Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I have a new client, Topia Technology, out of Tacoma, WA. They’ve been working since 9/11 to help the FAA make airspace safer and the US Army Intelligence Security Command to link together disparate systems in support of homeland security. Nice pedigree, great causes.

Today, they’re announcing their first product in the “civilian” world, SKOOT, which helps people transfer huge files (they’ve tested files up to 65GB) securely from one machine to another without relying on FTP servers, email or FEDEX.

Ad Hoc Private Networks (Even on the Fly)

The thing I like about it the most is that you can (from a Windows machine) simply “Save As” any document into a SKOOT folder (that’s right, from within PowerPoint, InDesign, PhotoShop, etc.), and the file will be automatically sent to any user with whom you choose to share that file. On a Mac, it’s a simple drag and drop…

When it’s done shipping, it doesn’t go to some seldom-used “portal” in the clouds, the data ends up right in a SKOOT folder on the recipients’ hard drive - giving sender and recipients secure control of the file at all times.

Corporate Marketers: Imagine being able to simply SKOOT the latest corporate presentation/video/suite of product material to every sales person in your far-flung organization, and the security of knowing they always have the latest “blessed” version with them at all times.

IT Professionals: Huge file transfer is now as easy as “save as…” for your users. You no longer have to take the time to coach Jim in product development how to send large files using an FTP server (if you even have one).

VCs or Investment Bankers: Securely send information during due diligence using SKOOT, and even the IT guys will be unable to tell what’s being moved around.

Read the PC World article where nearly half of IT workers snoop on confidential files. No offense guys, but to make up, here’s how SKOOT relates to Cloud Computing as a bonus. SKOOT is the first in a series of cloud computing apps from Topia.

If only embedding a YouTube video on this blog (and having it render correctly) was that easy! You can download a free 30-day trial, or learn more about SKOOT here, by watching the video.

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I blogged very briefly awhile back about the way shipping company Wallem embraced Enterprise RSS. At the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference, Scott from Attensa was in the audience when Patrick Slesinger, CIO of Wallem, spoke of his simple implementation and integration with the K2 business intelligence platform. Scott published the presentation Patrick gave over on the Attensa blog.

Patrick’s key motivations for deploying the platform are fascinating to me. His four big challenges in developing an IT infrastructure for their floating contingent of vessels and personnel around the globe were:

• Making processes mobile
• Moving process away from terrestrial email
• Pushing information anywhere
• Measuring the real value of information

All are summed up by the notion of “getting the right information to the right people at the right time.”

But the most stunning revelation of the presentation, now that I can see it, is the savings passed along to Wallem’s customers as a result of better information tools leading to improved fleet management…

RSS and Black Gold

In two extremely important and obvious areas of expense, Wallem was able to deliver an 8% fuel oil savings for each of its 329 ships under management. That 8% translated to $394,800,000 annual savings. And they were able to save 6% of each ship’s annual lube oil expenditures - generating another $11,844,000 in savings annually.

How?

The managed enterprise RSS system from Attensa, the Blackpearl BI system from K2 and Microsoft’s SharePoint portal combined to deliver these benefits:

• Increased visibility into systems and resources
• Mobile connected process and feedback loops
• Alignment of information and process, creating knowledge and value
• Better understanding of information required by: Who, What, When, Where and Why…

Imagine the relative ease of deployment, associated benefits and savings that one might discover by connecting any global (or even regional) enterprise’s people and systems through enterprise RSS - without having to rig it up for a floating, constantly moving fleet and personnel.

Mike Gotta, analyst at the Burton Group, and RSS and social media expert moderated the session and summed it up nicely:

“This is not the typical RSS application. That was great. I think it’s stunning how simple things can work so well.”

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I’ve been witness to quite a mental mindstorm brewing in my brain over the past few days, and it’s likely to consume my blog efforts for some time to come… (fair warning, or fantastic relief to my four or five regular readers.)

I attended my first non-high tech conference in years (where I wasn’t a speaker), the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) annual convention. There to represent the Academic Network, I was fortunate to research the state of the pharmaceutical industry’s online strategies; especially as consumers are flocking online to research medical conditions and the medicines they’re being prescribed.

Back to the Basics

What I found was quite surprising - for someone who recently declared 2008 to finally be the year of the business blog… the state of technology (and technical infrastructure) in pharma was pretty surprising.

