERS] -- a process that can be time-consuming and costly." In addition to its benefits in helping ensure public safety and reducing compliance expenses, the CCIP automatically loads event-related information from Siebel Contact Center into Oracle AERS and updates it to reflect changes, facilitating faster and more efficient reporting, de Crescenzo says. "The solution reduces duplicate data entry and provides life sciences organizations with complete, accurate, and synchronized information, helping to reduce costly conflict resolution and reconciliation." "Pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturers are challenged to cost-effectively ensure compliance within an increasingly complex web of regulations, while working to improve overall operational efficiency and accelerate delivery of safe and effective products to market," says Eric Newmark, research manager at Health Industry Insights, an IDC company. "Automated adverse-event and product-complaint systems can facilitate faster and more efficient reporting, which, in turn, helps to ensure public safety, reduce organizational liability, and contain the cost of compliance." Related articles: Hospitals Are Ailing From Poor Switchboard Service With customer service playing an increasingly important role as a competitive differentiator in the healthcare industry, facilities must place greater emphasis on customer interactions. Healthcare Hunters Search from Scratch A new study says that, for consumers seeking health information online, relevance matters more than trust, and that search-engine optimization is a must for healthcare companies. A Healthy Diagnosis for E-Health The use of the Internet in healthcare services will benefit patients and healthcare providers alike--as soon as security concerns are addressed. Oracle Calls Up CRM and IP Telephony The company releases its first major offering of the IP contact center product from its Telephony@Work acquisition.