Partly because of regulations, and I’m not sure what other excuses there are… but frankly I was appalled at the lack of IT infrastructure to do even the basics - like supporting remote work teams. (At least, assuming the session speakers I heard were representative.)

Some examples of issues I heard:

• Many Medical Liaisons (remote representatives of pharma companies) have no access to a shared knowledge base with internal Medical Information team members. An example of a “case study knowledge repository” was shown, but there were no search capabilities, no collaboration capabilities, nothing beyond a database of PDFs or templates. It was as if I was looking at an online portal from 2000.
• Many software representatives (Oracle, Microsoft and others were at the show) had no real notion of allowing their vertical tools to accept web-based information via XML and RSS. When I tried to describe why one might want to poll online communities for potential Adverse Events (something pharma has to monitor and report to the FDA on a strictly regulated basis); I got blank stares.
  • Meanwhile, according to JupiterResearch, the top three reasons people congregate online are:
    • To see what other consumers say about a medication or treatment (36%)
    • To research other consumers’ knowledge and experiences (31%)
    • To learn skills or get education to manage a condition (27%)

Between Rocks and Hard Places…

The panel I was most looking forward to, (and delighted to find it at the show) was titled “Drug Information, Wikipedia and Google Scholar: Implications for Medical Information.” It was both frightening and enlightening at the same time. I Twittered my thoughts as the thing was unfolding… but to net it out:

Frightening: Hearing panelists scoff at the lack of viability of Wikipedia because it’s not scientifically reviewed, yet having them be unwilling (or unable) to correct inadequacies themselves. Even when it comes down to correcting a “simple” edit like changing an inaccurate method of drug delivery - from “oral” to some other method. If they change one heinous error, does that mean the rest of the article is correct by implication?

Enlightening: Because of the advent of WikiScanner in August, 2007, even anonymous entries can be tracked to an IP address and attributed to an organization. Examples were shown where organizations (Diebold and others) altered Wikipedia entries “anonymously” and were later outed for doing so in Wired. The last thing these public companies, tightly regulated by the FDA (ugh, those poor people and their systems… more on that later), want is to be publicly derided for anonymous changes.

Meanwhile, look where most consumers go to find information about medical conditions online:

So my new crusade is to do two things: help enlightened health care organizations safely enter the Health 2.0 space (while trying to stay patient - no pun intended), and to help those of us poor schlubs who are out there looking for information to find the most accurate, up-to-date information possible.

It’s a big job, but somebody has to do it. I welcome all the help I can get…

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I’m reflecting on the things I’ve learned here in Boston at the DIA conference, in support of the Academic Network. And because of the strict regulatory environment surrounding the pharma industry, I believe they’re going to be some of the last to really be able to embrace Health 2.0, (links to my post on subject on the brand new ANW blog).

Meanwhile, consumers are leading the way into the online world, going online FIRST to research diseases, conditions, and the share experiences with others. In a very informative article about this trend, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of THINK-Health said:

‘Within the environment of Health 2.0, people with chronic health conditions are sharing their stories with each other, not just for emotional support, but for the clinical knowledge they gain from participating with “patients like me” in an online community. Doctors are meeting up online to share quandaries about challenging cases and solutions that work. Researchers are coming together with patients to learn about side effects in real-time to improve therapeutic regimens.’

- The Wisdom of Patients - Health Care Meets Online Social Media

In pharma, people look for “signals” and “beacons” and safety.

The signals are here.

The beacons and safe passage are also here, but it’ll be a task to get health care industry professionals to trust the new set of professionals who can negotiate the waters to take them there. I intend to be right there with those businesses who want to meet consumers in a world of Health 2.0 first.

Academic Network is one of them.

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I’m here at the Drug Information Association conference in Boston for Academic Network, who just announced their “Health 2.0″ practice yesterday. The session is called “Patient Recruitment Strategies and Sites’ Perspectives. One of the panelists is another partner of the Academic Network (ANW), John McAnulty from Fleishman-Hillard’s Clinical Trials practice.

I’m actually going to capture my thoughts on the session on my Twitter account, in order to share the “in the moment” thoughts, and (using those thoughts) should be able to pull information together at the end of the day.

Session is kicking off now… off to Twitter!

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